The Splendid Wayfaring: Jedediah Smith and the Ashley-Henry Men, 1822-1831

by John G. Neihardt

Overview

With the publication of The Splendid Wayfaring in 1920, John G. Neihardt sought to restore the reputation of a mountain man who went far in opening up the American West. The exciting narrative begins in 1822, when Smith ascended the Missouri River in the first fur-trading expedition of William H. Ashley and Andrew Henry, and ends in 1831, when he was killed by Comanche Indians on the Cimarron River. In the intervening years Smith became the first explorer to recognize South Pass as the gateway to the Far West, the first overlander to reach California and travel up the coast to the Columbia River, and the first white man to cross the Sierra Nevada and the Great Basin from west to east. The Splendid Wayfaring follows in novelistic detail the history-making adventures of Smith and his companions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803257238
Publisher:	UNP - Bison Books
Publication date:	09/01/1970
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	290
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Other works by John G. Neihardt, poet and chronicler of the American West, available in Bison Book editions include Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of the Oglala Sioux, The Mountain Men, and When the Tree Flowered.

Table of Contents

I Down the Ohio 1

II At St. Louis 24

III Northbound with the Robins 35

IV The Battle 48

V The Express to Henry 61

VI The Two Parties Unite 75

VII The Leavenworth Campaign 85

VIII Westward by the Grand 98

IX Jed Wrestles with Death 116

X The Ghost 127

XI The First White Men Through South Pass 139

XII Treasure and Trouble Therewith 147

XIII The Return 159

XIV Ashley's Long Winter Trail 170

XV Down Green River 186

XVI The Rendezvous 196

XVII Back to the States 209

XVIII General Ashley Retires 220

XIX The First Americans Overland to California 233

XX Smith's Second Journey 257

XXI The End of the Trail 274

List of Sources 288

Editorial Reviews

An American prose epic; an absorbing tale of courage and endurance.” — New York Evening Post

“One of the most truly dramatic themes in American history.” — Review of Reviews

From the Publisher