The Splendid Wayfaring: The Story of the Exploits and Adventures of Jedediah Smith and his Comrades, the Ashley-Henry Men, Discoverers and Explorers of the Great Central Rout

The story of the famous mountain man Jedediah Smith. Title Page ......Page 5 Contents......Page 9 I.Down the Ohio......Page 15 II. At St. Louis......Page 42 III. Northbound with the Robins......Page 53 IV. The Battle......Page 66 V. The Express to Henry......Page 79 VI. The Two Parties Unite......Page 93 VII. The Leavenworth Campaign......Page 103 VIII. Westward by the Grand......Page 116 IX. Jed Wrestles with Death......Page 134 X. The Ghost......Page 145 XI. The First White Men through South Pass......Page 157 XII. Treasure and Trouble Therewith......Page 165 XIII. The Return......Page 177 XIV. Ashley's Long Winter Trail......Page 188 XV. Down Green River......Page 204 XVI. The Rendezvous......Page 214 XVII. Back to the States......Page 227 XVIII. General Ashley Retires......Page 238 XIX. The First Americans Overland to California......Page 251 XX. Smith's Second Journey......Page 275 XXI. The End of the Trail......Page 292 List of Sources......Page 306

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.

Originally published: New York : Macmillan Co., 1920.