On November 26, 1826, Jedediah Strong Smith, leader
of an expedition of American beaver trappers, reached Mission San
Gabriel after an arduous crossing of the Mohave Desert and the San
Bernardino Mountains. Smith and his party were the first white men
from the United States to cross overland to California, thereby effectively
opening the fur trade of the far Southwest.
California Governor José María
Echeandía was
perplexed by Smith's arrival. Suspecting that he was a spy, the
governor ordered Smith arrested. He was released only after promising
to leave
California.
As Smith traveled northwestward over the Tehachapis
and into the southern Central Valley, he found a trapper's paradise.
There he
collected a large quantity of pelts and then turned eastward and
left California by way of Ebbetts Pass. Smith thus accomplished
the first recorded European-American crossing of the Sierra Nevada.
Smith
shared with other trappers the story of his successful hunting
in California. One trapper later recalled that he "reported
California to be the finest country in the world--having a charming
Italian climate & a soil remarkably productive...& Beaver
were abundant in all the Creeks & Rivers."
