EXPLORER

Jedediah Smith

1799 - 1831

Photo of Jedediah Smith

Icon of person Jedediah Smith

Jedediah Strong Smith (January 6, 1799 – May 27, 1831) was an American clerk, transcontinental pioneer, frontiersman, hunter, trapper, author, cartographer, mountain man and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the Western United States, and the Southwest during the early 19th century. After 75 years of obscurity following his death, Smith was rediscovered as the American whose explorations led to the use of the 20-mile (32 km)-wide South Pass as the dominant route across the Continental Divide for pioneers on the Oregon Trail. Coming from modest family background, Smith traveled to St. Louis and joined William H. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Jedediah Smith has received more than 1,768,876 page views. His biography is available in 20 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 19 in 2019). Jedediah Smith is the 220th most popular explorer (down from 199th in 2019), the 3,112th most popular biography from United States (down from 2,808th in 2019) and the 14th most popular American Explorer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.8M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 60.85

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 20

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 3.65

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.86

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among EXPLORERS

Among explorers, Jedediah Smith ranks 220 out of 498. Before him are Julius Klaproth, Jan Joosten van Lodensteijn, Carsten Borchgrevink, Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, Masabumi Hosono, and Daniel Boone. After him are Ma Huan, Nuno Tristão, Joshua Slocum, Dinis Dias, Pedro Arias Dávila, and Julius Popper.

Most Popular Explorers in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1799, Jedediah Smith ranks 24. Before him are Vincenz Priessnitz, Countess of Ségur, René Caillié, Almeida Garrett, Ferenc Gyulay, and Duchess Amelia of Württemberg. After him are Princess Maria Anna of Saxony, Duchess Marie of Württemberg, Ludwig Rellstab, Ignaz von Döllinger, François-Auguste Biard, and Henri Druey. Among people deceased in 1831, Jedediah Smith ranks 31. Before him are Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein, Princess Louise of Denmark, Sébastien Érard, James Hoban, and Henry Maudslay. After him are Ryōkan, Vasily Golovnin, Franz Krommer, Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony, Ferenc Kazinczy, and Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz.

Others Born in 1799

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Others Deceased in 1831

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Jedediah Smith ranks 3,112 out of 20,380. Before him are Frances Sternhagen (1930), Larry Semon (1889), Annie Proulx (1935), Stephen Cole Kleene (1909), Raymond Smullyan (1919), and John Waters (1946). After him are Sun Ra (1914), Carmen Electra (1972), Harry Harlow (1905), Eric Stoltz (1961), Carla Gugino (1971), and Grandma Moses (1860).

Others born in United States

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Among EXPLORERS In United States

Among explorers born in United States, Jedediah Smith ranks 14. Before him are Don Walsh (1931), Simon Fraser (1776), Jimmie Angel (1899), Lincoln Ellsworth (1880), George W. De Long (1844), and Daniel Boone (1734). After him are Jim Bridger (1804), Charles Wilkes (1798), Ada Blackjack (1898), Charles Francis Hall (1821), Meriwether Lewis (1774), and Edward S. Curtis (1868).

American born Explorers

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