Jedediah Strong Smith

Thirty years before any road, Jedediah Smith walked the whole width of Nevada. In the early summer of 1827, trying to get from California back to the Great Salt Lake, he became the first white man to cross what is now the state — over the Sierra at Ebbetts Pass, down the Walker River, and northeast across the empty center. His journal and map were lost, so the route is a reconstruction; the striking part is how closely historians' best guess tracks the line the Pony Express, the Overland Stage, and U.S. 50 would all later take.

What the plaque says

Explorer of the Western Wilderness. In May-June, 1827, Jedediah Smith attempted to find a route from California’s central valley to the Great Salt Lake Valley in Utah, and he became the first European to completely cross what is now Nevada. Because Smith’s journal and map have never been found, his exact route is unknown. Based on Smith’s own statements about his difficult trip, modern Nevada historians and geographers have pieced together the most plausible route. Smith crossed the Sierra Nevada at Ebbetts Pass, swung southeast along or across the headwaters and the middle reaches of Walker River, and passed into central Nevada’s trackless waste south of Walker Lake. He entered Smoky Valley on its southwest side in June, 1827, and crossed the valley in a northeasterly direction. He then paralleled the future Simpson Survey, route of the Pony Express and Overland Stage, along modern U.S. Highway 50. He entered Utah at Ibapah

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ely — 4.1 mi
  The copper town and crossroads at the east end of the loneliest road — home of the Ghost Train and the gateway to Great Basin
• Ward Charcoal Ovens — 15 mi
  Six great stone beehives in the Egan Range — the best-preserved charcoal kilns in Nevada, and the intact relic of the fuel that fed every silver smelter

More markers nearby

• Nevada Northern Railway — 3.5 mi
• Ely, Forging The Link — 4.1 mi
• Copper Country — 6.8 mi
• Taylor — 15 mi