Jedediah Strong Smith - Ogden

Jedediah Smith was the rarest kind of mountain man — an explorer and trader who carried a Bible into the wilderness. He first came to Utah with Ashley's fur men in 1824, and in August 1826 he set out from near here on the first successful overland crossing to the Pacific coast, blazing a route through the deserts to California that a main highway to Los Angeles would later roughly follow. He opened the West by walking into it, mapping in his head a country no American had yet crossed.

What the plaque says

Outstanding explorer, Trapper, Trader and devout Christian. Came to Utah with Wm. H. Ashley's expedition in 1824. Started first successful overland journey through Utah to the pacific coast from this vicinity August 22, 1826. Substantially the same route was later followed by the main highway to Los Angeles.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ogden Union Station — 0.3 mi
  A grand 1924 train depot turned museum complex
• Snowbasin — 5.9 mi
  One of the country's oldest ski areas and a 2002 Olympic downhill venue — world-class terrain that somehow still skis uncrowded.
• Hill Aerospace Museum — 7.1 mi
  Over 90 military aircraft displayed indoors and on the tarmac
• Powder Mountain — 15 mi
  The largest ski resort in the United States by acreage — a famously uncrowded "PowMow" now remaking itself under Netflix's Reed Hastings.

More markers nearby

• John Henry Weber — steps away
• Captain James Brown — steps away
• James Brown's Purchase (2) Markers — steps away
• Lorin Farr - Washington Blvd — steps away