Smith's Trading Post

The sign's 1848 is not the only date: the byway exhibit at Big Hill gives 1842 for the post. Thomas Long Smith was born in 1801 and lost the leg in 1827. In 1849 the emigrant Amos Batchelder found him living among Shoshone neighbors he called peaceable and friendly. Smith went on to California, where he spent his last years telling of a lost gold mine in the desert. He died in 1866, and Borrego Springs still holds a Pegleg Smith liars contest in his honor.

What the plaque says

Smith's Trading Post In 1848 Pegleg Smith established a trading post on the Oregon Trail at Big Timber somewhere near here on the river. Some travelers called it "Fort Smith", though it was only four log cabins and some Indian lodges. Packing a plow and tools from Salt Lake City, Smith (a mountain man who had to amputate his own leg 20 years before) tried unsuccessfully to raise crops. But he did a big business when the California gold rush of 1849 brought thousands past here; 49'ers reported that he had many horses and cattle, and was making $100 a day. 159 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 5.2 mi
  The Bear River crosses this marsh twice: once in a canal into Bear Lake, and once in another canal on its way back out.
• National Oregon/California Trail Center — 5.3 mi
  Emigrants came down off Big Hill and camped in the clover here. Brigham Young renamed the town; the trail center brings the camp back in costume.
• Minnetonka Cave — 18 mi
  Found by a grouse hunter, named first for a porcupine and then in a language from the far side of the Rockies. Five kinds of bats winter inside.
• Bear Lake — 21 mi
  The Caribbean of the Rockies — a turquoise lake straddling the Utah-Idaho border

More markers nearby

• McAuley's Road — 1.6 mi
• Big Hill — 1.6 mi
• Bank Robbers — 5.2 mi
• Paris Tabernacle — 7.7 mi