Illustrations: Jedediah Strong Smith -- A Mandan village on the Missouri [River] / Karl Bodmer, 1834 -- The interior of the hut on a Mandan chief / Karl Bodmer, 1834 -- Horse racing of Sioux Indians near Fort Pierre / Charles Bodmer, 1833 -- Funeral scaffold of a Sioux chief near Fort Pierre / Carl Bodmer -- South Dakota Badlands / Arthur Rothstein -- The frozen Missouri at the Mandans, February, 1834 / Bodmer -- Shoshoni: Washakie's lodge in the Wind River Mountains / W.H. [William Henry] Jackson, 1870 -- Camp of the Gros Ventres of the Prairies on the Upper Missouri / Bodmer, 1833 -- Trappers making their escape from hostile Blackfeet / Alfred Jacob Miller, 1837 -- Scotts Bluff National Monument -- Devils [Devil's] Gate on the Sweetwater River / Frederick A. Piercy, 1853 -- Crow Indian, Et-Tish-Easter-Ko-Kish, or, Spotted Rabbit / De Lancey Gill, 1910 -- Giving drink to thirsty trappers / Alfred Jacob Miller, 1837 -- The Falls of the Popo Agie / A.H. Carhart, 1922 -- Strawberry Point, upper Virgin River / Paul S. Bieler, 1941 -- Mojave Indians / Balduin Möllhausen, 1853 -- View of the mission of St. Gabriel / Alfred Robinson, 1846 -- Ocean scene at Seaview Ranch, Oregon coast / E. Lindsay, 1936 -- Looking across Smith River, Oregon, to the site of the Umpqua Massacre / Harvey E. Tobie, 1952.;Preface -- Young man of enterprise -- The hunters and the hunted -- The Missouri Legion -- South Pass -- The adventures of Hugh Glass -- and others -- The stakes of the Columbia -- Action on the fur frontier -- Rendezvous: 1825 -- Partner in the fur trade -- The South West expedition -- Rendezvous: 1827 -- The California quagmire -- The Umpqua massacre -- "Good, merchantable beaver furr" [fur] -- The things of time -- Appendix A: Letters of Jedediah Smith relating to his explorations -- Appendix B: Personal letters by Jedediah Smith and his family -- Notes.;Chronicles the adult life of fur trader Jedediah Smith, discussing his accomplishments on the frontier from Missouri to California and examining his role in American history.