The Splendid Wayfaring - The Story of the Exploits and Adventures of Jedediah Smith and His Comrades, the Ashley-Henry Men, Discoverers and Explorers of the Great Central Route From the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, 1822-1831 #225485

The student of American History in our schools is given an opportunity to become well acquainted with the early explorations of the Great North west and the Great Southwest; he is taught little or nothing of the real discoverers of the central route from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. This is due to the fact that, until very recently, our historians have been concerned too much with governmental acts, too little with the activities of the people themselves. The oflicial explorers of the Northwest and the Southwest were actually pioneers; but the official exploration of the great central region beyond the Rockies was undertaken twenty years after the actual dis coverers and explorers had set out from St. Louis. Considering the fact that it was by way of the central route that the tide of migration flowed across the Rockies and possessed the Far West, it would seem that the discovery and exploration of that route might now, at last, be given some attention in our schools.