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Jedediah S. Smith And Marcus And Narcissa Whitman: Mountain Men And Missionaries In The Far West, Barton Barbour

Barton H. Barbour

This article compares the experiences of missionaries and mountain men in the early years (1825-1848) of US occupancy of the "Oregon Country," which included today's Idaho. For very different reasons, both the Whitmans and Jedediah S. Smith entered the pantheon of 19th century American iconic "heros," but their real lives were more complex and ambiguous than the mythology suggests. This article explains and analyzes the myths and realities surrounding Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, and Jedediah S. Smith. For a sample, read the following introductory paragraph: Dateline: The Cimarron River near the Kansas-New Mexico border, May 1831 A lone horseman, his …