WAS JEBEDIAH SMITH A BEAVER BELIEVER?

About a million beaver festivals ago. when we were still at the scruffy park and before we had published our papers in the CDFW I met Rich Cimino He introduced himself in a friendly way and mentioned his involvement with a group out of UOP that was interested in the historical information about beavers. He said maybe someday I would come up that way and talk to the group.

Flash forward 15 years and Rich is now president of that group who publishes a journal called Castor Canadensis,  He recently wrote and asked if I remembered him and was still interested in presenting on beavers because there was so much buzz about them lately.

Of course I said yes. He originally suggested the end of the month but now has bumped the time up for next week so I’m bustling about trying to get ready for a pretty informed group of members from all over the country.

Here’s a few amazing facts about the man from their very informative website:

• In 1826 Jed became the first American to enter California overland from the East.
• In 1827 he became the first non-native American to cross the Sierra Nevada near Ebbetts Pass (State Route 4 today).
• In 1827 he became the first American to trek across the Great Basin, located between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains.
• From 1826 to1828, he became the first known person to traverse the West Coast by land from San Diego to the Columbia River.

He trapped many beavers of course from one side of the country to the other. His journals are rich with histoiric detail and his short life still celebrated to this day. But Jeb but did not get much richer off beaver in California. Why not? Were there no beavers here?

I’ll be addressing that and other mysteries soon. Wish me luck.