"Entering this unmapped territory with little more than the rifle he carried and the buckskins on his back, he was as yet unaware that he was not only breaking trail ahead of a rapidly advancing frontier, but, in the words of the distinguished western historian Robert Utley, 'No man in his time held more potential for enriching the world's understanding of the North American West than Jedediah Strong Smith.'"
In "Throne of Grace," Drury and Clavin bring readers face-to-face with the wild things inhabiting the savage North American frontier in the early 19th Century. Where danger lurked, rough and seemingly fearless men found their calling and, in the process, mapped much of the Western United States.
Among the fearless was a man called ‘Jedediah.’ Raised in New York State and seeking to leave his mark on a rapidly expanding United States, Jedediah Strong Smith discovered passes through the Rocky Mountains, a route to the Pacific Coast, and, in general, proved the heretofore unprovable. The peripatetic Smith had little idea how much his journeying through the Far West would pave the way for America’s expansion. Stunningly, in the pages of “Throne of Grace,” Smith survives a vicious grizzly mauling and multiple Indian massacres before the Indian attack that claims his life at age 32.
With another outstanding work of narrative nonfiction, the authors ably provide the backdrop for this remarkable man's legend. Once Thomas Jefferson had signed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, early Americans needed to know what they had bought. Lewis and Clark's scientific expedition to explore the West from 1804–1806 began to answer the question, "What is out there?" But there was still so much more to discover. Enter hard men some 20 years later to unhesitatingly bushwack through dense forests and heavy underbrush, carefully and painstakingly find passage through steep, rocky mountain ridges, and steadily plod through thigh-deep snow before fording icy rivers. Indeed, the 1820s and 1830s witnessed these rugged Americans blazing trails across the western frontier extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains.
Unquestionably, America's Manifest Destiny demanded that these men find paths through a forbidding, untamed wilderness. From “Throne of Grace” we discover that it was burgeoning early American commerce fueled by an exploding populace during this period that provided the real catalyst. In short, Drury and Clavin help readers understand the impact fur-trapping had on Western exploration.
Bringing the original explorers and frontiersmen of the American West to life in "Throne of Grace," the authors recount their struggle to survive in the previously uncharted wilderness, what would one day become the states of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, California, and Oregon. Braving unforgiving terrain and frigid, icy conditions, ferocious grizzly and Indian attacks, competition from their British and Canadian counterparts, and at times an uncooperative Mexican government in the southwestern and western territories, heroic trappers and Mountain Men such as Hugh Glass, Jim Clyman, Jim Bridger, and Thomas Fitzpatrick enter a veritable 'Land That Time Forgot' in quest of the abundant and much-coveted beaver pelts.
But Jedediah Smith's brief walk on earth was on another level altogether. With meticulous research, smooth prose, and incisive commentary, Drury and Clavin treat us to some of the most arduous steps leading to his matchless contributions. They summarize those contributions this way:
“… for the greater portion of the nineteenth century the name Jed Smith would be synonymous with the opening of the intermountain and tramontane American West…”
Smith's tragic and untimely death came well after he had made his mark on Western expansion. In addition to exploration that resulted in the 20-mile (32 km)-wide South Pass through the Rockies becoming the dominant route across the Continental Divide for pioneers on the Oregon trail (featured in “1883,” a Taylor Sheridan-created TV series starring Tim McGraw and Faith Hill), Jed Smith was the first white man to cross the future state of Nevada, the first to conquer the High Sierra of California, and the first to explore the entire Pacific Slope from Lower California to the banks of the Columbia River.
Jedediah Strong Smith defined the label ‘American frontiersman.’ More significantly, we learn, “his explorations were the basis for accurate Pacific West maps.” As a Christian, Smith eschewed immorality such as drunkenness, profanity, and bedding Native American women. While he rarely attended church, "it was said of him he made the mountaintop his confessional, the forest glade his altar."
Though his mental and physical toughness is the stuff of legend, the authors recount stories of Smith’s serenity and cool-headedness when faced with one peril after another. Whether it was his intellect, stoicism, humanity, reliance on well-honed instincts, or steadfast commitment to his Christian beliefs, we readers have much to admire in this peerless explorer and trapper. We can thank the authors for portraying Jed Smith as he was and capturing this extraordinary American's essence. From reading "Throne of Grace," we can readily agree that Jedediah Smith’s participation in understanding Western geography and mapping the American West cannot be overstated.
Simply remarkable.
J.d
Tom Weikert