Jedediah Smith is leading a fur trading…

Jedediah Smith is leading a fur trading party on the Santa Fe Trail in May of 1831, when on the 27th he leaves the group to scout for water and never returns.

The remainder of the party proceeds on to Santa Fe hoping Smith would meet them there, but he never arrives.

A short time later, members of the trading party discover a Mexican merchant at the Santa Fe market offering several of Smith's personal belongings for sale.

When questioned about the items, the merchant indicates that he had acquired them from a band of Comanche hunters.

The Comanches told the merchant they had taken the items from a white man they had killed near the Cimarron River.

Smith's body will never be found.

A further account in Give Your Heart to the Hawks: A Tribute to the Mountain Men by Win Blevins, cites details of Smith's encounter with the Comanches in a box canyon.

By their account, four braves trapped Smith in the canyon.

Seeing he was in trouble, he turned to face them with his rifle leveled over the saddle.

As one brave moved to flank him, Smith fired his weapon, killing one of the Comanches.

At that point, he was overwhelmed and killed.

It is said that his brother, knowing that Jedediah would have forbidden it, rebuffed offers at retribution.