Beckwourth, James Pierson (1798-1867?), an American frontiersman, discovered Beckwourth Pass in the Sierra Nevada about 1850. The pass opened a route to California’s Sacramento Valley.
Beckwourth was born on April 26, 1798, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, probably a slave. He grew up in St. Louis, undoubtedly free. He took part in fur-trading expeditions into the Rocky Mountains for William H. Ashley and Andrew Henry’s Rocky Mountain Fur Company from 1823 to 1826. Beckwourth lived with Crow Indians from 1826 to 1837. He served as an Army scout in the mountain area and ran trading posts there from 1837 to 1850. After he found the pass that bears his name, Beckwourth started a ranch nearby. His autobiography, Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth (1856), exaggerates his daring but gives a good description of mountain life.
