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James Pierson Beckwourth (April 6, 1798, Fredericksburg, Virginia - October 29, 1866, Denver) (a.k.a. Jim Beckworth, James P. Beckwith) was born in Virginia in 1798 to Sir Jennings Beckwith, a descendant of Irish and English nobility, and an African-American mulatto woman about whom little is known.

Beckwourth enjoyed nature and adventure and spent his life in Western exploration. In 1824, while living in Missouri, he joined Gen. William Ashley's expedition to explore the Rocky Mountains. Although his activities remain largely undocumented during this time, Beckwourth became known as a prominent Indian fighter and guided settlers and wagon trains through the Sierra Nevada. He later became a horse trader supplying migrants, Native Americans and other westerners.

Later, with other Mountain Men, Beckworth conducted a horse rustling operation against the Spanish. The company's largest raid took place in 1840 over Cajon Pass when Beckwourth, in cooperation with Native Americans led by Ute Chief Wakara, successfully raided nearly all the ranches from San Gabriel to San Bernadino of over 1,200 horses. Despite several battles with Spanish authorities, including a gunfight against a posse of 75 men led by Governor Jose Antonio Carrillo, at Resting Springs, the gang managed to escape.

Beckwourth eventually began ranching, mostly with stolen horses, until he was chased out by vigilantes in 1855. Travelling into Colorado Territory he became a scout for the Union Army and later lived in Denver as a storekeeper. In 1864 Beckwourth returned to the mountains as a guide for John M. Chivington during the Sand Creek Massacre.

Later in his life, Beckwourth recounted an astonishing life history to Thomas D. Bonner, who produced the book The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth: Mountaineer, Scout, Pioneer and Chief of the Crow Nation. Beckwourth's language and style were as notable as the reported adventures. Some material in the book provide historical informaiton on the role of alcohol in the US Government, how occupations effect the occupied, our historical relationship to diseases, wildlife, and the environment, as well as reports dealing with massacres and war.

Beckwourth's death came at age 69, while guiding a military column to a Crow Tribe in Montana. Complaining of severe headaches and suffering nosebleeds (most probably a severe case of hypertension), Beckworth returned to the Crow village where he died on October 29, 1866. The founder of the "Rocky Mountain News", William Byers, used the death of Beckworth to publish a circulation-boosting, baseless yarn stating that the Crow had poisoned Beckworth. The falsehood is repeated to this day.

Beckwourth Pass, named in honor of James Beckwourth, is located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Plumas County, California. State Route 70 crosses the Sierras at an elevation of 1,591 m (5,221 ft.), making it one of the lowest crossings of the Sierra Nevadas in California. It is also the route that the Union Pacific Railroad (former Western Pacific Railroad) used to cross the Sierra's along their Feather River route. The pass is located east of Portola, California.

In 1851, Beckwourth, following an Indian trail, discovered a low elevation pass over the Sierra Nevada mountains into California. He improved what became known as the Beckwourth Trail through Plumas, Butte and Yuba counties. In August, 1851, he led the first intact wagon train into the burgeoning Gold Rush city of Marysville, California, named after Mary Murphy, a survivor of the Donner Party in the winter of 1846-47. Beckwourth demanded payment for improving the trail, claiming he had an agreement with the city and its merchants. When the city failed to pay him, he had no standing as a dark-skinned man in a California court to sue for damages. An estimated 10,000 people used the trail to enter Marysville in the following decade. In 1996, at the urging of promoters of Beckwourth Frontier Days, a living history festival, the city of Marysville's largest park was renamed Beckwourth Riverfront Park in recognition of the debt owed by the city and Beckwourth's significance to the growth of the city.

• Sand Creek Massacre
• Beckwourth Pass
• Beckwourth Trail

• Bonner, T.D., James P. Beckwourth: Mountaineer, Scout, Pioneer and Chief of the Crow Nation, Ross & Haines, Inc., 1965
• Oswald, Delmot R. "James P. Bechwourth", featured in "Trappers of the Far West", Leroy R. Hafen, editor. 1972, Arthur H. Clark Company, reprint University of Nebraska Press, October 1983. ISBN 0-8032-7218-9
• Sifakis, Carl, The Encyclopedia of American Crime, Facts of File Inc., 1982
• Hotchkiss, Bill. Medicine Calf (novel).

• The Beckwourth Website
• James Pierson Beckwourth Memorial at Find A Grave