The association between Thomas Long (Pegleg) Smith and Walkara in Cajon Pass centers on the great horse raids of the 1830s-1840s along the Old Spanish Trail.
Walkara, sometimes called Wakara or Chief Walker, led large mounted raiding parties from present-day Utah into Southern California. These expeditions targeted Californio ranchos and mission herds, especially around San Luis Obispo, San Gabriel, and inland Southern California. The stolen horses were then driven eastward through the Mojave Desert and across Cajon Pass toward Utah and New Mexico.
Pegleg Smith was one of several Anglo mountain men tied to this trade network. Contemporary and later sources repeatedly connect him with Walkara’s operations, though historians debate whether he directly participated in raids or mainly acted as trader, guide, and broker. James Beckwourth and Old Bill Williams are usually mentioned alongside him.
Cajon Pass mattered because it was the principal gateway between the Los Angeles basin and the Mojave Desert. Large bands of stolen horses moved through the pass on their way east. Some traditions claim thousands of horses crossed there during Walkara’s biggest expeditions.
The raids became so notorious that local geographic names in and around Cajon Pass were later linked to them. Horsethief Canyon and Little Horsethief Canyon are traditionally associated with Walkara’s raiders and their escape routes into the desert.
An important detail often missed is that this was not random outlawry in the modern sense. The horse trade formed part of a large transregional economy running along the Old Spanish Trail. California horses had enormous value in the Rockies and Great Basin. Walkara built a disciplined mounted raiding system, while men like Pegleg Smith connected Native raiding networks with Anglo and Mexican trading systems.
By the mid-1840s, Californio authorities and local militia figures such as Benjamin Davis Wilson pursued these raiding bands through Cajon Pass and into the Mojave, though with limited success.