Kit Carson

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Christopher Carson, better known as Kit Carson, was an explorer, scout, trapper, Indian agent, rancher and soldier during his 40 years of travels throughout the southwest. Born on Christmas Eve in Madison County, Kentucky, in 1809, Kit was the 9th of 14 children. When he was still an infant, the family moved to Howard County, Missouri where Carson spent most of his early childhood in Boone's Lick. His father died when he was only nine years old, and the need to work prevented Kit from ever receiving an education. At the age of 14, Kit was working as an apprentice to a saddle and harness maker. However, the young man soon became restless and after about a year he joined a wagon train heading west on the Santa Fe Trail in 1826.

From Santa Fe, Kit went north to Taos where he worked as a cook, errand boy and harness repairer. When he was 19, he was hired for a fur trapping expedition to California, where, in spite of his small stature (he never exceeded 5 and a half feet) he soon proved himself able and courageous.

Between 1828 and 1840, Carson used Taos as a base camp for many fur-trapping expeditions throughout the mountains of the West, from California's Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Rocky Mountains.

As was the case with many white trappers, Carson became somewhat integrated into the Indian world; traveling and living extensively among Indians. His first two wives were Arapahoe and Cheyenne women, one of whom bore a daughter in 1836 and died shortly thereafter. Carson was evidently unusual among trappers, however, for his self-restraint and temperate lifestyle. "Clean as a hound's tooth," according to one acquaintance, and a man whose "word was as sure as the sun comin' up," he was noted for an unassuming manner and implacable courage.

Around 1840 Carson was employed as hunter for the garrison at Bent's Fort, Colorado, soon becoming its chief hunter.

In 1842, while returning from Missouri, where he took his daughter to be educated in a convent, Carson happened to meet John C. Fremont on a Missouri Riverboat. Fremont hired Carson as guide for his first expedition to map and describe Western trails to the Pacific Ocean. Over the next several years, Carson helped guide Fremont to Oregon and California, and through much of the Central Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin. His service with Fremont, celebrated in Fremont's widely-read reports of his expeditions, quickly made Kit Carson a national hero, presented in popular fiction as a rugged mountain man capable of superhuman feats. After returning to Taos from California in 1843, Carson married his third wife, Maria Josefa Jaramillothen.

Carson's notoriety grew as his name became associated with several key events in the United States' westward expansion. He was still serving as Fremont's guide when Fremont joined California's short-lived Bear-Flag rebellion just before the outbreak of the Mexican-American War in 1846. Carson would serve in the war, playing an important part in the conquest of California.

Carson also led the forces of U.S. General Stephen Kearney from Socorro, New Mexico into California, when a Californio band led by Andrés Pico mounted a challenge to American occupation of Los Angeles later that year.