Kit Carson, who was only 5'4", was born in 1809 and raised on the very edge of the West in Missouri. As many in his day, he never learned to read or write. Known for his personal courage, integrity, and fastidious ways, he became a trapper, guide, an Indian fighter, a California revolutionary, a soldier, a federal Indian agent, the most hated white man to the Navajo Tribe, and a rancher. As a 'mountain man' he trapped and scouted throughout the West from the mid 1820's until the 1840's. During this time he was well known to the Plains Indians and his first two wives were Cheyenne and Arapaho respectively. In 1842 while visiting his family in Missouri, he met John C. Fremont, a United States Army Topographical Engineer, who was preparing an expedition into the West. Fremont promptly hired Carson as his guide, and due to Fremont's mention of Carson in his written dispatches, Carson's numerous exploits became known in the East. Carson guided three of Fremont's western expeditions, and the two men were fast friends until Carson's death in 1868. He never visited the city Fremont named for him.
Just prior to the Mexican American war in 1846, heading a company of soldiers, Fremont and Carson rode from New Mexico to California in aid of Americans who were in rebellion against the Mexican rule of California. Fremont, a United States soldier at the time, was tried in court-martial and found guilty of mutiny. President Polk pardoned Fremont who resigned his commission and headed back to California. Carson, not a soldier at the time, was not prosecuted.
Carson did become a soldier in the Union Army and fought in one Civil War battle at Valverdes, New Mexico. He spent most of his time during that war fighting with the Navajo who refused to be confined to the United States reservation, Carson hounded the Navajo practicing a scorched earth policy until, starving, they surrendered. Carson then forced marched the Navajo on a 300 mile "Long Walk" from Arizona to Fort Sumner, New Mexico. 8,000 Navajo died during the migration. After the Civil War, Carson returned to ranching in Taos dying in 1868.
John Charles Fremont's contributions were highlighted in a current exhibit at the Nevada State
During Fremont's lifetime he was married to Jesse Benton, daughter of the most influential 'western' man, Thomas Hart Benton. John Fremont was born in 1813, and college educated in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a mathematical instructor in the United States Navy, and a topographical engineer for the United States Army. He was an officer in the Bear Republic of the California Republic - simultaneous with his United States military office - leading to the above difficulties.
After California was admitted as a state, he was a Senator from California. An early opponent of slavery, amazing considering his place of birth and upbringing, Fremont was the first presidential candidate of the newly formed Republican Party in 1856. The Nevada State Museum is currently exhibiting both the sword presented to him by Charleston, South Carolina in the 1840's and his campaign flag as a Republican presidential candidate. In the late 1870's he was the Territorial Governor of Arizona. By the end of the 1880's he was virtually destitute. In recognition of his service to the United States, and to alleviate his poverty, the Congress voted him a military pension. Fremont died in obscurity, his great exploits of so little interest in 1890, the books he wrote at the time barely sold. In a little over 100 years both his and Carson's names beyond their association with places in the West have been forgotten.
At least their names still abound on maps and in history books. An entire race of people and their names and the names of the places they lived have been completely forgotten. The Washoe, the Paiute, and the Northern Paiute are the native American tribes of Nevada and Northern California. Not only was their stone age culture eradicated, but these people were almost exterminated. (For example, 80% of the Washoe Tribe died within 50 years of contact with the Caucasian industrialized culture.) The Nevada State Museum had an amazing exhibition of these people. First, there was a video presentation of several tribal members telling their stories accompanied by film of the places named in the stories and musically enhanced with traditional tribal songs. I learned, thanks to Wolf and Coyote, why there are no pine nuts in California and no juniper trees in Nevada. The Paiute also tell a Loch Ness monster type story about Lake Tahoe. You rarely see historically accurate presentation of the Native American oral tradition.
What really startled me was the 11,000 year old burial site with accouterments found in a cave in the 1940's in Nevada. This site has been carbon dated, and the bodies have been named as the tribal ancestors of the Washoe/Paiute Tribes. These people were living in Nevada and hunting mammoths and other large predators of this geological era. What was puzzling in the land of every mineral and ore you can name, these people never worked with metal. Perhaps, the plentiful food supply of protein stunted development of agriculture and thus the abandonment of the nomadic life. Their story is tragic and brutal, but inevitable. The same world wide migration and extermination pattern is as old as civilization.
I spent a fascinating two hours in the museum while Drake perfected his blackjack skills. The highlights beyond what I've discussed above: Mammoth skeleton and an even more ancient horse ancestor skeleton. There are marvelous mineral samples. An entire mining ghost town has been disassembled and re-assembled inside the museum. Then, there's the walk through replica of an underground mine. Finally, this museum is gun nut heaven. This museum has an awesome personal firearms collection. Even the building is interesting. The 'old part' is the original Carson City Mint where coinage was stamped out close to the silver and gold mined in Nevada, and the 'new part' is a thoughtfully designed new facility joined to the old mint building. Finally, the short lived Pony Express (the nascent Carson City locale was a stopover for horse exchange prior to crossing over the 7000 - 9000 foot mountain range into Sacramento) is commemorated in front of the museum.
As always, there are pictures:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/115478608971584948192/albums/6056066771158866465?authkey=CLGzg_rwt8H6dw
