A Handsome Pioneer

Standing 6'2" and weighing 200 pounds, Joseph Walker was remarkably handsome, but it was his kindness, modesty, courtesy, elegance, and wilderness skills that gained him his reputation.

Joe was a peacemaker who lived with Indians and had the rapport to address any injustice he saw between the white man and the Indian.

In describing Walker, historian John McBride said, "His dress was a marvel of adaption to his business - rich and simple, buckskin throughout.  A loose fitting coat and pants, richly ornamented with threads of silver and gold wire made by hand, a broad sombrero to keep off the sun.  Mounted on a noble looking roan horse of Spanish blood, on a Mexican saddle, with spurs whose rowels were 6" in diameter of polished steel plated with gold at his heels, with a rifle across his saddle bow...he seemed born to rule the wild spirits around him without effort and they acknowledged him as their leader without controversy."

Walker never publish his memoirs or commented in interviews, and although he did keep an exact journal for some years, he lived a decent, principled life which only men of great strength and confidence can sustain.  Walker had a distaste for what we now call "tabloid or sensational journalism"

Next time - back to the 1700s West Virginia where it all began...

Meet Joseph Walker

Joseph Walker was one of the first mountain men, fur trappers and traders in the West.  Characteristic of mountain men, he possessed common sense, bravery, the ability to shoot straight, ride hard, fight ferociously, and the ability to bear up and function during formidable hardship.

Joe Walker, aka Captain Joe, was a leader of those to come behind - he taught Kit Carson, when Kit was a greenhorn of the West.  Among Walker's important life achievements:

*1825 - guided a government party which surveyed and marked the Santa Fe Trail

*1827 - one of the founders and first sheriff of Independence, Missouri

*1833 - led the first Americans to the Pacific Ocean through the unknown and uncharted Sierras

*1833 - first white man to see Yosemite

*1843 - guided the first wagon train to California territory

*1860s - Led a party of American into central Arizona through Apache land to Prescott gold fields

Only one man is reported to have died following Walker in 50 years - and that was said to be because the man didn't follow Joe's warning.

Note:  Most of my information about Joseph Walker used in the next few months comes from a book The Westering Man - the Life of Joseph Walker, by Bill Gilbert in 1983.  Visit your public library, grab a copy and read along. It is an amazing book about an amazing man of pioneer history!  ''

Next time - a physically handsome pioneer!

Kit Carson

Kit Carson was probably the best known of the mountain men.  In the 1830s it was said that not even Daniel Boone was "so much on the move throughout a long and restless life" as Kit Carson.  

Carson was physically a small man, but inexhaustible which attests to the fact that he made the 3,000 miles journey from California territory to Washington through hostile Apache lands with the news of the Bear Flag Republic victory.

Before his death at Fort Lyon, Carson lay on his buffalo robe and demanded his pipe and a big dinner.  He was warned that both would probably kill him, to which he is said to have replied, "No matter.  Bring me some fust rate doin's, a buffalo steak, my pipe and a bowl of coffee".  After eating 2 pounds of meat and smoking his pipe, Carson died.  He received a funeral with general's honors and as he wished was buried at Taos.

Next time we start our journey with the greatest mountain man of them all, Joseph Walker.

Jedediah Smith

Jedediah Smith ventured west as a business man working for the fur trading companies.  His goal was to trap beaver and otter, and make trading contacts with the Native Americans.

His first expedition in 1822 provided information of Western geography and potential trails available to future homesteaders.  In 1824 he rediscovered the South Pass - an easy route across the Rockies in modern day Wyoming (fur traders actually discovered it, but never publicized the fact).

In 1831 Smith left St. Louis bound for Santa Fe, NM without adequate supplies, the why we will probably never know since he was well-acquainted with the arid territory and the need to carry water.  Eventually his party had to split up in search of adequate water or perish, and Smith was attacked alone and killed by Comanche Indians, thus ending the life of an important trader and trail blazer in our Western history.

People have debated what happened to Jedediah to make him so careless to venture out alone in such hostile territory and to come so ill prepared.  Popular historic opinion is that he became too confident in his abilities and his experience and thought he could survive just about anything...that day he was wrong.

We will meet Jedediah again on our journey with Joseph Walker...

Before the Pioneers Came...

Let's go back in time now to long before the Homesteaders, the Cattlemen or the Gold Rushers came west - and meet the mountain men and the trail blazers of the West, the "real pioneers" as some have called them, the rugged men like Jedediah Smith, Kit Carson, Jim Bridger and Joseph Walker.  They were the hunters, fur trappers and traders in a west dominated by Native Americans and the raw, untouched and uncivilized territory of the early 1800s.

Before we set off with Joe Walker who is probably the greatest and least known of these mountain men, a bit of background would be helpful...

One historian has divided those operating in the continental stage into four groups:

1.  The American Fur Company (John Jacob Astor)

2.  The Rocky Mountain Fur Company

3.  The Hudson Bay Company (British) which later merged with the Northwest Company

The independent men also worked with or against any of the above, shifting their allegiance as long as the fur trade lasted.  These men lived off the land, trapping and hunting, without a permanent shelter, ready food, or civilization nearby.  In the true sense of the word, they opened the West to those who followed.  Next time we will take a look at a couple of popular mountain men and their lives.