In 1842 Senator Thomas Benton (the Patrick Henry of Manifest Destiny) supported a survey of the wagon road across the Plains to the South Pass. The South Pass had been traveled for 15 years, so this seemed a bit redundant. The actual purpose of the survey was to increase public awareness and make it desirable to go west.
The surveyor's job went to John Charles Fremont who just happened to
be Senator Benton's son-in-law. Captain Walker thought Fremont was a fool and a coward...I agree but
let's just tell the story...Charles Fremont was to become the Great Pathfinder, or the Great Publicist of the West, depending on your perspective, but he did have more influence than any single man on the overland migration of the 1840-50's. He was a notable glory hound...
Fremont offered Walker the job of chief guide which Walker suggested Kit Carson instead, saying "Kit could guide him to any point he wanted to go". After checking Carson's references, Fremont hired Carson.
Carson was well-qualified to guide an expedition like this one and was better suited to satisfy Fremont's temperamental requirements than Joe. Carson would serve very well as far as the mission's real purpose was - publicizing and romanticizing the West. He was an attractive and modest guy who provided Fremont the raw material to become the new Daniel Boone.
The Story of Fremont continues next time...
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This Day in History: On this day in 1864, the town of Helena, Montana, is founded by four gold miners who struck it rich at the appropriately named "Last Chance Gulch."
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