Trouble in California

Somewhere between Utah and California the party split up with Walker taking the pack mules, furs and horses through Walker Pass,  and Fremont going through Oregon, both agreeing to meet up in California. Captain Walker's party had a good trip through the Sierra and was waiting on Fremont for almost a month.  Walker went north to find Fremont (who claimed it was Walker who got lost).

The Mexican authorities  allowed Fremont's expedition under the title "scientific expedition" even though Fremont had no orders to be in California at all.  Walker was there as a free trapper/trader. 

About this time, rumors were  circulating that the United States and Mexico would soon be at war.  There were some 500 American settlers in California at that time, with the Indian population about 7000.  Col. Jose Catro was the local military commander and decided Fremont's "scientific expedition" was really a United States spy mission.  He ordered Fremont out of California immediately and began gathering regular military troops to enforce his demand.  Did John Charles Fremont helped incite the war with Mexico?  History doesn't say but from the story here, it sure didn't help.

Next time...I Don't Think So

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This Day in History:  On October 13, 1909,  the Ballinger-Pinchot scandal erupts when Colliers magazine accuses Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger, an appointee of President Taft,  of shady dealings in Alaskan coal lands. It is, in essence, a conflict rooted in contrasting ideas about how to best use and conserve western natural resources.