Hunter, trapper, guide's geographical tracks across Colorado
By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com
Namesake of towns, cities, counties, forts and other geography all over the West, Kit Carson was born in Kentucky in 1809, he fled a saddlemaker’s apprenticeship at age 16 to work as a fur trapper, teamster and buffalo hunter in the West.
"Though illiterate and small in stature, Carson was also a natural frontiersman who learned half a dozen native languages and knew the wilderness like the back of his hand. In 1842, his skills caught the attention of explorer John C. Frémont, who enlisted him as a guide for a mission to map the American West. The pair eventually teamed up on three epic excursions across the Rocky Mountains, California and Oregon, and Carson became a frontier celebrity after Frémont praised him in his expedition dispatches.
His fame only grew during the Mexican-American War, when he slipped past enemy lines at the Battle of San Pasquale and made a 30-mile barefoot trek to San Diego to fetch reinforcements," wrote Evan Andrews.
Carson served as wagon train guide, Indian agent, and Union army officer during the Civil War.
"He battled Confederates at 1862’s Battle of Valverde in present day New Mexico, but spent the majority of the war leading a series of controversial campaigns to subdue the Navajo and other Southwestern Indian tribes."
"Maria Josefa was not Carson’s first venture into married life. An Arapaho woman named Waa-Nibe married him in the summer of 1835. Waa-Nibe died from a fever three years after they wed. The couple had two daughters the youngest of the girls died in a tragic accident. Adaline his oldest daughter, was entrusted to the care of one of Carson’s sisters living in Missouri. Carson had joined an expedition traveling to Yellowstone and Bighorn and could not take the child with him," writes Chris Enss, in "Wild Women Of The West: Maria Josefa Jaramillo"
"Once again Carson encountered problems with Native Americans living on the land. The Blackfoot Indians were so desperate to get rid of Carson and the other mountain men with him they set fire to the dry grass and brush around their camp. Carson managed to escape the blaze and continue on with the venture."
Between 1826 and 1842, Carson was a part of more than a dozen organized treks across the western wilderness. His reputation as a great frontiersman grew with each undertaking; from the Columbia River to the Rio Grande, through the Sierra and the Rocky Mountains, his powers of endurance were impressive to all who heard about them.
"In 1841, two years after he lost his first wife, Carson married a seventeen year old Cheyenne Indian woman named Making-Our-Road. The two became acquainted during a trip to Bent’s Fort in Colorado. Carson had been contracted by the commander of the post to do some hunting for the troops. The extended time he spent away from his new bride working contributed to the demise of their union. Less than a year after they were married, Making-Our-Road decided she no longer wanted to be tied to Carson. When he returned to the Cheyenne tribe camp to see his wife, he found his personal belongings outside her lodge. According to Cheyenne custom that was her way of telling him she wanted him to be gone. She later migrated out of the area with other members of her tribe," writes Chris Enss, in "Wild Women Of The West: Maria Josefa Jaramillo"
A year after his marriage to Making-Our-Road ended Carson met Maria Josefa.
"Maria Josefa was born on March 19, 1828, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her father, Francisco Jaramillo, was a merchant, and her mother, Maria Apolonia Vigil, owned substantial acreage in the Rio Grande area of the state. Maria Josefa helped her parents maintain their ranch and cared for her younger brothers and sisters. She met Carson in Taos in 1842. He had been on an expedition with Colonel John Charles Fremont in the Rocky Mountains and was anxious to visit a place where there were lots of people," says Enss.
Fort Carson, Colorado – After World War II, with 60,000 acres in military reservation near Colorado Springs at Camp Carson providing training facilities for the 89th, 71st, and the 104th divisions was of course named for frontier scout and military leader Kit Carson. In 1954, the Defense Department designated it as a permanent installation and renamed it Fort Carson.
Interestingly enough, Kit Carson has a lot more than forts named after him including the following:
• Kit Carson County, Kit Carson Peak, town of Kit Carson in Colorado • Carson City, Nevada • Carson Pass in Nevada and California • Kit Carson, city in California • Mount Kit Carson in Washington • Carson National Forest in New Mexico • Carson River in California and Nevada.
Kit Carson stagecoaches primarily refer to transport lines operating out of the town of Kit Carson which served as a crucial Kansas Pacific railhead in the late 19th century. These coaches connected remote Colorado communities to the railroad, with notable, often treacherous, routes operating until about 1887-1908.
The Kit Carson Home & Museum in Taos, New Mexico, located at 113 Kit Carson Road, is a National Historic Landmark showcasing the 1825 adobe home where the famous frontiersman lived with his wife, Josefa, for 25 years. Kit and Josefa were first buried in Boggsville in the Colorado Territory. Their remains were moved to Taos in 1869, as Carson's will stipulated.
He was Fort Garland, Colorado's post commander for a time, and died from an aneurysm in 1868, a year after being mustered out of the army as a brigadier general. His last words were supposedly, “Doctor, compadre, adios!”
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