JOHN C. FREMONT, THE PATHFINDER OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
His father a French refugee
144. A Great Explorer. Fremont's father was a Frenchman who was driven to America by the terrible French Revolution. John Charles Fremont was born at Savannah (1813) while his parents were on a journey through the South. His father died soon after, and his mother went to live in Charleston, South Carolina.
Goes to South America
After a time at a good school, Fremont entered the junior class in Charleston College (1828). After leaving college he spent two and a half years on a voyage to South America.
Becomes a civil engineer
On his return he joined a company of engineers sent by the governor to explore the mountains between South Carolina and Tennessee, in order to find a suitable place for a railroad. This work was through a region rough, wild, and full of beauty. It gave young Fremont a taste for exploration which never left him.
Fremont's longing for a wild life was gratified when he was made assistant to a famous Frenchman who was exploring the wild region between the upper Missouri River and Canada.
THE PATHWAYS OF THE EARLY EXPLORERS OF THE WEST
Marries Senator Benton's daughter
After this work Fremont returned to Washington and later married Jessie Benton, the daughter of the senator from Missouri. Thomas H. Benton was a great friend of President Jackson.
JOHN C. FREMONT
After a photograph from life
Fremont was now related to a powerful man who was deeply interested in the growth of the "Great West." Benton's repeated speeches on the "West" and on the "Oregon Country" called attention to the importance of the Pacific slope.
Receives permission to explore South Pass
In 1842 Fremont, now a lieutenant of engineers, received permission from the government to explore the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains. With a party made up largely of French Canadians, and assisted by that famous guide, Kit Carson, he passed up the Kansas River, crossed to the Platte, went up this river, and thus reached the South Pass.
Unfurls the Stars and Stripes on Fremonts Peak
145. On the Watershed. Standing on the watershed of a continent, he saw the beginnings of rivers that flow into the Atlantic, and of others that stretched away through unknown regions to the Pacific. He took four men and climbed what has since been called Fremonts Peak, one of the highest of the Rockies, about 13,800 feet above the sea. At the top Fremont unfurled the Stars and Stripes in all its glory!
146. A Pathway to the Pacific. Fremont reported his discovery at Washington and immediately applied for orders to make an expedition to discover a more southerly route to California and Oregon.
GAZING OUT AT THE BEGINNINGS OF RIVERS
Beholds Great Salt Lake
He left the little town of Kansas City with his guide, Kit Carson, in May, 1843. In September, after traveling seventeen hundred miles, the little party beheld the shores of Great Salt Lake. What feelings must have stirred the breasts of men shut in for months by mountains, at seeing what appeared to be an ocean, here in the midst of a continent! Little did they dream of that hardy band of immigrants, so soon to follow, who would make the shores of this sea blossom like a garden. Fremont wrote: "As we looked over that vast expanse of water and strained our eyes along the silent shores, over which hung so much doubt and uncertainty, I could hardly repress the almost irresistible desire to continue our exploration."
FREMONT'S MEN BUILDING A FIRE IN THE SNOW
Reaches Fort Vancouver
After making preparations, the party crossed over to a branch of the Columbia River. Down this stream they traveled until Fort Vancouver was reached on November 4. Here Fremont was the guest of the governor of the British Hudson Bay Company.
FREMONT'S EXPEDITION REACHING SUTTER'S FORT, CALIFORNIA
Travel in deep snow
Crossing the Sierra Nevada
November 10, on the way home, the little party started to make the circuit of the Great Basin, a vast depression beyond the east wall of the Sierra Nevada. But very soon they found deep snow on the mountains. Turning to the west at about the latitude of San Francisco, Fremont determined to cross the Sierra Nevada into the valley of the Sacramento. The river was not many miles distant.
But what miles! Up and down, up and down that snowy mountain range, which the Indians told him no man could cross in winter, with snow lying upon it as deep as the dark forest trees were high, and places where, if a man slipped off, he would fall half a mile without stopping!
In the Valley of the Sacramento
They attempted to cross without a guide, in the dead of winter. In forty days the men and the surviving horses—a woeful procession crawling along one by one, skeleton men leading skeleton horses—arrived at Sutter's Fort (Sacramento) in the beautiful valley of the Sacramento. Here genial warmth, trees in foliage, grassy ground, and flowers made a fairy contrast to the famine and freezing they had met on the mountains they had climbed.
After enjoying the hospitality of Colonel Sutter, Fremont again crossed the mountains farther to the south, where the beautiful San Joaquin River makes a gap or pass.
Sees the Mohave Desert
When he reached the top of the pass Fremont beheld the plains of the Mohave Desert. An Indian said to him: "There is neither water nor grass—nothing; every animal that goes upon them dies."
End of second expedition
Pushing forward with great energy, he reached Utah Lake, thus having nearly made the circuit of the Great Basin.
Fremont hastened to Washington with the story of his discoveries. General Scott now recommended that he be made captain.
Third expedition
Fremont's third expedition, with Carson as a helper, began in the spring of 1845, and aimed to explore the Great Basin and the coast of California and Oregon.
THE UNFURLING OF THE AMERICAN FLAG IN CALIFORNIA
The Stars and Stripes were raised for the first time in California near Monterey in 1846
War breaks out
147. In the Mexican War. Little did Fremont—or any of his men—think what fortune had in store for them. On his way to the Oregon Country Fremont received news that the Mexicans were planning to kill all the Americans in the Sacramento Valley. War had already broken out between the United States and Mexico, but he did not know it. He returned, reaching the valley in May, 1846. The settlers rushed to join him, and in one month northern California was declared independent.
Conquest of California
Fremont then marched to Monterey and joined Commander Sloat, who had raised the American flag there, July 7, 1846. This practically finished the conquest of all California in sixty days.
Fourth expedition
Elected to United States Senate
148. Becomes a Private Citizen. Soon after this event Fremont returned to Washington, gave up his place in the regular army, and went to live in California. His journey to California made up his fourth expedition. But the people would not let him long remain in private. The state elected him to the United States Senate. Fremont was not long in Congress, but was of great service in giving advice concerning the long-talked-of railroad to the Pacific.
Early in 1848 gold was discovered in the sand near the American River at Sutter's Mill, the site now occupied by Coloma. As the news spread, great excitement arose, and everybody wanted to dig gold. This was the "gold fever" of 1848 and 1849. The rush to the coast was tremendous. It made the building of a railroad urgent. Fremont made his fifth expedition to survey three routes to the Pacific. After great hardships he returned to Washington to report what he had found.
Nominated for president
He now took up his residence in New York City and became a member of the party opposed to the extension of slavery. The new party, the Republican, nominated him as its first candidate for president (1856). He was defeated after a most exciting time, yet he carried all the northern states but four.
A major-general in the Civil War
During the Civil War he was made a major-general, but after a year or two he resigned. He was talked of for president in 1864, but did not make the race.
After the war was over he was interested in a great continental railroad. From 1878 to 1881 he was governor of Arizona. Congress voted him a pension just before he died in 1890.