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The Kit Carson Statue at "Kit Carson Park" in Trinidad, Colorado



Cristopher (Kit) Carson (1809-1868)


Kit Carson was a trapper, scout, Indian agent, soldier and an authentic American legend of the West.  He was also the subject of the popular mythology of his day.

























Thanks in part to the fictional tales and exaggerated magazine stories, Kit Carson's reputation as a guide soon turned to that of legend, and the myth was born.  Stories about kit Carson were as popular as the stories that were spread about Daniel Boone.


























Christopher Carson, was born on Christmas Eve in Madison County, Kentucky, in 1809. He was the 9th of 14 children. 

Whithin a year, the Carson family moved to Howard County, Missouri where young "Kit" spent most of his early childhood in Boone's Lick.  When Kit was just nine years old, his father was killed in a tragic accident. The need for him to find work prevented Kit Carson from receiving any formal education. When he was 14, Kit Carson found work as an apprentice to a saddle and harness maker.  Three years later, he joined a wagon train that was heading west on the Santa Fe Trail in 1826. 





















From Santa Fe, Kit Carson went north to Taos,  where he worked as a cook, errand boy and harness repairer.  When he was 19, he was hired for a fur trapping expedition to California,  where, in spite of his small stature (he never exceeded 5 and a half feet)  he soon proved himself to be very able and courageous.


















The Rio Grande river gorge near Taos, New Mexico.


From the year 1828 to 1831, Kit Carson used Taos, New Mexico, as a base for his repeated fur-trapping expeditions. He often went as far West as California. By the 1830's his trapping took him up the Rocky Mountains and throughout the West.




















Like so many other white trappers, Kit Carson became somewhat integrated into the world of the American Indians.  He traveled, hunted, trapped and lived extensively among the Indians.  Kit Carson evidently stood out among  the other trappers. His self-restraint and temperate lifestyle was common Knowledge.  According to those who knew him well, Kit Carson was "Clean as a hound's tooth," and a man whose "word was as sure as the sun comin' up."  He was also noted for his unassuming manner and Great courage.

His first two wives were Arapahoe and Cheyenne women. "Grass Singing", his Arapaho wife, had a daughter, Adaline, and a son, Robert. During the spring hunt of 1841, young Robert fell into a kettle of boiling soap and died. Not long after, his mother, Grass Singing, contracted a fever and died, too. 


























A Cheyenne Young Woman.


For a period of time in the early 1840's, Kit Carson was employed by William Bent as hunter for the garrison at Bent's Fort, Colorado.  He soon becoming its chief hunter.  While he was there, he took another Indian wife. She was  a Cheyenne maiden who was named "Making Out Road".  The marriage only lasted a few months, before she divorced him in the accepted Indian way by tossing his saddle out the door of their buffalo-skin lodge.





















John Fremont.


In 1842, while Kit Carson was returning from his family in Missouri, after he had taken his daughter Adaline with him and left her in the care of his sister, Mary Anne Carson Rubey, he happened to meet John C. Fremont on a Missouri Riverboat.  Mr. Fremont hired Kit Carson as guide for his first expedition where he was to map and describe the Western trails to the Pacific Ocean.

Kit Carson later helped guide John Fremont to Oregon and California, and through much of the Central Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin.


























John C. Fremont, (seated), was quick to recognized Kit Carson, (standing), for a genius.


His service with John Fremont, was praised in Fremont's widely-read reports of his expeditions.  These reports quickly made Kit Carson into a national hero.



























Popular fiction depicted Kit Carson as a rugged mountain man who was capable of superhuman feats.

Kit Carson's notoriety grew more famous, as his name became associated with several key events in the United States' westward expansion:  (1) He was still serving as Fremont's guide when Fremont joined California's short-lived Bear-Flag rebellion just before the outbreak of the Mexican-American War in 1846. and (2) it was Kit Carson who led the forces of U.S. General Stephen Kearney from New Mexico into California when a California band led by Andrés Pico mounted a challenge to American occupation of Los Angeles.

























Andres Pico.


On December 6, 1846, these forces were attacked by Mexicans at San Pasqual, which is about 30 miles north of San Diego.  On the third night of this battle,  Kit Carson, along two others snuck through enemy lines and ran the entire distance to San Diego, where they brought help for Kearny's pinned-down forces.  Kit Carson spent the next few years carrying dispatches to President James Polk in Washington, DC.

Kit Carson was perhaps better known to a larger number of Indian tribes than any other white man, and from his life among them, he quickly learned their habits and customs, understood their mode of warfare, and spoke their language as if it was HIS native language.


























Josefa Jaramillo Carson, at age 18,


After he returned to Taos, New Mexico, from California in 1843,  he planned to ask a bright eyed young beauty named Josefa Jaramillo for her hand in marriage, but her family had problems with this. Kit Carson was a 34 year old Anglo Foreigner and Josefa was only 15 years old. Slowly, Kit and Josefa efforts won over the parents and the couple was wed.

As a wedding gift, Kit Carson gave Josefa the rambling adobe home in Taos. The Carson family lived in the home for the next twenty plus years.
















The Kit Carson Family Home and Museum in Taos.


Today this home houses the Kit Carson Museum.  They brought seven children into the world in that house. Life was not always easy because of Kit Carson's irregular income and his long absences from home when he worked as a guide.




















Kit Carson took up ranching.  By 1853, he and his partner were able to drive a large flock of sheep to California, where gold rush prices paid them a handsome profit.  In 1854, Kit Carson was appointed federal Indian agent for Northern New Mexico, for the Utes and Jicarilla Apaches. This was a job that gave him a regular salary and allowed him to stay home much more.  However, Kit was still called out regularly on Indian business.


























Josefa Carson and Kit Carson Jr.


Once when he was away, a party of Utes stopped by his agency office. Josefa went out to speak with the heavily armed warriors who said they had business with "Father Keet," the name they used to address Kit Carson. After telling the warriors that her husband wasn't there, she noticed a small Navajo boy sobbing on the saddle behind one of the Utes. When she asked about him she was told that after they were out of sight of the settlement, they were going to kill him because of his constant crying.  Josefa was horrified. She quickly asked them what they would accept as ransom for the boy. The Utes had a quick conference and replied that they would trade him for a strong, young horse. The trade was made.

When Kit Carson returned home, about a week later, one of the first things he noticed was the missing horse. When Josefa told him what had happened, he accepted the boy gracefully and named him Juan Carson. Kit and Josefa Carson raised Juan as their own son and Juan remained with the Carson's until their deaths.


























In the fall of 1860, Kit Carson went hunting with some friends in the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado.  On a steep trail, his horse took a spill and Kit Carson suffered serious internal injuries.  He recovered, but was left with  recurring pain and physical damage that one day wouldcost him his life.  He held the post as Indian agent until the Civil War, when new duties were given to him in 1861.

During the American Civil War Kit Carson helped organize New Mexican infantry volunteers, which saw action at Valverde in 1862.  Most of his military actions (despite his reluctance to do so), were directed against the Navajo Indians, many of whom had refused to be confined upon a reservation that had been set up by the government.



























Beginning in 1863, under orders from his commanders in the U.S. Army, Kit Carson waged a brutal economic war against the Navajo tribes in an attempt to relocate them. The troops marched through the heart of Navaho territory in order to destroy their crops, and round up their livestock. Some ofthe livestock was later given back to those that surrendered.

When the Utes, Pueblos, Hopis and Zunis, who for centuries had been victims of Navajo raiders, took advantage of their traditional enemy's weakness by following the Americans onto the warpath, the Navajo were unable to defend themselves.  In 1864, most of the Navaho surrendered to Kit Carson. e forced nearly 8,000 Navajo men, women and children to take what would later be called the "Long Walk" of 300 miles from Arizona to Fort Sumner, New Mexico.  The US military was  unprepared for the large number of Navajo, and in only a couple of years, with the ground depleted, and nothing would grow, the ill-planned site became disease-ridden.  The once proud Navaho remained there, in a disease-ridden confinement, until 1868.





















In 1865 Kit Carson was given a commission as Brigadier General and was cited for gallantry and distinguished service.

In the summer of 1866, he moved to Colorado to expand his ranching business and took command of Fort Garland.  His ill health forced him to resign his commission the following year, and in January 1868, the Carson family moved to Boggsville, near present-day La Junta, Colorado. His appointment as Indian Superintendent came through.  A few weeks later he was asked to accompany a delegation of Utes to Washington for treaty negotiations.  He was reluctant to go.  Josefa was pregnant with their last child and he was physically hurting a lot,  but his sense of duty forced him to make the trip.  Besides,  he thought there might be a doctor in the East who could help him.

After he had completed the Indian business at the capitol, Kit Carson was examined by several doctors.  They all agreed that his case was incurable, and that he could actually die at any moment.


























Kit Carson was in a hurry to return to his wife Josefa. He took the train to Cheyenne, the stagecoach to Denver, and then  an open buckboard down the Front Range to Pueblo, Colorado.  At Pueblo he went to see Dr. Michael Beshoar.  The doctor gave him some cherry cough syrup with opium to kill the pain, and quickly examined him.  He found an aneurism of the carotid artery,  a bulge in the weakened artery wall which was big enough to see.   At any time it could burst and Kit Carson would die.

Kit Carson rushed  the 85 miles down the Arkansas River to Boggsville.  Josefa had heard that her husband was on his way.  She hitched up the wagon and rode out to meet him.  Two days later. she gave birth to Josephine and ten days later Josefa died from complications that were related to the childbirth.

With great concern for his motherless children, Kit Carson signed papers that made his in-law, Tom Boggs, the guardian of his children and Executor of his will.

On May 14, Tom Boggs took Kit Carson to Fort Lyon, which was north of Boggsville. There he was placed in the quarters of the post surgeon, Dr. H. R. Tilton. The doctor remained at his bedside until the afternoon of May 23, 1868. At 4:25 pm Kit Carson uttered his last words: "Adios, compadre. Adios!"

His wife Josefa had preceded him in death, only by a few days, and their remains were buried side by side in the garden of C.R. Rite, at Boggsville. The following winter, their bodies were taken up and removed to Taos, New Mexico.

Kit Carson was one of the few mountain men who would survive the Indian fights, starvation, thirst and the army mules, to die in bed.





















The Indians of the region had much respect for Kit Carson. One day, General William T. Sherman commented: "These Red Skins think Kit twice as big a man as me. Why his integrity is simply perfect. They know it, and they would believe him and trust him any day before me."

In the winter of 1826-1827, Kit Carson had passed the long season  at the house of a retired mountaineer.   While he was residing there that he acquired a thorough familiarity with the Spanish language.  Although hardly read or write, Kit Carson had a gift for languages.  In addition to Spanish,  Kit Carson learned French from the French-Canadian trappers, and he also learned eight or nine Indian languages from the various tribes.



























Christopher "Kit" Carson -- 1809-1868.


At the time of his death, Kit Carson was a comparatively young man. He was only 58 years and 5 monthss old.  At the time of his death, the description of him is consistent with earlier observations (with adjustments made for the aging process).  In appearance, he was said to be under the medium height, rather stooping, his hair gray, eyes blue and small, with a merry twinkle about them.  He was sociable and humorous in nature, though unassuming.  He was by no means profane or rough, and was noted by others for gentlemanly demeanor . One of his favorite activities was horse-racing, which he participated in, even as late as the year he died.




















The Carson Trail-- This segment of the California Trail starts just east of the Humboldt Bar in Nevada and heads southwest over the 40-mile desert to the Carson River. It follows the river into the Sierra Nevada, crosses over what we now call Carson Pass (on Highway 88), and ends in Pleasant Valley near Placerville (old "Hangtown") in California.  It is named for Christopher “Kit” Carson, explorer and scout.
















The Carson Lake (Sink), Carson River, and Carson City (all in Nevada) are named for Kit Carson.
















There has been so much half-truths, un-truths, exagerations and blatant lies circulated and published and so many movies that were made about "Kit" Carson, that it is sometimes difficult to find the truth.  There are many Americans who have never heard of him and many who do not think he actually existed: that he was a Fictional Character.

I assure you that Christopher "Kit" Carson was a Real American Hero. Whatever that his country asked him to do, he did it and MORE!  In his day, he was completely trusted and admired by men of all races.  If it had not been for him, the opening of the western part of our country would have taken many years longer.  Some of our states might still be part of Mexico.