130 Facts About Kit Carson

Christopher Houston Carson was an American frontiersman.

Kit Carson was a fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent, and US Army officer.

Kit Carson became a frontier legend in his own lifetime by biographies and news articles, and exaggerated versions of his exploits were the subject of dime novels.

Kit Carson left home in rural Missouri at 16 to become a mountain man and trapper in the West.

Kit Carson lived among and married into the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes.

Fremont mapped and wrote reports and commentaries on the Oregon Trail to assist and encourage westward-bound pioneers, and Kit Carson achieved national fame through those accounts.

Later in the war, Kit Carson was a scout and courier who was celebrated for his rescue mission after the Battle of San Pasqual and for his coast-to-coast journey from California to Washington, DC to deliver news of the conflict in California to the government.

Kit Carson was breveted a Brigadier General and took command of Fort Garland, Colorado.

Kit Carson was there only briefly, as poor health forced him to retire from military life.

Kit Carson died at Fort Lyon of an aortic aneurysm on May 23,1868.

Kit Carson is buried in Taos, New Mexico next to his third wife, Josefa.

In recent years, Kit Carson has become a symbol of the United States' mistreatment of its indigenous peoples.

Christopher Houston Kit Carson was born on December 24,1809, near Richmond, Madison County, Kentucky.

Kit Carson's parents were Lindsayt wife, Lucy Bradley, and ten more children by Rebecca.

Kit Carson was a farmer, a cabin builder, and a veteran of the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

Kit Carson fought Indians on the American frontier and lost two fingers on his left hand in a battle with the Fox and Sauk Indians.

The Carson family moved to Boone's Lick, Howard County, Missouri, when Kit was about a year old.

The Boone and Kit Carson families became good friends and worked and socialized together and intermarried.

In 1818, Lindsay Kit Carson died instantly when a tree limb fell on him while he was clearing a field.

Kit Carson then married Joseph Martin, a widower with several children.

Kit Carson was a young teenager and did not get along with his stepfather.

Many of the customers at the saddle shop were trappers and traders from whom Kit Carson heard stirring tales of the West.

Kit Carson went west with a caravan of fur trappers and tended their livestock.

Kit Carson lived with Mathew Kinkead, a trapper and explorer who had served with Kit Carson's older brothers during the War of 1812.

Kit Carson was mentored by Kinkead in learning the skills of a trapper and learning the necessary languages for trade.

Kit Carson wrote that he would give a one-cent reward to anyone who brought the boy back to Franklin.

Between 1827 and 1829, Kit Carson worked as cook, translator, and wagon driver in the southwest.

Kit Carson worked at a copper mine near the Gila River, in southwestern New Mexico.

In later life, Kit Carson never mentioned any women from his youth.

At the age of 20, Kit Carson began his career as a mountain man.

Kit Carson traveled through many parts of the American West with famous mountain men like Jim Bridger and Old Bill Williams.

Kit Carson joined a wagon train rescue party after entering Taos, and although the perpetrators had fled the scene of atrocities, Young had the opportunity to witness Kit Carson's horsemanship and courage.

Kit Carson joined another expedition, led by Thomas Fitzpatrick and William Levin, in 1831.

Kit Carson was known as a reliable man and a good fighter.

Kit Carson hunted buffalo, antelope, deer, and other animals to feed the people.

Kit Carson returned to Bent's Fort several times during his life to provide meat for the fort's residents again.

Kit Carson was 19 when he set off with Ewing Young's expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1829.

Kit Carson found what he was looking for in killing and scalping Indians.

Kit Carson probably killed and took the scalp of his first Indian when he was 19, during Ewing Young's expedition.

Kit Carson's Memoirs are replete with stories about hostile Indian encounters with the memoirist.

Kit Carson viewed the Blackfoot Nation as a hostile tribe and believed that it posed the greatest threat to his livelihood, safety, and life.

Kit Carson hated the Blackfeet and killed them at every opportunity.

Kit Carson was traveling with about one hundred mountain men led by Jim Bridger.

Kit Carson found himself more and more in their company as he grew older, and his attitude towards them became more respectful and humane.

Kit Carson urged the government to set aside lands called reservations for their use.

Kit Carson was a man of medium height, broad-shouldered, and deep-chested, with a clear steady blue eye and frank speech and address; quiet and unassuming.

In 1842, Kit Carson guided Fremont across the Oregon Trail to South Pass, Wyoming.

Kit Carson guided Fremont across part of the Oregon Trail to the Columbia River in Oregon.

Kit Carson's party met a Mexican man and boy, who both told Carson that Native Americans had ambushed their party of travelers.

In 1845, Kit Carson guided Fremont on their third expedition.

Kit Carson took an ax and avenged the death of his friends by chopping away at a dead Indian's face.

In June 1846, Fremont and Kit Carson participated in a California uprising against Mexico, the Bear Flag Revolt.

Kit Carson ordered Carson to execute an old Mexican man, Jose de los Reyes Berreyesa, and his two adult nephews, who had been captured when they stepped ashore at San Francisco Bay to prevent them from notifying Mexico about the uprising.

In early 1847, Kit Carson was ordered east from California again with more dispatches for Washington, DC, where he arrived by June.

Kit Carson was dispatched a third time as government courier leaving Los Angeles May 1848 via the Old Spanish Trail and reached Washington, DC, with important military messages, which included official report of the discovery of gold in California.

In December 1846, Carson was ordered by General Stephen W Kearny to guide him and his troops from Socorro, New Mexico, to San Diego, California.

Kit Carson knew that he could not win and so ordered his men to take cover on a small hill.

Kit Carson planned to break through the Mexican lines the next morning, but 200 mounted American soldiers arrived in San Pasqual late that night.

Kit Carson developed a small rancho at Rayado, east of Taos, and raised beef.

Kit Carson brought his daughter Adaline from Missouri to join Josefa and the family in a period where family life settled the frontiersman.

Kit Carson managed the household, in the tradition of the Hispanic women of New Mexico, while he continued shorter travels.

In mid-1853, Kit Carson left New Mexico with 7,000 thin legged churro sheep for the California Trail across Wyoming, Utah, Nevada into California.

Kit Carson was taking them to settlers in northern California and southern Oregon.

Kit Carson had with him six experienced New Mexicans from the haciendas of the Rio Abajo to herd the sheep.

Kit Carson's fame spread throughout the United States with government reports, dime novels, newspaper accounts, and word of mouth.

The first accounts of Kit Carson published for popular audiences were extracts from Fremont's explorations reports as reprinted in period newspapers.

In June 1847, Jesse Benton Fremont helped Kit Carson prepare a brief autobiography, the first, published as an interview in the Washington, DC Union, and reprinted by newspapers across the country.

Similarly, Emerson Bennett, a prolific novelist of sensational romances, wrote an overland trail account where fictional Kit Carson joins a California bound wagon train.

In 1849, as he moved to civilian life at Taos and Rayado, Kit Carson was asked to guide soldiers on the trail of Mrs Ann White, her baby daughter, and "negro servant," who had been captured by Jicarilla Apaches and Utes.

Kit Carson discovered a fictional book, possibly by Averill, about himself in the Apache camp.

Kit Carson was sorry for the rest of his life that he had not rescued Mrs White; the dime-novel Kit would have saved her.

Brewerton encouraged Kit Carson to send him a sketch of his life, and offered to polish it into a book.

Kit Carson dictated a "memoir" of some 33,000 words over the next few years, but moved on to another collaborator.

Friend Jesse B Turley was engaged in late 1856 to help Kit prepare the memoir and after a year's work sent the rough manuscript to a New York publisher.

The first run, a pricey $2.50 gilt edition or $4 antiqued copy, included a note signed by Kit Carson authenticating the story and the authorization given Dr Peters for the work.

Kit Carson's memoir is the most important source about his life, to 1858, but as Carter notes, Kit was too brief, had lapses in memory, and his chronology was fallible.

Between January 1854 and May 1861, Kit Carson served as one of the first Federal Indian Agents in the Far West.

Kit Carson was responsible for the Maoche Ute people, Jicarilla Apache, and Taos Pueblo in a vast expanse of northern New Mexico Territory.

Kit Carson summarized meetings with tribes, almost a daily occurrence when home, disputes over who stole whose cow, and the day to day effort to help with food, clothes and presents for tribes.

Kit Carson negotiated a halt of Plains tribes killing Taos Pueblo Indians desiring the traditional hunt of buffalo near Raton.

Kit Carson had the advantage of knowing at least fourteen Indian dialects as well as was a master of sign language.

Kit Carson resigned his position as agent to the Ute Indian Tribe and volunteered to defend the Territory.

Mindful that Kit Carson had experienced military discipline as an army scout under Fremont and, later, with General Stephen Kearny during the War with Mexico, the governor appointed Kit Carson the Lieutenant Colonel of the First New Mexico Volunteer Infantry.

On February 19,1862, Kit Carson led his regiment east across the Rio Grande to occupy high ground across from Fort Craig to protect the post from a Confederate turning move.

Kit Carson assigned Carson's regiment to a support position behind the regulars on the left and, later in the fight, the center of the Union line.

Later in the day, Kit Carson crossed to the east side of the river toward the Confederates.

Kit Carson believed that the Hispanic volunteers would not stand up to the Texans in combat.

Kit Carson then sent Carson and five companies of his regiment to occupy and re-build Fort Stanton.

Kit Carson chose the site for the Apaches and Navajos because it was far from white settlements.

Kit Carson wanted the Apaches and Navajo to act as a buffer for any aggressive acts committed upon the white settlements from Kiowas and Comanches to the east of Bosque Redondo.

Kit Carson thought that the remoteness and desolation of the reservation would discourage white settlement.

Kit Carson's orders were almost the same as those for the Apache roundup: he was to shoot all males on sight and to take the women and children captives.

Kit Carson found their homes, fields, animals, and orchards, but the Navajo were experts at disappearing quickly and hiding in their vast lands.

Kit Carson wanted to take a winter break from the campaign.

In January 1864, Kit Carson swept through the 35-mile Canyon with his forces, including Captain Albert Pfeiffer.

Kit Carson's invasion proved to the Navajo that the United States could invade their territory at any time.

On November 25,1864, Kit Carson led his forces against the southwestern tribes at the First Battle of Adobe Walls in the Texas Panhandle.

Kit Carson wanted to punish them and brought in Carson to do the job.

Kit Carson led 260 cavalry, 75 infantry, and 72 Ute and Jicarilla Apache Army scouts.

Kit Carson found other Comanche villages in the area and realized he would face a very large force of Native Americans.

When Kit Carson ran low on ammunition and howitzer shells, he ordered his men to retreat to a nearby Kiowa village, where they burned the village and many fine buffalo robes.

Kit Carson spoke but little and answered questions in monosyllables.

Kit Carson's head was large and well-shaped with yellow straight hair, worn long, falling on his shoulders.

Kit Carson's face was fair and smooth as a woman's with high cheekbones, straight nose, a mouth with a firm, somewhat sad expression yet kissable lips, a keen, deep-set but beautiful, mild blue eye, which could become terrible under some circumstances, and like the warning of the rattlesnake, gave notice of attack.

Kit Carson joined Freemasonry in the Santa Fe Territory of New Mexico, petitioning in Montezuma Lodge No 101.

Kit Carson was initiated an Entered Apprentice on April 22,1854, passed to the degree of Fellowcraft June 17,1854, and raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason December 26,1854, just two days after his 42nd birthday.

Kit Carson served as Senior Warden the following year and would have served as Worshipful Master, but the lodge went dark due to the Civil War.

Kit Carson's third wife was born of an old Hispanic family in Taos, New Mexico, then part of the Republic of Mexico.

Kit Carson never wrote about his first two marriages in his Memoirs.

In 1836, Kit Carson met an Arapaho woman, Waanibe, at a mountain man rendezvous held along the Green River in Wyoming.

Kit Carson was forced to fight a duel with a French trapper, Chouinard, for Waanibe's hand in marriage.

Kit Carson tended to his needs and went with him on his trapping trips.

Kit Carson married and divorced a George Stilts of St Louis.

About 1842, Kit Carson met Josefa Jaramillo, the daughter of a prominent Mexican couple living in Taos.

Kit Carson married the 14-year-old Josefa on February 6,1843.

Kit Carson was embarrassed by that and tried to hide it.

Kit Carson enjoyed having other people read to him and preferred the poetry of George Gordon, Lord Byron.

Kit Carson made his mark on official papers, and it was then witnessed by a clerk or other official.

Kit Carson had many Ute friends in the area and assisted in government relations.

In 1868, at the urging of Washington and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Kit Carson journeyed to Washington, DC, where he escorted several Ute Chiefs to meet with the US President to plead for assistance to their tribe.

Kit Carson died a month later, age 58, on May 23,1868, in the presence of Dr Tilton and his friend Thomas Boggs in the surgeon's quarters at Fort Lyon, Colorado.

In 1911, the granddaughter of Kit Carson unveiled an equestrian statue at the community park near the state capitol, Denver.

The Kit Carson character played minor roles in other 1930s Westerns like the 1936 Sutter's Gold, loosely about the California gold discovery, and the 1939 Mutiny on the Black Hawk, an odd Western with a mutiny on a slave ship that lands in California with Kit Carson and others ready to save the day.

Kit Carson joins Captain John Fremont to guide a wagon train just as Mexican General Castro orders all Americans from California, then the conquest of California begins, a tale enlivened with gratuitous Indian attacks.

From 1951 to 1955, the television show The Adventures of Kit Carson ran for 105 episodes.

Kit Carson was a buckskin-clad heroic character who fights robbers, villains, the bad guys.

Bill Williams, who played Kit Carson, complained that the show lacked the drama of the real Kit Carson because of censors, NAFBRAT, wanting to eliminate violence from children's show.

In 1973, during the annual Taos Fiesta, protesters declared that Kit Carson should be stripped of historical honors, his grave at Taos threatened with exhumation, and the renaming of Kit Carson State Park was demanded.

Kit Carson started with the history of vandalizing of Carson related sites, the painting of a black swastika on his grave and the scratching of the word "killer" on a nearby marker, of the defacing of the Kit Carson monument in Santa Fe.

Kit Carson had far more of the good qualities and fewer of the bad qualities than anyone else in that varied lot of individuals.