USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Vol. I > Part 10
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Ruxton,* who spent the winter of 1847 hunting on the Fountaine- qui-bouille and in the parks, says : "The trappers of the Rocky Mount- ains belong to a genus more approximating to the primitive savage than perhaps any other class of civilized men. Their lives being spent in the remote wilderness, with no other companion than nature herself, their habits and character assume a most singular cast of simplicity, mingled with ferocity, appearing to take their coloring from the scenes and objects which surround them." Their wants were simple and easily supplied. Their food was obtained by the rifle from among the swarms of animal life all about them ; their clothing, traps and powder from the traders to whom they sold the products of their expeditions, and as for their natural enemies, the Indians, they took the chances, in which by virtue of their dauntless bravery and unerring marksman- ship, they were pretty certain to secure more scalps than they surren- dered. "Keen observers of nature, they rival the beasts of prey in discovering the haunts and habits of game and their skill and cunning in capturing it. Constantly exposed to perils of all kinds, they become
*Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains.
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callous to any feeling of danger, and destroy human as well as animal life with as little scruple and as freely, as they expose their own. Of laws human or divine they neither know nor care to know. Their wish is their law, and to attain it they do not scruple as to the ways and means." While there were exceptions to the rule, they were by no means common. To this general summary of their characteristics may be added a colossal faculty for lying. But what is true of the trappers, may be urged with equal force respecting many who drifted out upon the plains with the early pioneers of Kansas and Nebraska, and later of Colorado, or the "Pike's Peak region," as it was then termed. Be it remembered, the country was wild and almost trackless ; there were no restraints of moral or statute law to curb the evil passions of men dis- posed to yield to them. Therefore, perfect liberty quickly degenerated into unbridled license, and the graves of the victims dotted all the trails. Many of the worst desperadoes of the frontier were the sons of wealthy, refined and cultivated people. Once launched upon the adventurous sea of Western life, they plunged into its wildest extrav- agances, led on by drinking and gaming.
In due course we shall have ample opportunity to portray the development of the frontier spirit in the initial pages of the history of Denver. Proceeding with Ruxton's portrait of the typical trapper, we find him "strong, active, hardy ; facing peril at every step, he soon becomes an expert in seeking out his victims, and also in due time fell into just what uncivilized white men might be supposed to be in a brute state." They ransacked singly and in bands every nook and corner of the plains and mountains, and in the course of years stripped them of everything which could be turned into merchandise. They were, in fact, the pathfinders and primitive geographers of the country, pointing the way and blazing the trails for the millions who were to follow in the coming years, and who have founded Territories and States in the lands which their footsteps had traced, and where their traps had been set for the luckless beaver.
The season over, they flocked to the previously appointed ren.
HAH Balance
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dezvous, laden with spoils to be bartered for such goods as the trader might have for them, but chiefly for a long period of riot, gambling and debauchery. Coin there was none; even the picturesque State cur- rency was unknown. According to the author quoted, "The goods brought to the rendezvous, although of the most inferior quality, are sold at enormous prices. For example, coffee twenty and thirty shil- lings a pint cup, which is the usual measure ; tobacco ten and fifteen shillings a plug ; whisky twenty to thirty shillings a pint ; gunpowder sixteen shillings a pint cup, and all articles at proportionately exorbi- tant prices."
The scenes which followed these meetings of trappers and hunters gathered from all quarters for the seasonal "round up," were exciting in the extreme. They drank, gambled, fought and killed each other : the more reckless losing everything they possessed, first to the more skilful gamesters, and they in turn to the bland and patient trader who rarely failed to inherit the substance of the prodigals, who when the next season came round, went into debt for another outfit. And so the years passed until they perished, or, finding their occupation gone, drifted into other scenes and vocations, while the trader, and his prin- cipals back of him in the great cities, the Astors, the Ashleys and the Chouteaus built colossal fortunes, and left them as corner stones to the present structure of American aristocracy.
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CHAPTER VIII.
1840 TO 1853-COL. FREMONT'S FIVE EXPEDITIONS TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS- GUIDED BY KIT CARSON-ADVENTURES IN THE WIND RIVER AND SANGRE DE CRISTO RANGES-OLD PARSON BILL WILLIAMS-CAMPING ON THE PRESENT SITE OF DENVER-ST. VRAIN'S FORT-OLD PUEBLO-VISITING THE BOILING SPRINGS AT MANITOU-TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES IN CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS-ARRIVAL AT TAOS-PURPOSE OF THE EXPEDITIONS-PACIFIC RAILWAYS FORESHADOWED- PUBLIC REJOICING IN ST. LOUIS.
Thirty-six years after Lieutenant Pike, and twenty-three after Major Long, came Lieutenant John C. Fremont, then in the bloom of a vigorous manhood, filled with the love of adventure, ambitious of great achievements, and imbued with an unquenchable longing for the applause of his countrymen. Thoroughly educated in the science of his chosen profession, brave to rashness, possessing withal qualities for leadership from which spring commanders and heroes, the mission assigned him could scarcely have been intrusted to better hands.
For some time previous to his appointment, the attention of the government had been directed to the necessity of resisting the encroachments of Great Britain conducted under cover of its great Hudson's Bay Company upon our Northwest Territory, the boundary line between the British Possessions and the United States not having been definitely determined. Taking advantage of this unsettled con- dition of things, the Hudson's Bay Company proceeded to occupy and colonize the better portion of Oregon, and particularly the Valley of the Columbia River. That part of the country being but little known, these aggressions were not strenuously opposed. The general impres- sion seemed to be that it was barren of resources, bleak and well
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nigh uninhabitable, and though of vast extent, scarcely worth fighting for. After 1840 it was discovered that many emigrants were going there from the Western border, and their remonstrances, together with intelligent representations of its value, aroused our statesmen to the importance of an investigation.
In connection with this emigration to Oregon, it may be stated that Fremont's first expedition in that interest was conceived, not by the government, but by himself. Being then a Lieutenant in the Corps of Topographical Engineers, appointed from civil life by Presi- dent Jackson, he solicited orders from his chief to make an exploration of our western territory with the view of discovering a shorter and more direct emigrant route to the Northwest, and by lodging considerable numbers of Americans in that region, to check, if not overcome, the hold which the trespassers were making upon it. Col. Abert issued an order for Fremont to go to the frontier beyond the Mississippi, which was subsequently changed so as to embrace also the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains. Here was the beginning, not only of the more direct lines of primitive emigration beyond the great water courses of the eastern half of the continent, but ultimately of the trans- continental highways of iron and steel, the creation of six new States and as many Territories, with the endless procession of events which fill their annals.
It is but justice to say, that no man of his time executed a more difficult or important work for his country than this bold explorer, was better fitted for the great enterprises under his charge, or awakened deeper attention to their value during their progress.
Since many volumes containing his discoveries and exploits in detail have been given to the world, and are accessible to all who desire to peruse them, only the material incidents bearing upon the history of our State need be introduced.
The first expedition was composed of twenty-two men, chiefly Cre- oles and Canadian voyageurs skilled in the ways and byways of the frontier, through long service with the fur companies. It left St. Louis
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June 10, 1842, ascending the Missouri River by boat to Chouteau's Landing, situated on the right bank of the Kansas River about ten miles above its mouth. Kit Carson, even then a famous hunter, trap- per, Indian fighter and guide, was engaged to pilot the party to its des- tination. No more fitting selection could have been made, yet it was purely accidental. For sixteen years, from boyhood, in fact, Carson, im- bued with an irresistible passion for frontier adventure, had hunted and trapped, and fought the enemies of his race over nearly every section of the plains and mountains between the eastern border and the western sea. Then, seized with a longing to revisit the scenes of his childhood, the old homestead in Kentucky, his parents and friends, he left the exciting pursuit in which he had grown to manhood, and returned. It is worthy of note in passing, that the State in which he was born may justly be called the cradle of American pioneers and explorers, since it has produced a greater number of historic characters whose deeds are stamped upon the early chronicles of the nation, than any of its con- temporaries.
Arrived at his old home he found that everything had changed, his parents were gone, and even the log cabin where his eyes first saw the light, had disappeared. He went to St. Louis, then scarcely more than a large frontier outfitting and trading post, with but little commerce or importance. Here he remained ten days, a stranger, alone and unno- ticed, in a strange land. Among his fellows he had been a mighty leader, revered and obeyed by all. Here he was but a floating atom without prestige or influence. Soon realizing the hopelessness of such a life as he must lead if he remained, he fled once more to his favorite haunts. On the boat which conveyed him up the river were Fremont and his party, bound for the Rocky Mountains. Neither had seen or heard of the other, prior to this meeting. Fremont was in search of a competent guide, Carson was in need of employment. He applied for the position, and after due inquiry as to his qualifications, was accepted at a salary of one hundred dollars per month. How well and faithfully
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he executed this trust, and all others confided to him, are matters of history, and such history as but few men have been born to create.
Accompanied a short distance on its journey by Cyprian Chouteau, at whose post the final preparations were made, the expedition passed along the south bank of the Kansas to its upper ford, and here crossed to the Blue River, following the general course of the latter stream northwesterly, and thence to the Platte at the head of Grand Island, where an encampment was made, and further plans outlined. Pursuing its journey west to the North Fork, the party was divided, the larger part, commanded by Clement Lambert, proceeding to the American Fur Company's post at Fort Laramie, with orders to await the second division at that place, while Fremont with the remainder followed the South Fork to St. Vrain's Fort, situated directly east of the base of Long's Peak, near Thompson's Creek. This post, established some years before, had become a noted rendezvous for hunters, trappers and Indians.
Fremont's purpose in making this diversion was principally to obtain pack animals for the second stage of his enterprise, but with the added object of forming a correct idea of the country, which compre- hended also the location of posts on a line to connect the settlements with the South Pass; in other words, the establishment of a short and direct route for emigrants passing from the border to the Columbia. On his way up the South Fork he found the remains of a considerable fort, constructed of the trunks of large cottonwood trees. In the words of his report, "It was apparently very old, and had probably been the scene of some hostile encounter among roving tribes. Its solitude formed an impressive contrast to the picture which our imaginations involuntarily drew of the busy scenes which had been enacted here." Buffalo absolutely covered the plains on both sides of the river, and a large band of wild horses was seen grazing at a safe distance.
On the 9th of July, when about sixty miles below Long's Peak, he met two white men and a mulatto, the latter found to be the somewhat celebrated Jim Beckwourth, who had left St. Louis when a boy and
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wandered out among the Crow Indians, by whom he was adopted. Having in the course of time distinguished himself in the wars of that tribe, he was made a chief, which position he held until his separation from them some years later. On reaching a large island in the Platte, it was found to be occupied by a frontiersman named Chabonard, who named it St. Helena. Here he met Beckwourth's wife, a comely Mex- ican woman of Taos. Forty-five miles above St. Helena he came to St. Vrain's Fort, where he was kindly received, and hospitably entertained.
Halting but a few days, Fremont struck out across the country on a line a little east of north at first, and then northwesterly to Fort Lar- amie. Here he met Jim Bridger, who, with Carson and others, entreated him not to proceed farther northward, as the country swarmed with hostile Indians. Their representations of the danger created a panic among their followers, who resolved to desert should the march in that direction be ordered. Lambert, however, bolder, or possibly less discreet than his colleagues, sided openly with Fremont, who was not to be diverted from the execution of any part of his cherished plans.
The march proceeded, fortunately without interference from the hostiles. Eight days later they entered the South Pass, whence their route lay along the southerly bases of the Wind River Mount- ains to the head waters of Green River. Fremont mounted to the pinnacle of the highest peak in the range, and planted the standard of his country thereon. In his report he designates this as the high- est point in the whole Rocky Mountain chain, 13,750 feet above the Gulf of Mexico. So far as known he was the first white man to make this difficult and perilous ascent, a feat of which he and his biographers have not failed to make conspicuous mention.
On their return they repassed the point where the waters of the Platte and Green Rivers pursue their respective courses, the one to the Pacific and the other to the Atlantic Ocean, and finally em- barking in rubber boats provided for the excursion, upon the North
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Fork, passed down the same to the main stream, and thence to the Missouri.
Arrived in Washington, Fremont prepared and submitted his report, which, through the efforts of Senator Benton, was immediately called for by the Senate, then engaged in a heated discussion of the Northwest boundary question. Therefore the reception of this intelli- gence was timely, adding much to the general information on a sub- ject just then of absorbing interest. One thousand extra copies were ordered printed. The press took it up and widened its circulation among the people.
The fame of the young engineer soon became national, and thereby excited the malevolent envy of the West Point graduates who could boast of no achievements. However, being strongly supported by Sen- ator Benton, the attacks of his enemies fell harmless. He received orders to undertake a second expedition and to connect his lines of the preceding year with the surveys of Commander Wilkes on the Pacific coast, so as to afford a continuous view of the great interior of the continent.
The execution of this order began in the spring of 1843, and, as before, at the mouth of the Kansas River. On this occasion his mili- tary equipment was ample for all purposes of attack and defence, including a small mountain howitzer. He had scarcely entered upon his journey before a sharp reprimand for taking such precautions, with orders countermanding his march, were dispatched post haste to St. Louis. His faithful wife received and opened the packet, and divining the effect upon the ambitious spirit of her gallant husband if forwarded to him, she put it in a pigeonhole, where it remained until his return.
When a few days out Fremont was joined by William Gilpin (sub- sequently first Governor of Colorado), "who, intending this year to visit the settlements in Oregon, had been invited to accompany us, and proved a useful and agreeable addition to the party." He ascended the Kansas River to the mouth of the Republican Fork, followed the line of the latter stream some distance, and then took a northwesterly
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course across the country to the South Platte below Beaver Creek ; thence along the route of the previous expedition to St. Vrains, where he arrived on the 4th of July. Remaining here but two days, the march extended up the Platte, passing en route Fort Lupton, then Fort Lancaster. Says Fremont, "This post was beginning to assume the appearance of a comfortable farm ; stock, hogs and cattle were ranging about the prairie; there were different kinds of poultry, and there was the wreck of a promising garden in which a considerable variety of vegetables had been in a flourishing condition, but had been almost entirely ruined by recent high waters." A few days later the party encamped upon the present site of Denver. Near by were one hundred and sixty lodges of Arapahoe Indians, "who behaved very courteously." On the river bottom they discovered a large grizzly bear, "which, raising himself on his hind legs, took a deliberate sur- vey of us that did not appear to be very satisfactory to him, so he scrambled off into the river, and swam to the opposite side." From this point they diverged from the course originally contemplated, following up Cherry Creek, and prolonging the march to the Bijou Basin. Snow fell heavily in the mountains during the night of their stay here (July 9), affording them a magnificent view of the whitened range when they awoke in the morning. From the Bijou they returned southwesterly to the Fountaine-qui-bouille, pursuing its course to the Arkansas. The condition of the settlement at that time is thus described : "A short distance above our encampment on the left bank of the Arkansas is a 'pueblo' (as the Mexicans call their civilized Indian villages), where a number of mountaineers who have married Spanish women in the Valley of Taos, had collected together and occupied themselves in farming, carrying on at the same time a desultory Indian trade. They were principally Americans, and treated us with all the rude hospitality their situation admitted."
At Pueblo he met and again secured the invaluable aid of his old comrade, Kit Carson. Finding it impossible to obtain supplies either here or at Taos, he retraced his steps to St. Vrain's, but by a differ-
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ent route, having first dispatched Carson to Bent's Fort for a reinforce- ment of pack animals, with orders to join him at the designated station on the South Platte. Proceeding up the Fountain, the party reached the present site of Manitou, where the first object to engage Fremont's serious attention and point out the locality of the famous waters whose praises had been sounded by all the mountaineers he knew, was that of a large fat deer refreshing himself at the lower spring of the series (probably that now designated "Shoshone"). Finding that he had wandered into a terrestrial paradise, Fremont threw himself prone upon the ground, and drank from the spring. After a brief rest he sketched the picturesque loveliness of the surroundings which have made this one of the celebrated watering places of the continent, and published it on his return to Washington, together with an analysis of the waters.
They next crossed the Fountain and advanced to the head of the cañon ; thence into the South Park, and to the top of the divide which separates the headwaters of the Platte and Arkansas, and so on into the North Park, in both of which Carson, with Gaunt, had trapped, and explored every stream as early as 1831-and thence down to St. Vrain's.
Meanwhile Carson had arrived from Bent's Fort with ten excellent pack animals and the requisite equipments for the remainder of the journey. Writing from this point, Fremont says: " I had been unable to procure certain information in regard to the character of the passes in this portion of the mountain range, which had always been repre- sented to us as impracticable for carriages, but the exploration of which was incidentally contemplated in my instructions, with the view of finding some convenient point of passage for the road of emigration which would enable it to reach, in a more direct line, the usual ford of the Great Colorado (Green River). It is singular that immediately at the foot of the mountains I could find no one sufficiently acquainted with them to guide us to the plains at their western base ; but the race of trappers who formerly lived in their recesses has almost entirely disappeared-dwindled to a few scattered individuals, some one or two
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of whom are regularly killed in the course of each year by the Indians. You will remember that in the previous year I brought with me to their village near this post, and hospitably treated on the way, several Cheyenne Indians whom I had met on the lower Platte. Shortly after their arrival here they were out with a party of Indians (themselves the principal men), which discovered a few trappers in the neighboring mountains whom they immediately murdered, although one of them had been nearly thirty years in the country, and was perfectly well known, as he had grown gray among them." The foregoing illustrates but too faithfully the nature of the roving tribes, and their unconquer- able enmity to trespassers upon their especial domain. While some escaped by reason of their keen instinct of approaching danger, or by other fortuitous circumstances, many perished in the pursuit of their calling, and their bodies were left to rot where they fell.
Fremont at length resolved to traverse the eastern side of the Medicine Bow Mountains in search of a pass through them, and to this end his force was again divided, the larger part under command of Thomas Fitzpatrick being directed to reach Laramie, and from there go to Fort Hall on the Snake, or Lewis Fork, of the Columbia, and await the arrival of their chief.
Passing through Medicine Bow Pass, Fremont's division followed the north fork of the North Platte to the Sweetwater, crossing the divide along the southern rim of the South Pass; thence to Bear River and Great Salt Lake, taking a northwest course from the latter point to the Columbia, and finally after incredible trials, reached California.
On the return trip he made cursory examinations of the North, Middle and South Parks, "where the great rivers of the Platte, the Arkansas and the Colorado, severally take their rise." In 1845, as a reward for the great service he had rendered the government, President Tyler promoted him to a Captaincy in the Topographical Corps.
Of his third expedition, inaugurated in May, 1845, it is unneces- sary to say more than that he advanced along the Arkansas until near
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the mountains, then the boundary line of the country; thence to the south side of Great Salt Lake, and reached California via the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The final result was the acquisition of California by the United States.
The fourth came dangerously near being his last. It is a pitiful story of trials, hardships and immeasurable suffering for himself and all who attended him upon that ill-fated, because unfortunately timed expe- dition. This march began October 19, 1848. It is inexplicable to the reader of our times, that one who comprehended, as Fremont unques- tionably did, the severity of the winters here and the impassability of the ranges he designed crossing, should have projected such a journey so late in the season. But it was one of the chief characteristics of the man, neither to hesitate nor shrink from any peril, however appalling to others, when duty or ambition pointed the way. The expedition, though accounted rash to insanity by most contemporaries, was, never- theless, the precursor of many important events.
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