Kit Carson

Kit Carson married an Arapaho woman named Waanibe in the 1830s. She was a beautiful young woman with many suitors and Carson had to fight a duel with her other suitors to win her hand in marriage. The couple had one daughter. His wife unfortunately died while giving birth to their second child.

He married a Cheyenne woman named Making-Out-Road in 1841. But this marriage did not last long and ended in divorce.

He tied the knot with Josefa Jaramillo, the daughter of a wealthy and prominent Mexican couple, in 1843. They had eight children.

Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson was born on December 24, 1809, in Richmond, Kentucky, to Lindsay Carson and his second wife, Rebecca Robinson. Kit had several siblings and half-siblings. His father was a farmer and a veteran of the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

His father died in 1818 in a freak accident. His mother struggled alone for four years singlehandedly raising the numerous kids. She eventually remarried a widower with several children. Kit did not get along with his step-father.

Kit never received any formal education and was apprenticed to David Workman, a saddler in Franklin, Missouri. Many of the customers at the saddleshop were fur-trappers and traders and they told Kit about their exciting adventures. The young boy became fascinated with these tales and realized that he too wanted to live an adventurous life. Thus he fled from the saddleshop in pursuit of a more exciting life.

Kit ran away in August 1826 and joined a caravan of fur-trappers. He traveled with them to Santa Fe and then settled in Taos. He lived with his brothers’ friend, Mathew Kinkead, a trapper and explorer, and learned the nuances of the trade from him.

Between 1827 and 1829 he worked at a number of jobs including that of a cook, translator and wagon driver. He also worked at a copper mine in southwestern New Mexico.

He joined Ewing Young in 1829 to fur-trap in Arizona and California. Over the next several years he also worked for Jim Bridger and the Hudson Bay Company. He learned different languages during this time.

He received the opportunity of a lifetime in 1842 when he met explorer John C. Fremont who was then an officer with the United States Topographical Corps. Impressed with Carson’s experience as a fur-trapper, he asked him to accompany him on his expeditions as a guide.

In 1842, Carson guided Fremont across the Oregon Trail to South Pass, Wyoming, in their first expedition together. At the successful completion of the five-month expedition, Fremont published his government reports in which he praised Carson, making him a popular mountain man.

Kit Carson is best known for the role he played as a guide to the explorer John C. Fremont on his various expeditions. On their first expedition together, he greatly helped the group in making their way to the South Pass in the Rocky Mountains. Impressed with Carson, Fremont took him on two more journeys. Fremont lavishly praised Carson in his reports which helped to popularize Carson as a legendary folk hero.