Kit Carson

Kit Carson Explorer, Folk Hero, Military Leader (1809–1868)

Kit Carson was an American frontiersman, trapper, soldier and Indian agent who made important contributions to the westward expansion of the United States.

Who Was Kit Carson?
Born in Kentucky and raised on the Missouri frontier, Kit Carson became an experienced hunter and trapper by his 20s. After meeting explorer John C. Frémont in 1842, Carson was an active participant in extending the boundaries of the United States to its present size. He became a federal Indian agent in the 1850s and later served the Union Army in the Civil War. Carson, who died in Colorado in 1868, is remembered as an icon of the frontiersman days of the American West.

Early Life
Born on Christmas Eve in 1809, Christopher "Kit" Carson became one of the most famous figures in the American West. He grew up on the Missouri frontier on lands bought from the sons of frontiersman Daniel Boone. From an early age, Carson knew both the beauty and the danger that this area possessed. He and his family often feared attacks on their cabin from Native Americans.

When Carson's father, a farmer, died in 1818, Carson did his best to help out his mother, who had 10 children to raise on her own. He gave up on his education and worked the family's lands. Carson never learned to read—a fact he later tried to hide and was ashamed of.

Carson was apprenticed to a saddlemaker in Franklin, Missouri, at age 14, but he longed for freedom and adventure. In 1826, Carson fled Franklin, breaking his contract with the saddlemaker. He headed west on the Santa Fe Trail, working as a laborer in a caravan of merchants.

Western Trapper and Guide
Carson eventually learned the ins and outs of trapping in the sometimes hostile lands of the West, proving tough and durable despite his small frame. In 1829, Carson joined with Ewing Young to trap in Arizona and California. He also worked for Jim Bridger and the Hudson Bay Company at different times, as well.

Along the way, Carson learned to speak Spanish and French fluently. Often immersed in Native American lands and cultures, he also learned to communicate in several of their languages, and even married two Native American women. Unlike many other men in his profession, Carson was noted for his unassuming manner and temperate lifestyle, with one acquaintance describing him as "clean as a hound's tooth."

Joining Forces with Frémont
In 1842, Carson met explorer John C. Frémont, an officer with the United States Topographical Corps, while traveling on a steamboat. Frémont soon hired Carson to join him as a guide on his first expedition. With his many years spent in the woods, Carson was the ideal candidate to help the group make their way to the South Pass in the Rocky Mountains. Frémont's reports from the expedition, which praised Carson, helped make him one of the era's most famous mountain men. Carson also later became a popular hero in many Western novels.