CARSON, KIT

born Dec. 24, 1809, Madison County, Ky., U.S. died May 23, 1868, Ft. Lyon, Colo. byname of Christopher Carson American frontiersman, trapper, soldier, and Indian agent whose contributions to westward expansion in the United States rank him among the nation's great folk heroes. At 15 Carson ran away from his home in Missouri to join a caravan of traders bound for Santa Fe. From experienced frontiersmen he learned fur trapping and trading, a career he pursued for 15 years. A chance encounter in 1842 with the explorer John C. Frmont made Carson an active participant in the clash of empires that eventually extended the boundaries of the continental United States to its present size (Alaska excluded). He served as a guide to Frmont's government-financed explorations of the West in 1842 and 184344, and he was with him in California at the conclusion of the third expedition in 1846, when Frmont provoked the uprising generally known as the Bear Flag Revolt. En route to Washington, D.C., carrying dispatches from Frmont, Carson met Gen. Stephen W. Kearny, who pressed him into service as a guide for his command headed for California with presidential orders to take over the region for the United States. From then until the end of the war with Mexico (1848) Carson alternated fighting and guiding with dispatch-bearing to Washington, where his reputation for bravery, loyalty, and devotion to duty won for him many friends in high office. Even though he was a noted Indian fighter, his fairness and his sympathy for the plight of the Indian made him an ideal choice for his duties as Indian agent at Taos in March 1854. But by 1861 he was back in the field to serve the cause of the Union in the U.S. Civil War in the Southwest, becoming Colonel Carson of the 1st New Mexico Volunteers. He was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs for Colorado Territory in January 1868, a position he held at the time of his death. Carson's name is preserved variously throughout the Southwest, including Nevada's capital at Carson City; Ft. Carson, Colo.; and Carson Pass in California.