Читать книгу Lost Worlds of 1863. Relocation and Removal of American Indians in the Central Rockies and the Greater Southwest онлайн

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Frémont certainly earned his “pathfinder” label, even if he was often guided by more experienced mountain men like Christopher “Kit” Carson, “Uncle Dick” Wootton of Bent’s Fort fame, or the eccentric “Old Bill” Williams, or a group of Delaware Indians, Sierra Natives, and Oregon Chinooks. To enlist the services of a “Kit” Carson meant Frémont improved his chances of surviving Indian attacks, thirst, hunger, and angry mules. In 1861, during the Civil War, he showed similar wisdom as Commander of the Department of the West when he recognized the military skills of Ulysses S. Grant and assisted the latter in separating the Confederacy from its terrain west of the Mississippi. His early expeditions led to the Anglo-American discovery of Lake Tahoe, proved that the Great Basin had no outlet to the sea, and described western lands and Indians along the Oregon Trail and the Sierra Mountains. His expeditionary maps were published by the US Congress and became the “Report and Map” that guided hundreds of overland immigrants to California and Oregon, and led the Mormons to the Salt Lake Valley. He was truly the “pathfinder” of the West.⁴⁰