Legends of the Old West - KIT CARSON Ep. 1 | “Mountain Man”

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

Christopher “Kit” Carson is born in Kentucky, grows up in Missouri, and then heads west in search of adventure. He becomes a Mountain Man in the early years of exploration of the West. He marries and begins a family, and then has a fateful meeting with the man who will change his life in more ways than one: John C. Fremont. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Noiser+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are a handful of people from the Old West who can truly be called legends. They became household names, and their exploits were central to the story of the American West. household names, and their exploits were central to the story of the American West. Their adventures were chronicled in newspapers, magazines, and dime novels during their lifetimes. In more recent times, they're the subjects of movies and TV shows. Some were outlaws, some were lawmen, some were showmen, and some were trailblazers. Christopher Kit Carson fit into that last category. From hunter and famed explorer to distinguished brigadier general, from Indian fighter to Indian agent and peacemaker,

Kit Carson was a seemingly ordinary man who became a national icon. Born in the early days of the 1800s into a large family on the frontier, Kit grew up near Native American tribes who had always lived in the area and who saw their ancestral lands taken over by white settlers. It wasn't always a peaceful coexistence. When teenage Kit Carson moved west, he already knew a great deal about how to defend himself and survive in a dangerous world, certainly more than many others who would take on the challenge of the unknown territory west of the Mississippi River. However, Kitt had a lot more to learn, and he was an avid pupil of both the mountain men and Native American tribes in the west.

Kitt grew and adapted. He became an expert scout and guide, which brought him to the attention of men like Charles Bent, John C. Fremont, and eventually the United States Army. The young man became well-known and trusted, and the door opened to a national reputation even though Kitt himself was unaware of his fame. The soft-spoken, shy man was considered the action hero of his day, with dime novels titled Kit Carson to the Rescue. And as his reputation in the West grew, his greatest challenge came from his association with Native American tribes. As a frontiersman of the West, he knew many tribes and was friends with most, but followed orders when required. His name would be forever linked to the darkest chapter of the Navajo story,

and then a historic battle against the Kiowa and Comanche in Texas. Kit Carson was one of a handful of legends who bridged the gap between the mountain man era of rugged explorers and the true Old West era of swaggering cowboys, lawmen, and outlaws. lawmen and outlaws. From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the story of one of the original legends of the American West, famed frontiersman and explorer, Kit Carson. This is Episode 1, Mountain Man. At dawn on a frosty October morning, six-year-old Kit Carson was snuggled up in his blankets

along with his brothers and sisters. He started awake when the blood-curdling screams of Indians attacking their cabin resounded through the log walls. Soon, gunshots boomed, fired by his father through the openings in the logs. It wasn't the first time. The settlers in Boone's Lick lived in a manner they termed forted up. That meant being constantly on guard against attack. Boone's Lick was right in the center of an area that would become the state of Missouri. It was founded by legendary frontiersman Daniel Boone, and his family and the Carson family intermarried and were a large part of the settlement. Kitt's father and the other men

often ventured out in pursuit of the raiding parties who stole supplies, livestock, and occasionally people. Kit's father, Lindsey, had two of his fingers shot off in pursuit of a raiding party who captured a teenage girl. Kit was only four years old at the time. A month later, the families at Boone's Lick were back to trading peacefully with the tribes, and the white and Indian children played ball together. Kit learned early on that relationships with Native American societies were complex and ever-changing. Kit's schooling ended when he was eight.

Lindsey Carson was killed when a tree limb fell on him. Kit was needed to help keep the farm running and hunt meat to feed the family. As Kit stated years later, I jumped to my rifle and threw down my spelling book, and there it lies. He remained illiterate his entire life. His mother remarried four years later, and he didn't get on well with his new stepfather. mother remarried four years later, and he didn't get on well with his new stepfather. To keep peace in her household, his mother apprenticed him to a saddler named David Workman in Franklin, Missouri. Young Kit despised the work, but in Franklin, he was exposed to a wider world than that of

Boone's Lick. Mountain men, pioneers, and adventurers moved through town on their way west to the Santa Fe Trail. Lewis and Clark's expedition had returned less than 20 years before. The saga of their expedition had inflamed the imagination and ambitions of the whole country. Kitt, now 16, was no exception, especially when he was facing a dreary future stitching saddles and tack. He signed on with a merchant caravan headed for Santa Fe, without telling his employer, David Workman. Kit had the lowliest job, but he had to start somewhere. He was a cavvy boy, the one who took care of the horses, mules, and oxen.

Workman put an ad in a local newspaper announcing their runaway apprentice. He didn't seem too broken up about the loss of his employee because he only offered a one-cent reward for Kit's return. When the caravan arrived in Santa Fe, Kit apparently wasn't impressed with the place. Within days, he rode off to Taos, 70 miles north. He liked that town much better. Mostly inhabited by old Spanish and Mexican families and close to the Indian pueblos, it was a pretty town at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. It was also the gathering place and sometimes the wintering place for the fur traders and mountain men. Kit was fascinated with these men, but he knew he had

a lot to learn before they'd adopt him into the brotherhood. During Kit's first winter in Taos, he was taken in by a man named Matthew Kinkede, an old friend of Kit's father's. Kit got his first lessons in how to live in the mountain west. He learned how to hunt a buffalo, how to sew his clothes from the tanned hides, how to make pimecan and jerky the essential trail foods. He also learned Spanish and a smattering of Native American dialects and languages, including sign language. His first trail job was as a cook for trapper Ewing Young. Kit learned the secret to trail cooking was meat and lots of it. Next, he went with a caravan to Chihuahua City in Mexico, where his knowledge of Spanish paid off. Finally, after more odd jobs, he signed on with Ewing Young again, but this time for his first trapping expedition.

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men who were a mix of European and Native American ethnicities. The group had its own language, a patchwork mixture of English, French, and Indian words. The work itself was hazardous and unforgiving. The fur of first choice was beaver, not the easiest animal to track and kill in the icy waters and fast-moving streams. There were the hazards of other animals, bears, wolves, and cougars, and the constant life-threatening element, the weather.

Deafening thunderstorms, torrential rains, and blizzards could trap and kill a man easier than he could trap and kill an animal. But the deadliest hazards were the war parties. Their aggressiveness toward the trappers varied from tribe to tribe and sometimes season to season. Alliances were formed and then dissolved, and then reformed and then forgotten. There were marriages among the mountain men and Native American women, some just for the season and some more long-lasting. Most mountain men adopted many aspects of Native American culture, the style of dress,

in buckskins and furs, the food, the style of hunting, and even warfare. They lived in teepees, building their fires and homes in the Indian manner, and many lived with their Indian wives and children within the tribe. It is said no other group interacted with the tribes of the United States as this one did. They were connected with each other and learned to respect each other, at least up to a point. Certainly, there were battles and fights, but there were also plenty of mountain men who learned to communicate, negotiate, and live with the tribes. Every year, most all attended the Rendezvous, an annual gathering that was famous for its no-holds-barred

activities. For days, stories and tall tales were told. Dancing lasted throughout the night, liquor flowed like water, and gambling was a staple. Kit Carson learned how to survive and thrive in this environment. He was soon not just familiar with his Hawken rifle, but an expert, as Kit had been a crack shot since childhood. He acquired a set of skinning knives, was quick on his feet, developed a nose for direction, and an eye for tracking that was the beginning of his future as a famous scout. He was a sturdy young man of just five feet, five inches tall, soft-spoken and soft-footed, with bright blue eyes that didn't miss much,

even if he didn't always have much to say. He was honest, reliable, and trustworthy, and earned the respect of everyone he came in contact with. Ewing Young's expedition began well. They left Taos and drifted west through the northern part of a territory that would one day be New Mexico. Over a series of weeks, they worked their way west into the canyon land and timberland in the central part of what would eventually be Arizona. Mexico would continue to claim the territory for another 25 years or so, until the

end of the Mexican-American War. But regardless of Mexico's claim, that land was the domain of the Zuni and the Apache. That land was totally unspoiled by any kind of industry. It was full of trees and streams and small rivers. And Ewing Young knew it was perfect for Beaver. His expedition wanted to slip in and out without catching the attention of the local bands of the Apache. For a while, they were successful, but one morning, while they worked along a river, a small group of Apache approached their campground. As expected, the Apache were not happy about white trappers killing animals

in lands they considered to be their hunting grounds. Some of the trappers saw the Apache coming and concealed themselves under blankets or saddles, sensing this situation could be ripe for trouble. Within minutes, the Apache turned aggressive, and many more appeared behind the first group. The trappers threw off their blankets, jumped up from their hiding places, and pulled out knives and rifles. A fight erupted, Kit Carson's first hostile confrontation, and he grabbed his rifle like everyone else. He opened fire and shot and killed an Apache warrior. When it was over and

the Apache fled, some say Kit scalped his fallen foe in the manner of most of his colleagues and the tribes they learned it from. That was in 1828, and Kit Carson was 19 years old. For the next 12 years, Kit Carson embraced the lifestyle of a mountain man and drifted up into the northern Rockies. He became an expert at his choice of work, just as he had done with a rifle. He became an expert at his choice of work, just as he had done with a rifle. He trapped, explored, tracked, and survived in situations in which most people would never attempt. Sometimes the land he strode through had never before seen a boot print. His steps may very well have been the first.

He came to know the different tribes, from Arapaho to Ute, the Apache to Cheyenne, and many others. Kit Carson also came to know that there were two tribes you didn't want to cross paths with, the Blackfeet and the Comanche. Mountain men gave them a wide berth, and only those who were desperate or ignorant ventured into their lands, especially if they had survived their first mistake. Kit Carson had made that mistake. His luck held and he survived, but not without leaving a scar. He suffered a shoulder wound during a nasty battle with the Blackfeet while he was on an ill-advised expedition. It was six years after his first fight with the Apache and he nearly died. But as the saying goes, what doesn't kill you makes you

stronger. Kit was now 25 years old and an experienced mountain man who would take great pains to never repeat that error. Though at the next rendezvous, he came very close to dying again. Once a year, in the high mountain valleys in the future states of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, in the general vicinity of an area that would become Yellowstone National Park 50 years later, mountain men, trappers, and members of various Native American tribes joined together for a huge celebration. It was called a rendezvous, and it lasted for several days, or at least until the liquor ran out. During the day, it was a giant trade fair. At night, it was a giant party.

Liquor flowed abundantly, huge bonfires roared to life, the music of fiddles and drums echoed through the night, and romance blossomed. It was common for mountain men to marry Native American women. romance blossomed. It was common for mountain men to marry Native American women. Dancing was always on the menu, and one night during a dance where women chose their partners, a beautiful young Arapaho woman named Singing Grass chose Kit Carson. That angered a French-Canadian trapper named Jacques Chignard, who had a bad reputation and was wildly smitten with singing grass. Jacques was a big man with an equally big mouth. Over the next few days, he drank heavily and ranged throughout the camp's insulting Kit Carson, Americans, and singing grass. Some say he attempted to force himself on her.

Carson grew weary of Jacques' behavior and told him so. Both men hurried to their respective camps to get weapons. They jumped on their horses and turned their quarrel into an updated version of a medieval joust. Kit and Jacques galloped into the main gathering space at a breakneck pace and fired at each other as they charged. Jacques' horse jigged as his gun went off, and the shot that could have killed Kit Carson grazed Kit's cheek and took off a small piece of his ear. Kit's shot hit Jacques in the hand and severed his thumb. Kit went to shoot him again, but Jacques begged for his life, and Kit walked away, satisfied the bully had learned his lesson. and Kit walked away, satisfied the bully had learned his lesson. After that, Singing Grass and Kit Carson's relationship intensified.

As the rendezvous ended, they made promises about the future. A year later, they were together again, and married in an Arapaho ceremony with the blessing of her family. The couple began their lives together, and for the next few years, they ranged all over the West. They remained devoted to each other, and Singing Grass was always at Carson's side. It wasn't lost on Kit's friends and associates that his buckskin clothes were now better quality and looked nicer than they had in the past. Kit and Singing Grass had a daughter, Adeline, whom they named after Kit's favorite niece. For two years, they were a happy family. But when a second pregnancy happened,

it ended in the painful way that many ended in the West. Singing Grass gave birth to another daughter, but the birth was difficult. Singing Grass died shortly afterward, and Kit was left alone, mourning his first love and raising two small children. Without Singing Grass, life wasn't the same, and trapping was dying out as a viable income. The beaver had become scarce, and the market for the furs was waning as an economic depression gripped the other side of the Mississippi River. Smallpox epidemics raged among the tribes. Carson's old enemies, the Blackfeet, were hit

particularly hard. Large villages emptied out, and wolves scavenged the camps. The time had come for a major change in Kit Carson's life. He turned his eyes back to the south, toward the area where he had first established himself when he moved west. At that time, he had taken the Santa Fe Trail to Santa Fe and then Taos. Now, he looked a little farther north. He wanted a secure place for his children among old friends, and one place in particular stood out. Kit packed up his household and his daughters and headed for Bent's Fort. Bent's Fort resembled an Arabian desert stronghold. It was a fortress with adobe walls that rose up from the bluffs above the Arkansas River in what is today the southeastern corner of Colorado. It was a beacon for travelers from all directions,

and it became the only permanent trading establishment in the region that was not owned by Native American tribes or the Mexican government. Bent's Fort was a major stopping point on the Santa Fe Trail. Bent's Fort was a major stopping point on the Santa Fe Trail. Charles Bent, his brother William, and Sir Ron St. Vrain came together in 1833 to construct a square fort with three-foot-thick adobe walls. It had watchtowers on all four corners that housed cannons. The three men ran a trading company out of the fort with a focus on buffalo hides that were brought in by the Cheyenne and Arapaho. As the company and the settlement expanded,

Bent's Fort became a full-blown trading post for all manner of goods. It was a meeting place for mountain men, trackers, and settlers, and scarcely a person who traveled west hadn't entered it. and scarcely a person who traveled west hadn't entered it. It was to this oasis that Kit Carson took his children in 1840. He was welcomed by old friends and made new ones, and found a haven when he needed one. Women who could help him with the little girls were available, and for Kit himself, the owners of the fort offered him a job. Kit became the hunter for the fort,

supplying meat from buffalo and other wild game, all plentiful in the area. As time went on, Kit established relationships with a few different women, but nothing that was long-lasting. Then he met a Cheyenne woman named Making Out Road. She was in great demand among the men who lived and traveled through Bent's Fort, but she was drawn to Kit Carson and he to her. He needed a mother for his daughters, and so they married. Even though Kit knew her reputation for a fiery temper, among other things, he was enthralled. For a time. Making out Rhodes soon made it clear she wanted nothing to do with raising his half-Arapaho children. The fights between the couple resounded through the evenings. After a few months, Kit returned

home to find his belongings thrown out of their teepee. They divorced, to everyone's relief and probably his too. Making out road moved on to a succession of other men. Kit, for his part, did the same, taking up with one woman after another. Eventually, he met Charles Bent's sister-in-law, a lovely Mexican woman named Josefa Yamarillo. She came from an old and distinguished Taos family. They got engaged and embarked on a proper courtship. Meanwhile, Carson's children were growing. Adeline was four and running wild around the fort with all the other children. She was a feral little thing, dressed in furs and buckskin, and Kit began to worry about how she and her sister would fit into the world. He decided,

before he and Josefa married, he would take Adeline back east to his family to be raised more in the way that he was. She would go to school and get an education that he couldn't provide on the frontier. He left his younger daughter in the care of the Bent family at the fort and set off with Adeline on a caravan to St. Louis. Along the way, Kit realized that life in white society would be a huge transition for Adeline. On a stop in Kansas, he took her shopping for new clothes. They arrived in Franklin, Missouri, a place that was still considered the western frontier by lots of people on the east coast, and were welcomed into the Carson family. Kit left Adeline in the care of a niece who had a prosperous farm near a good school and felt satisfied she would

be in good hands. On his way back to Bent's Fort, Carson booked passage on a steamboat on the Missouri River. On the boat, one of those fateful meetings happened that seemed to be sprinkled throughout the Old West. Like Wild Bill Hickok meeting a young William Cody on a wagon train, or Wyatt Earp meeting Doc Holliday in a rough-and-tumble town in Texas. On the steamboat, Kit Carson met John C. Fremont, and no two men would be more responsible for opening the gateway to California than them. One evening, while Kit strolled the deck, he bumped into Fremont. They struck up a conversation, and Fremont said he was heading west with an expedition

to find a better northern route to the coast than the perilous Oregon Trail. Fremont intended to go to South Pass and see for himself. Carson told Fremont he had spent considerable time in the mountains and offered to guide them. Fremont asked around about Carson and heard nothing but high praise for Carson's skills and reputation. Kit Carson was hired as the guide for John C. Fremont's first expedition. Fremont was a unique individual. He came from an impoverished but distinguished Southern family. He had a rebellious streak and was thrown out of college, but charmed his way into the U.S. topographical core. He had a passion for exploring uncharted territory, and he came to the notice of Senator

Thomas Hart Benton, who saw that Fremont was the perfect tool to pursue his passion of what would be called Manifest Destiny. Benton wanted to join the United States from sea to shining sea, and Fremont, and now Carson, would help him do it. Fremont had married the Senator's daughter, and the Senator was instrumental in securing the funding for Fremont's first expedition to South Pass. The mission was to explore the first half of the Oregon Trail, the northwest route to the Pacific Coast. While South Pass in southern Wyoming had been discovered years earlier by trappers, the trail was considered extremely hazardous for travelers and few attempted it.

The pass was a 20-mile gap in the Rocky Mountains that was used to cross the Continental Divide from Wyoming to Idaho and Utah. The route allowed for wagon travel, but Fremont needed to determine if it provided water and which Native American tribes occupied which lands in the area and what detours might be needed. Kit Carson knew the trail as well as anyone, maybe better, and Fremont knew it. Their coincidental meeting produced an extraordinary partnership. They were a good fit. Fremont's natural impulsiveness was tempered by Carson's steadiness and common sense. The expedition of 25 men left Missouri in July 1842, first running on the

Kansas River and then the Platte. They took the Green River to South Pass. Everything went shockingly well. No injuries, sickness, or accidents befell the group, and the weather was fine. There were a few Native American sightings, and at one point a large group made everyone nervous for a few days, but the expedition was allowed to continue without being attacked. Fremont was delighted with the five-month trip to South Pass and back, and his report of the expedition was printed in newspapers all over the country. Overnight, or what qualified as overnight in those days, the United States became enthralled with the possibilities.

Fremont made the trek sound like it was through the Garden of Eden, with carpets of wildflowers and beautiful scenery, and much more passable than had been previously assumed. No encounters with hostile natives or bad weather were reported, because for them, there hadn't been. Soon, wagonloads of immigrants set off for the West using Fremont's report, having no idea of the dangers that awaited them. For Fremont, more expeditions awaited him. The second would go farther than the first, and the third would be the one for the history books, in more ways than one. than the first, and the third would be the one for the history books, in more ways than one. Fremont would lead, Carson would guide, and together they would unexpectedly find themselves in the revolt that led California to joining the Union.

Next time on Legends of the Old West, Kit Carson does a legendary amount of traveling. He guides Fremont's expeditions across uncharted miles of the West. He becomes embroiled in the political and military conflict in California and battles Native American war parties. He travels across the country to Washington, D.C. and back, and then gets conscripted into yet another military expedition. All that is next week on Legends of the Old West. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week to receive new episodes.

They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials, and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships begin at just $5 per month. This series was researched and written by Kathleen Morris. Original music by Rob Valliere.

I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Check out our website, blackbarrelmedia.com, for more details and join us on social media. We're at Old West Podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And all of our episodes are on YouTube. Just search for Legends of the Old West Podcast. Thanks for listening.