BOB MCCRACKEN Nye County History Advertisement

John Charles Fremont: Man of the West.

I don't have many heroes, but one of them is Colonel John Charles Fremont, variously described as the "West's greatest adventurer" and the "Pathfinder." Between 1842 and 1853 he led five expeditions across the trans-Mississippi West. Because of these expeditions, he was acclaimed a national hero. On three of his expeditions, Fremont crossed into Nye County. Thus, in a way, Fremont may be considered a founding father of Euro-American civilization in Nye County. (Of course, there were Native Americans living in what is now central Nevada at least 13,000 years before a European ever set foot in the area.)

Fremont was a man of heroic proportions, who was said to be as handsome as Lord Byron and as mysterious as Sir Richard Burton. Burton, the unmatched world traveler and scholar, it should be mentioned, crossed the north end of Smoky Valley in 1860 and as far as we know, was the first to record the name Smoky Valley.

Fremont led an incredible and full life. He began life with many disadvantages. He was born out of wedlock in 1813 in Savannah, Ga., and was raised by an impoverished widow. He studied at Charleston College in South Carolina. After a stint as a mathematics teacher, he took a position as assistant engineer with the U.S. Topographical Corps, doing surveys and making maps. In 1841, he married Jessie Benton, the vivacious 17-year-old daughter of the powerful senator from Missouri, Thomas Hart Benton.

John Charles Fremont was a quintessential can-do person. In terms of personality, he seems to have had a bullheaded streak and could be given to contrariness -- traits not unexpected given the circumstances of his early life. His main biographer said his personality was "brilliant, versatile and adventurous." In others he could arouse enthusiastic loyalty and violent antagonisms. The fact that he had long and loyal associations with some of the toughest and most respected adventurers in the West speaks volumes about who he was.

By 1830, the fur-trading business in mountains of the Far West was dying. The fur-bearing animals had been trapped to near extinction. Opinion began to develop in Washington that Americans should gain control of lands west of the Rocky Mountains. That land, it was believed, could eventually be settled. In 1842, Benton was instrumental in having Fremont, his son-in-law, lead an expedition into this vast, poorly understood area. This expedition, Fremont's first, took him into the central Rocky Mountains.

On his second expedition (1843-44), Fremont journeyed to the Columbia River Basin, then south to Southern California. From north of Los Angeles, Fremont, accompanied by frontiersmen Kit Carson and Alex Godey, followed the Spanish Trail east. They crossed into what was to become Nye County east of Tecopa, probably on the Spanish Trail about a mile south of Roland Wiley's Cathedral Canyon. From there, they crossed the Spring Mountains at Mountain Springs and then on to the Las Vegas Meadows and points east.

Fremont's third expedition took him across the heart of the Great Basin, the great inland drainage area in which Nye County lies. Fremont left Bent's Fort on the Arkansas River in August 1845 with a party of 60, including Kit Carson, Alex Godey and another frontiersman, Richard Owens. They traveled to the south shores of the Great Salt Lake and across the Salt Desert. At a tributary of the Humboldt River, Fremont split the party.

The main group followed the Humboldt, then turned south to Walker Lake. Fremont selected 10 men to accompany him and they headed south. They ended up traveling down Smoky Valley and camped at Darrough's Hot Springs. Moving down the valley they passed Round Mountain's fabulous gold deposit and probably walked over the Manhattan placer. They turned west at the south end of the Toiyabe Range and went on to rendezvous with the other members of their party at Walker Lake, then on to California.

Fremont and his companions were the first whites known to traverse the Smoky Valley. The local Indians are said to have been afraid of Fremont and his men; most remained hidden in the hills. The few who ventured near were given candy sticks, calico, beads, and food.

In Fremont's words, a day's travel involved this routine:

"The early morning began the day's work by the usual careful study of the ground ahead for indications to the best line of travel, and so soon as they were ready the hunters [who provided meat for the party] started out to the right and left, scouring the county as we advanced. When anything worthy of note was discovered, a shot was fired, or the horseman would make a few short turns back and forward as a signal that something requiring attention had been found."

In addition to making their presence known on these expeditions, the explorers collected a wealth of data on geography, climate, local animals and plants, and native people.

Fremont's fourth expedition (1848-49) took him from Bent's Fort to Santa Fe, N.M., south to Mexico, then across southern Arizona to Los Angeles, never setting foot in Nevada.

On his fifth expedition in 1853-54, Fremont and his men left Kansas City in September 1853. They were searching for an east-west railroad route across the heart of the American West.

From Bent's Fort in Colorado they journeyed to the confluence of the Colorado and Green rivers, then to Parowan, Utah. From Parowan they traveled to south of Panaca, crossed the south end of Railroad Valley in Nye County, passed between the Reveille and Belted ranges, onto the Nellis Air Force range, and camped at Stonewall Springs on the north side of Stonewall Mountain, the big mountain that lies on the east side of Highway 95, at about the Lida Junction, south of Goldfield. Fremont's fifth expedition had no impact on the selection of a route for a transcontinental railroad.

Fremont was chosen as California's first senator in 1849. In 1856 he stood as the Republican Party's first candidate for president of the United States. Although Fremont attained unusual fame and notoriety during his lifetime, both he and his beloved wife died in near poverty.

This true "man of the West," lying on his deathbed in New York City, on July 13, 1890, told his doctor, "If I continue as free from pain, I can go home next week."

Leaning over, the doctor asked the great man which home he meant. Fremont replied, "California, of course." Those were his last words.