Kit Carson For Western Wednesday...!

It's not often we talk about a real life celebrity on Western Wednesday, but I think ol'Kit Carson would qualify.

We haven't talked about Mr. Carson before and I don't know why. Interesting fellow from what I've read. Maybe we should have looked into him long ago, ya reckon ?

Kit Carson

Christopher “Kit” Carson became a folk hero for his depictions in 19th century dime novels and newspapers, but the true story of his career is just as remarkable as the legend. Born in Kentucky in 1809, he fled a saddlemaker’s apprenticeship at age 16 and spent several years working as a fur trapper, teamster and buffalo hunter in the West. Though illiterate and small in stature, Carson was also a natural frontiersman who learned half a dozen native languages and knew the wilderness like the back of his hand. In 1842, his skills caught the attention of explorer John C. Frémont, who enlisted him as a guide for a mission to map the American West. The pair eventually teamed up on three epic excursions across the Rocky Mountains, California and Oregon, and Carson became a frontier celebrity after Frémont praised him in his expedition dispatches. His fame only grew during the Mexican-American War, when he slipped past enemy lines at the Battle of San Pasquale and made a 30-mile barefoot trek to San Diego to fetch reinforcements.

Carson went on to serve as wagon train guide and Indian agent before becoming a Union army officer during the Civil War. He battled Confederates at 1862’s Battle of Valverde in present day New Mexico, but spent the majority of the war leading a series of controversial campaigns to subdue the Navajo and other Southwestern Indian tribes. The former mountain man later died from an aneurysm in 1868, a year after being mustered out of the army as a brigadier general. His last words were supposedly, “Doctor, compadre, adios!”

The man was almost larger than life as they say. It's no wonder that he's almost a legend !

Coffee out on the patio this morning. Shouldn't be any rain until the weekend !