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Excerpt from The Life of Col. John Charles Frémont, and His Narrative of Explorations and Adventures in Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon and California

By Samuel M. Smucker

Published in 1856

In 1842 John C. Frémont (1813–1890), known as "The Pathfinder," led an expedition between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains. In 1843 he led another from Independence, Missouri, along the Kansas River, across the Rocky Mountains, and over the Laramie Plain through South Pass. Frémont's description of the Salt Lake Valley inspired Brigham Young and his Mormon followers to settle there a decade later. Frémont's party eventually reached the Columbia River north of what he called the Great Basin. From there Frémont followed the Sierra Nevada range south into California. The expedition endured a brutal winter season before finally arriving at Sutter's ranch, a site that in 1849 would be...