John Charles Fremont (1813-1890) is a famous and infamous figure in the 19th century. He was a major general for the Union Army during the Civil War, served as a U.S. senator from California, and led expeditions throughout the Western territories.

His explorations in Colorado still intrigue us. Fremont led three Rocky Mountain expeditions in 1845, 1848 and 1853. In 1845 his Army Corps of Engineers team surveyed and mapped the headwaters of the Arkansas River near Leadville. He returned to the region three years later with a contract from the railroad to find the best year-round route from St. Louis to California.

In late fall of 1848, Fremont led a group of 34 men from Bent’s Fort through the San Luis Valley. He decided they should push westward into the San Juan Mountains. On Christmas Day in 1848, Fremont and his men in deep snow just below timberline near the headwaters of the Rio Grande River in the La Garita Mountains.

All 120 of their mules had died stuck in deep snow, and most of their supplies were gone. Fremont knew he needed to do something to rescue his men, and he decided to send a small group of four men, led by Henry King, south to New Mexico. They left the expedition on Dec. 26 with orders to send a rescue party for the remainder of the team.

Sixteen days passed with no word from the original group, Fremont decided to lead another rescue squad to look for the four men sent out earlier. On Jan. 17, 1849, Fremont found the original group in the southern San Juan Valley. His journal describes the men as “wild and emaciated.” There were only three of the original group of four. When asked where King was, the group pointed to another camp “a little way off.” Fremont found King’s body “horribly devoured.”

Fremont led both “rescue parties” on to Taos. The U.S. Army officials sent men, horses and provisions back up into the mountains while Fremont stayed with his friend, Kit Carson, in Taos. Thirteen men died during the expedition. Ten men died of starvation, two were killed in skirmishes with the Utes and one was “eaten” by his companions.

On his final Colorado expedition in 1853, Fremont had another contract to find a year-round railroad route through the Rockies. His party again entered the San Luis Valley in December and crossed the Continental Divide at Cochetopa Pass. For this expedition, they had more provisions and supplies and followed routes in lower elevations. They made it all the way to San Francisco.

Fremont believed not only that a railroad route was possible following the 38th parallel, but that it would be passable during the winter, since his expedition had done it. This was not the outcome, however. The transcontinental railroad went through South Pass in southern Wyoming, a far easier route, instead of further south.

Stuart R. Bryan spent 20 years researching Fremont’s Colorado expeditions. One of his books, “Fremont’s Fatal Fourth Expedition,” includes a detailed trail guide of the 390-mile route including campsites and GPS locations.

Bryan wrote that cannibalism was a volatile issue in the mid-19th century.

The country had recently learned of the Donner party and its grisly fate in the California mountains in the winter of 1846.

In one of history’s ironies, Fremont and Kit Carson had successfully crossed what was to become Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 1844.

There is much more to Fremont’s checkered history. He was court-martialed and found guilty of defying General Philip Kearney’s orders in the Mexican American War. President James Polk commuted his sentence and recommissioned him.

In August 1861, Major General Fremont declared martial law in Missouri and “freed their slaves.” President Lincoln “booted” him out of the Army again two weeks later.

Fremont was buried in Rockland, New York. His headstone reads “General John Charles Fremont: Explorer, Pathmarker, Mapper of the Oregon Trail.” There was no room on the headstone for the rest of the story.

Sources include coloradoencyclopedia.org, nps.gov, gjsentinel.com, taoscountyhistoricalsocietyorg, pueblochieftan.com, explorersweb.com, and museumtrail.org.

Carolyn Snowbarger is a retired educator. After teaching middle schoolers in Olathe, Kansas, for 28 years, she and her husband Vince moved to Washington, D.C. She directed the Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative at the U.S. Department of Education and then managed continuing education programs for the American Institute of Architects. The Snowbargers moved to Ridgway in 2013 after decades of San Juan family vacations.