42 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



"HALL OF FAME" FOR TREES 



From the original report published in 1845 is reproduced 

 a picture of the spot of the location of the Kit Carson 

 Tree, nominated for a place in the Hall of Fame by F. N. 

 Fletcher, of Carson City, Nevada. This sketch was made 

 by Mr. Preuss, the artist who accompanied the Fremont 

 expedition. 



The Kit Carson Tree is at the summit of the Carson 

 Pass over the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Alpine County, 

 California. On this tree Kit Carson, famous hunter, guide 

 and Indian fighter, cut his name on February 20, 1844. He 

 zvas then guide and hunter for Colonel Fremont, who was 

 engaged in the desperate endeavor of crossing the Sierra 

 Mountains in the dead of winter in order to reach Sutter's 

 Fort on the Sacramento River. The Fremont Expedition 

 had left Kansas City in May, 1843, and had reached tide- 



searching for the mythical river of which the Indians had 

 told the Spaniards two hundred years before. Striking the 

 cast fork of the Walker, which he two years later named 

 for Joseph Walker, he followed it up to its headwaters 

 and then crossing the divide to the ivest he came to the 

 tt'est fork of the same stream which he followed down for 

 several days, thus in a measure doubling back on his course. 

 Finding no west-flowing stream and being nearly destitute 

 of supplies he turned directly west across the southern end 

 of Carson Valley and essayed the well-nigh impossible task 

 of crossing the snow-covered Sierras in winter. On Febru- 

 ary 20 the expedition came to the summit of the mountains 

 at a point about sixteen miles south of Lake Tahoe. On 

 one side of this pass they found that the waters flowed to 

 the east, and on the other to the west. Leaving his party 





*V 





LOCATION OF THE FAMOUS KIT CARSON TREK 



water 0:1 the Columbia River in November. After securing 

 supplies from the Hudson's Bay Company at old Fort 

 Vancouver Fremont set out on his return to the States, 

 but he left the Columbia and went up the Falls, or Deschutes 

 River, in order to cross the Great Basin and locate, 

 as he says, "the reputed Bueneventura River, which has 

 had a place on so many maps, and countenances the belief 

 of the existence of a great river ftoiving from the Rocky 

 Mountains to the Bay of San Francisco." This river had 

 been proven a myth by Jedediah Smith in 1827, and by 

 Joseph Walker in 1833, as Fremont should have known. 

 The desert country into which the expedition fell after 

 leaving the Deschutes River and the mountains, seemed to 

 render hopeless the route to the States at that season of 

 the year, so the leader thonged his objective to California, 

 by way of the Bueneventura if he could find it. Coming 

 down to Pyramid Lake in Nevada, which he named, he 

 skirted the Sierra Mountains along their eastern foothills 



in charge of Carson, Fremont with one man had pushed 

 ahead to reconnoitre and had satisfied himself that he had 

 "struck the stream on which Mr. Sutter lived." Incident- 

 ally he had discovered Lake Tahoe, "a beautiful view of a 

 mountain lake at our feet." Returning to his party he 

 found it occupied in making a road {for the horses) and 

 bringing up the baggage; and "on the afternoon of the next 

 day, February 20, 1844, we encamped with the animals and 

 all the material of the camp, on the summit of the Pass in 

 the dividing ridge, 1000 milts by our travelled road from 

 the Dalles of the Columbia." Some years later a pine tree 

 groiving at the pass was found bearing the inscription: 

 "Kit Carson, 1844." In order to preserve it from decay and 

 possible vandalism, the tree was cut down in 1888 by William 

 Thornburgh and J. F. O'Gorman and the section bearing 

 the name was sent to Sutter's Fort, where among other 

 interesting historic relics it may now be seen. Another 



