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| Replica of Fremont/Carson inscription |
Exploration is a quintessentially human activity. The questions "What is over the next hill? Across that lake? Down that river?" have driven us to inhabit every continent save for Antarctica. With each trip across a continent, more and more information was collected about the people, geography, geology and biology of the region. The best known of these explorations of the United States is the May 1804-September 1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition.
While each of these expeditions is recorded in diaries, maps, drawings, field notes and specimens collected, few of these expeditions left any direct evidence of their travels. The desire to say "I was here" is another unique behavior of humans. We leave memorial markers for those that die, write our names on places that we have visited. We have placed markers even on space probes to let unknown others know that we exist (I still say that is a bad idea). In Rock Creek Station State Historical Park near Fairbury, NE there is a monument to the lost signatures of two of the United States' best-known explorers: John Frémont and Kit Carson.
John Frémont
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| John Fremont as a young man |
John C. Frémont, born in 1813, was the illegitimate son of
Louis Rene Frémon and Mrs. Ann Whiting Pryor.
Despite the social hindrance of illegitimacy and his father's early
death (1818), Frémont proved to be a dashing, charismatic figure and was able
to secure support from a number of individuals.
John attended the College of Charleston from 1829-1831, but attendance
at class was not his strong suite. He
did show interest in mathematics and natural sciences, which enabled him to
gain a job teaching mathematics on the USS Natchez. In 1838, he gained a commission as a second
lieutenant in the US Army Corps of Topographical Engineers. In 1838-1839,
Frémont participated in expeditions mapping the area between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers with Joseph Nicollet.
By 1841, Frémont had caught the fancy of Jessie Benton, who happened to be the daughter of Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton. Sen. Benton is best known as a proponent of Manifest Destiny, the idea that the United States should own, control and inhabit the entire North American continent. Benton pushed through plans to have surveys performed of the Oregon Trail, Oregon country, the Great Basin, and the area from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to California and secured the leadership of each of these expeditions to his son-in-law. This earned John C. Frémont the nickname of "The Pathfinder". He would later ride this fame to a nomination for the presidency, promotion to major general and command of the Department of the West during the Civil War.
1842 Expedition
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| Post Office built of native sandstone near Rock (Wyeth) Creek |
Colonel Frémont's 1842 expedition began from St. Louis, Missouri with total party of 25, mostly composed of Creole/French voyageur's that were familiar with the terrain and used to the privations of long journeys. He engaged Christopher "Kit" Carson as the scout for the expedition, since Carson was familiar with the area. The expedition traveled from St. Louis and gathered at Cyprian Choteau's house on the Kansas River, departing there on 10 June 1842. They traveled to the Santa Fe Trail, then proceeded through what is now Lawrence and Topeka, KS. Upon reaching the Big Blue River, they turned north. On 22 June, the expedition reached Wyeth (now Rock) Creek, where boulders of ferruginous (red-orange) sandstone were in the creek below bluff of sandstone.
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| Oregon Trail wagon swale by Rock Creek |
From here the expedition traveled up the Little Blue River to the Platte River. Frémont split his party in two, sent one part up the North Fork of the Platte and he went with a group along the South Fork of the Platte River. The expedition reunited at Fort Laramie and mapped the Oregon Trail through South Pass, the most commonly used path through the continental divide by traders and emigrants. This pass had been used by Euro-Americans as early as 1812 and rediscovered independently several times over the years. Frémont returned to St. Louis using the Platte River as a travel route.
The Marker
While stopped along Wyeth Creek, Kit Carson and Col. Frémont inscribed their names into the soft sandstone of the bluff. This site became well known to Jefferson County, NE residents and was located about one-half mile from Rock Creek Station in an area known as Quivera Park. The inscription remained until the 1970s when high water rushing down the creekbed undercut the bluff and the inscribed rock broke free and was lost. In 1940, the Daughters of the American Revolution had already placed a marker with a replica of the inscriptions made using photographs near the site of the inscription. The marker is mounted on Sioux Quartzite, brought by glaciers to Nebraska from Minnesota during the Great Ice Age.
Getting There
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| Gen. John Fremont - Matthew Brady Photo c.1862 |
From US-77, turn west onto NE-8. From NE-8, turn north onto 573rd Ave, then east onto 710th Rd, then follow the signs to Rock Creek Station State Historical Park. There is an entry fee ($5 daily entry or $25 yearly sticker for all Nebraska State Parks) for the park and admission to the museum on grounds.
Waypoint: Latitude: 40.113760 N; Longitude: 97.060900 W
Street Address: 57426 710th Road, Fairbury, NE 68352
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| Kit Carson c. 1860 |
Further Reading
The Great Pathfinder: 1842
1842 Expedition Notes dictated by Fremont
Fremont's Expeditions of the American West
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