Kit Carson Quotes (1809-1868)

“From California we have intelligence to the 16th of September. The State election, which took plum on the 7th, resulted in the complete triumph of the Democratic ticket.—Governor Bigler was re-elected by a majority of about a thousand, and the Legislature is largely Democratic in both branches. Lieut Beale, concerning whose safety some fears had begun to be entertained, arrived at Los Angeles on the 27th of August, having made the entire trip from Westport Mo., in about fifty days. He reports the route traveled entirely practicable for a railroad, and in many parts abounding in wood and water. The party met with no hostility from the Indians. It is announced that the Indian difficulties on the Rogue River have ceased. Several duels, murders, and robberies are reported, but none of them present any remarkable features. The celebrated Kit Carson had reached California, with over nine thousand sheep from across the Plains. The miners were doing well, and fresh discoveries of gold in different parts of the State continued to be announced.”

“While at Taos, I saw for the first time and made acquaintance of Kit Carson, the celebrated mountaineer. I was standing in front of Major Blake's quarters, when I saw a small-sized, modest-looking person approaching who, I was told, was the famous mountain-man of whom I had heard so much. He is about five feet eight inches in height, rather heavy set, and a little bow-legged; he is a mild, pleasant man in conversation, with a voice almost as soft as that of a woman. He has brown eyes and dark hair, with a face somewhat hard-featured from long exposure among the mountains. He was dressed plainly, and his whole personal appearance was entirely different from what I had imagined this celebrated trapper and hunter. There is nothing like a fire-eater in his manners, but, to the contrary, in all his actions he is quiet and unassuming. His has been a romantic, roving life, and his personal history embraces as much of wild adventure and hair-breadth escapes as that of any man in the Union. He has been fairly cradled among the Rocky Mountains and upon the desert plains that lie in the heart of the American continent, and is familiar with the fastnesses of the one and the trackless pathways of the other. He has endured all imaginable hardships with a steady perseverance and unflinching courage. A history of his adventures would make one of the most interesting volumes ever presented to the public.”

“Sir: We, the undersigned citizens of the Territory of New Mexico, have been acquainted with Mr. Christopher Carson for a number of years, indeed almost from the time of his first arrival in the country. We have been his companions both in the mountains and as a private citizen. We are also acquainted with the fact that for the past few months, during his leisure hours, he has been engaged dictating his life. This is, to our certain knowledge, the only authentic biography of himself and his travels that has ever been written. We heartily recommend this book to the reading community for perusal, as it presents a life out of the usual routine of business, and is checkered with adventures which have tried this bold and daring man. We are cognizant of most of the details of the book, and vouch for their accuracy.”

“In olden times there existed, in the Rocky Mountains, a race familiarly known by the name of "Trappers and Hunters." They are now almost extinct. Their history has not yet been written. Pen paintings, drawn from the imagination, founded upon distant views of their exploits and adventures, have occasionally served, as do legends, to "adorn a tale." The volume now offered to the public, gives their history as related by one whose name as a trapper and hunter of the" Far West," stands second to none; by a man, who for fifteen years, saw not the face of a white woman, or slept under a roof; who, during those long years, with his rifle alone, killed over two thousand buffalo, between four and five thousand deer, antelope, and elk, besides wild game, such as bears, wild turkeys, prairie chickens, etc., etc. in numbers beyond calculation. On account of their originality, daring, and interest, the real facts, concerning this race of trappers and hunters, will be handed down to posterity as matters belonging to history.”

“In New Mexico there are about half a dozen castes... The common people are incredibly poor. If a late peon, now free, has a dollar, he neither labors nor thinks till it is gone. Twenty-five cents of it buys flour, twenty-five goes for dulces [sweets] for the señora, another twenty-five pays for absolution, and the rest buys a lottery ticket. No matter if his ticket draw a blank a hundred times in succession: "maybe some time I win," is to him sufficient answer. A few families own all the wealth of the country. Even they have their wealth mostly in flocks and herds, and immense as it is, it brings them but few of the luxuries of life. If this Territory is admitted now as a State, it ought to be called the State of Pobritta ("Little Poverty.") Each of these wealthy families has from a hundred to two thousand dependents, some of whom were their peons before that system was abolished, and continue to yield obedience by nature and habit. If a State, this would be a most complete "rotten borough"—the worst "carpet bag" State in the Union. Fifteen families with ease would rule it—the Chaves, Gallegos, Delgados, Señas, Garcias, Pereas, Oteros, Quintañas, and a few others. These families have three-fourths of the wealth of the Territory and all the influence. The poor Mexicans do any thing they are told... These families, in combination with half a dozen priests, and a dozen or more Americans, would divide the home offices between them, and send whomsoever they pleased to Congress. It is usually the aim of speculative Americans to "stand in" with one of the noble families. But many of our people have disdained such sycophancy, and yet won for themselves an honorable place in New Mexican annals. Chief among these was the noted Kit Carson, scout, trapper, and hunter; then guide to Fremont, and afterwards Federal colonel, and last of all Indian Agent for the Utes, in which capacity he died at his home in Taos.”

“The valley of Taos, with its two great Pueblos, the old town of Fernando de Taos and the still more ancient settlement known as Ranchos de Taos, is one of the most fascinating and historical points in the entire West. Taos was for many years following the American occupation, the chief political storm-center of the Territory. The presence there of such men as Charles Bent, the first Governor (whose death in the revolution of 1847 is among the first events officially recorded in the county) Colonel Christopher ("Kit") Carson, the famous scout and guide; Colonel Cerean St. Vrain, the well known merchant; "Don Carlos" Beaubien, one of the original proprietors of the notorious Maxwell land grant and first Chief Justice of New Mexico; Father Martinez, demagogue, traitor, conspirator against peace and as great a rascal as ever remained unhung in New Mexico, whether viewed from a political or moral standpoint—such as these gave the community a position in Territorial affairs equal to that of Santa Fé, the capital. The halo of romance and the glamour of tragedy with which it became invested in the early days, though somewhat dimmed during the more peaceful years that have followed, still surround the name of Taos, and always will.”

“Kit Carson first came from Missouri to Santa Fé in 1826; afterwards going to Taos, where he studied Spanish with [Mathew] Kinkead, and through all the travels and vicissitudes of his after life, retained that as his home.”

“On the 25th day of September, 1846, General Kearny, after leaving instructions for Colonel Doniphan to continue with his division on to Chihuahua, and for Colonel Price to follow to California, started for California with a large portion of the American army. At Socorro he met Kit Carson, who was on his way from California to Washington with official messages from General Fremont. Kearny took Carson with him as guide, and sent Fremont's messages on to Washington by another escort.”

“Talking with him one day he said to me that nobody whose writings had been read to him had ever fully described life along the trail, western life, or the experiences of a hunter. I happened to quote to him the beginning of Scott's "Lady of the Lake"— "The stag at eve had drunk his fill," etc. Immediately he asked me who wrote that and what was the poem. He begged me to find a copy of the entire poem, which I did, and every night for three weeks I read it to him. He regarded it as the finest expression of outdoor life that he had ever heard, and frequently afterward quoted with genuine approval stanzas from it.”

“A man of the most kindly and gentle spirit; unassuming, quiet, and the last person that one would suppose to be possessed of qualities that made him famous... He was a very genial man, and there were one or two funny stories that I used to tell him that amused him greatly, especially one that described a fight between two camp-women at Fort Union. I lived in Santa Fe the winter of 1863 and 1864, and he was there at the time, and almost always when I met him he would stop and make me tell him that story. He also used to lend me his horse to ride. It was a very ordinary looking yellow horse, and a pacer, and by no means the prancing steed that he is always pictured as mounted upon. He was so unassuming and kind-hearted that he won me completely, for I was only a boy of seventeen or eighteen, and to have Kit Carson notice me and seem attracted to my yarns meant a great deal to me.”

“Kit Carson before the war could but write his name, and read but a word or two. But from the time when he went out as an army officer with other army officers, by association and by application he learned more, so that when I was last with him he was a fair reader and writer, but was not 'stuck on the job.'''' I noticed quite an improvement in his dress, his speech and his whole being. The war developed him, so that in my opinion there were two Kit Carsons— one before the war, and one after.'''”

“The objects of the expedition against the Navajos having been substantially accomplished, Colonel Carson came to Santa Fe, and while visiting with his family at Taos, saw fit to write an historical sketch of the Navajo and his relations with the Spanish and Mexican inhabitants of the country. This sketch shows that Carson was altogether familiar with the history of the country; that he knew of all the efforts on the part of the government of the United States to maintain peaceful relations with this noted tribe; it also shows that Carson had a general knowledge of the history of the country and was capable of giving written expression to his views and information, a demonstration that this boy who had run away from an obnoxious apprenticeship in Missouri was not so entirely deficient in education as some of his college-bred critics of very recent years have seen fit to discuss and would have us believe, taking for their authority the statements of individuals who knew Carson but whose only claim to distinction lies in their being permitted to live so long that no other person now living can give present contradiction to their statements.”

“Kit Carson was a man of great energy and decision of character, alert, poised, calm in danger, and among the keenest, shrewdest, and bravest of experienced frontiersmen. In knowledge of his craft he ranked with such leaders as Bridger, St. Vrain, the Bent "boys," Antoine Leroux, and others among his associates. Yet his appearance was unheroic enough—short and stocky, grey-eyed, blond-haired, and bow-legged. He had however those qualities of modesty, sobriety, and strict veracity not proverbially common among the trappers of his day. His kindliness and generosity caused at least three "old timers,"—Oliver Wiggens, "Billy" Ryus, and "Cap't" Drannan, to regard him as their foster father. Those who knew him well,—General Sherman, General [James Fowler] Rusling, General Beale, General Fremont, Col. [DeWitt Clinton] Peters and a host of other friends,—respected, honored and loved him. His name will "carry on" as long as our highways and railways follow his trails and our cities cover his ground where he broke the brush for his campfires.”

“Between the years 1827 and 1828, three Madison County natives saw each other and worked together in far off Taos, New Mexico. They were Christopher (Kit) Carson, Mathew Kinkead and William Wolfskill. ...When Kit was about 1 1/2, the Carsons moved west to Missouri. Soon after his sixteenth birthday, Kit ran away from home, following a wagon train that ended up in Taos. Carson's first job in Taos was working for Mathew Kinkead... an early Santa Fe trader, one of Taos's first distillers... and a founder of Fort Pueblo. ...although Kinkead opened his home in Taos to the fellow Madison Countian, Kit never seemed to like or speak well of him.”