dence Rock was accomplished by the evening of the 22nd. On this great rock Fremont placed the emblem of Christianity. He says: "Here, not unmindful of the custom of early travelers and explorers in our country, I engraved on this rock of the far west the symbol of the Christian faith. Among the thickly inscribed names, I made on the hard granite the impression of a large cross, which I covered with a black preparation of India rubber, well calculated to resist the influence of wind and rain. It stands amidst the names of many who have long since found their way to the grave, and for whom the huge rock is a giant gravestone."

I have met quite a number of people who claim to have seen this cross, but must confess that I never have been able to find it. On July 4, 1847, there was a grand celebration at this rock by more than a thousand people who were on their way to Oregon and California. During the day the enthusiastic American citizens loaded old wagon hubs with powder, to which they fastened a fuse, and exploded them in the crevices of the rock. By this means a large piece of the granite weighing many tons was detached and turned over on the ground, and I have been of the opinion that the Fremont cross is on this detached piece of rock and was thus covered from view.

After leaving Independence Rock the party proceeded across to the North Platte and carefully explored that stream, returning to Fort Laramie on August 31. The return trip was made down the Platte to the Missouri, from which point they floated down that stream in a ten-oared boat and finally reached St. Louis on October 17. After this expedition of Fremont into Wyoming, things were never to be as they were before. The dark mountain barriers, broad valleys and noble rivers took their places upon the map of our country and became an open book for all men to read. The great Overland Trail, with its memories of Robert Stuart, General Ashley, the Sublette brothers, Captain Bonneville, Marcus Whitman and others had become the broad highway used by those who were soon to build

commonwealths. But Fremont is not through with Wyoming yet, for he is to mark out another public thoroughfare in our state. Of this I will speak in another chapter.

CHAPTER XXI.

FREMONT'S SECOND EXPEDITION THROUGH WYOMING. THE START FROM THE MISSOURI-FOLLOW THE KANSAS RIVER-Command DIVIDED EXPLORATIONS IN COLORADO-TWO DIVISions Meet at FORT ST. VRAIN-TWENTY-FIVE MEN WITH THE BAGGAGE GO BY WAY OF FORT LARAMIE TO FORT HALL-FREMONT AND THIRTEEN MEN EXPLORE LARAMIE PLAINS AND PROCEED WESTWARD TO EASTERN RIM OF RED DESERT-PROCEED NORTH TO SWeetwater-JOURNEY TO BEAR RIVER-EXPLORE GREAT SALT LAKE-JOIN BALANCE OF COMMAND AT FORT HALL-EXPLORATIONS IN OREGON-WINTER CAMPAIGN IN THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA-THIRD EXPLORING EXPEDITION AND EXPERIENCES IN CALIFORNIA-FOURTH EXPLORING EXPEDITION-GREAT SUFFERING OF THE PARTY AND ELEVEN: Deaths— FREMONT'S PUBLIC SERVICES.

The second expedition of Fremont was undertaken early in the spring of 1843. The rendezvous was at the little town of Kansas, on the Missouri, now known as Kansas City. Experience had taught the chief of the expedition the necessity of a complete outfit, and consequently everything necessary was provided, Major Thomas Fitzpatrick being selected as guide. Charles Preuss was again chosen as assistant topographical engineer. Lucien Maxwell was engaged as hunter. Theodore Talbot of Washington City was a member of the party. Frederick Dwight, of Springfield, Massachusetts, who was on his way to the Sandwich Islands, accompanied them. William Gilpin of Missouri, who afterwards became the first governor of Colorado, journeyed with Fremont to Oregon. The men who enlisted in the enterprise were, as will be seen, largely chosen from the members of the first expedition. They were, Alexis Ayot, Fran

cois Badeau, Oliver Beaulieu, Baptiste Bernier, John A. Campbell, John G. Campbell, Manuel Chapman, Ransom Clark, Philibert Courteau, Michel Crelis, William Creuss, Clinton Deforest, Baptiste Derosier, Basil Lajeunesse, Francois Lajeunesse, Henry Lee, Louis Menard, Louis Montreuil, Samuel Neal, Alexis Pera, Francois Pera, James Power, Raphael Proue, Oscar Sarphy, Baptiste Tabeau, Charles Taplin, Baptiste Tesson, Auguste Vasquez, Joseph Verrot, Patrick White, Tiery Wright, Louis Zindel and Jacob Dodson, the latter a young colored man from Washington City. The party was armed with Hall's carbines and also a twelve pound brass howitzer. The camp equipage, provisions and instruments were carried in twelve carts, drawn by two mules each. They left Kansas City on the 29th of May and proceeded up the south side of the Kansas River. On the 8th of June they arrived at the mouth of the Smoky Hill Fork, where they crossed and proceeded up the Republican Fork. Arriving at a place called by the Indians Big Timber, the force was divided. Leaving twenty-five men in charge of Mr. Fitzpatrick to follow on with the heavy baggage, Fremont took fifteen men, the mountain howitzer, the cart containing instruments, and pushed forward, reaching the South Fork of the Platte on June 30th, and followed up this stream to St. Vrain's Fort, which point was reached on the 4th of July.

On the 6th the journey up the Platte was continued; passing Lupton's trading post, and a day or two later camp was made on the ground where Denver now stands. Fremont finally reached Pueblo, where he encountered Kit Carson, who had been with him on his expedition the year before. This accomplished frontiersman was added to the command, after which explorations were pushed into South Park and across into North Park, then down again to St. Vrain's fort, reaching there on the 23rd of July, where was found the detachment under Fitzpatrick awaiting them. On the 26th the party was again divided, Fremont taking thirteen men for his own company, and Fitzpatrick the balance, with instructions to proceed by way of Fort Laramie,

North Platte, Sweetwater and South Pass to Fort Hall and there to await the detachment under the personal charge of the explorer. Before starting out from St. Vrain, Fremont makes the following note in regard to the country through which he expected to travel, and the object of his explorations from St. Vrain west. His report reads:

"I had been able to obtain no certain information in regard to the character of the passes in this portion of the Rocky Mountain range, which had always been represented as impracticable for carriages, but the exploration of which was incidentally contemplated by my instructions, with the view of finding some convenient point of passage for the road of emigration, which would enable it to reach, on a more direct line, the usual ford of the Great Colorado-a place considered as determined by the nature of the country beyond that river. It is singular that, immediately at the foot of the mountains, I could find no one sufficiently acquainted with them to guide us to the plains at their western base; but the race of trappers who formerly lived in their recesses has almost entirely disappeared-dwindled to a few scattered individuals-some one or two of whom are regularly killed in the course of each year by the Indians. You will remember that in the previous year, I brought with me to their village near this post, and hospitably treated on the way, several Cheyenne Indians, whom I had met on the lower Platte. Shortly after their arrival here, these were out with a party of Indians (themselves the principal men), which discovered a few trappers in the neighboring mountains, whom they immediately murdered, although one of them had been nearly thirty years in the country, and was perfectly well known, as he had grown gray among them.

"Through this portion of the mountains, also, are the customary roads of the war parties going out against the Utah and Shoshone Indians, and occasionally parties from the Crow nation make their way down to the southward along this chain, in the expectation of surprising some straggling lodges of their enemies. Shortly before our arrival, one of their parties had attacked an Arapahoe village in the vicinity, which they had found unexpectedly strong, and their assault was turned into a rapid flight and a hot pursuit, in which they had been compelled to abandon the animals they had ridden, and escape on their war horses. Into this uncertain and dangerous region, small parties of

three or four trappers who now could collect together, rarely ventured; and consequently it was seldom visited and little known. Having determined to try the passage by a pass through a spur of the mountains made by the Cache a la Poudre River, which rises in the high bed of mountains around Long's Peak, I thought it advisable to avoid any incumbrance which would occasion detention."

Fremont now pushed westward across the Laramie Plains, and his route lay from Cache la Poudre in Colorado, up Hale Creek, crossing over the head of Harvey Creek near Red Butte to the Big Laramie, when he camped four miles southwest of where Laramie City now stands; thence across to Little Laramie; thence to Seven Mile Creek, Dutton Creek and Cooper Creek, thence to a point on Rock Creek near where the old stage station was afterwards located. From this point he traveled in a northwesterly direction, crossing Wagonhound Creek, Medicine Bow Creek, camping at the north foot of Elk Mountain. From that point he went in a westerly direction, reaching the North Platte River a short distance above where Fort Steele was afterwards located. Near the North Platte they made a camp, and while there had the following experience:

"A successful day's hunt had kept our hunters occupied until late, and they slept out, but rejoined us at daybreak, when finding ourselves only about a mile from the river, we followed the ravine down and camped in a cottonwood grove on a beautiful grassy bottom, where our animals indemnified themselves for the scanty fare of the past night. It was quite a pretty and pleasant place; a narrow strip of prairie about five hundred yards long terminated at the ravine where we entered by high precipitous hills closing in upon the river, and at the upper end by a ridge of low rolling hills. In the precipitous bluffs were displayed a succession of strata containing fossil vegetable remains, and several beds of coal. In some of the beds the coal did not appear to be perfectly mineralized, and in some of the seams it was compact and remarkably lustrous. In these latter places there were, also, thin layers of very fine white salts, in powder. As we had a large supply of meat in the camp, which it was necessary to dry, and the surrounding country appeared to be well stocked with buffalo, which it was probable, after a day or two, we would not see again