Bibliotreks: Frémont's Exploring Expedition (BT000085)

FRÉMONT, J. C. REPORT OF THE EXPLORING EXPEDITION TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS IN THE YEAR 1842, AND TO OREGON AND NORTH CALIFORNIA IN THE YEARS 1843-'44. Washington: Gales and Seaton, 1845. 8vo. Original brown ribbed cloth, stamped in blind. 693 pages. Twenty-two engraved plates, five maps (three folding, including the large map by Charles Preuss in rear pocket). Corners slightly bumped, usual browning and foxing throughout, small chip in margin of front free endpaper, short tear to cloth at rear pocket, the Preuss map with some minor separations at the intersections of folds. A fine copy, with some pages unopened and the Preuss map in excellent condition.

FIRST EDITION, SENATE ISSUE, complete with the map that "changed the entire picture of the West and made a lasting contribution to cartography" (Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West II). Frémont's Report is the official account of the first two of his three great westward expeditions which became "the first significant use of exploration as a diplomatic and scientific implement in acquiring territory for the United States" (Delpar, The Discoverers).

After serving as an engineer in the Topographical Corps of the U. S. Army and assisting in surveys of the Mississippi, Missouri and Des Moines Rivers, gaining knowledge of geology, topography and astronomy in the process, Frémont (1813-1890) was uniquely situated to begin his role in American history as "the great pathfinder:"

Frémont's experience and the expansionist interests of his influential father-in-law, Sen. Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, came together in 1842, when they sought to establish American claims in Oregon. From St. Louis in the spring, the spirited explorer set out with a German cartographer and partner in many future ventures, Charles Preuss. A few miles upriver Frémont met Kit Carson (soon to be his lifelong friend), who agreed to serve as guide

(Id.). Although Frémont discovered no new westward routes on this expedition, instead following trails already known for years to Carson and other "Mountain Men," he began the first accurate mapping of the Oregon Trail and his party made it as far west as present-day Wyoming.

Jessie Benton Frémont (1824-1902), Frémont's young wife and Benton's willful daughter, had secretly married Frémont over the initial objections of her father. Her fierce devotion and loyalty to Frémont was his link to otherwise unattainable political connections and may have changed the course of western exploration and expansion of the young United States:

While her husband was on his first expedition . . ., Jessie Frémont served as her father's hostess and occasionally translated secret Spanish documents for the State Department. As her husband prepared to leave on his second expedition in 1843, she intercepted and suppressed an order from Washington, D.C., that she feared threatened his command. She urged him to leave at once and then wrote to authorities in Washington explaining what she had done

(Encyclopedia Britannica). Perhaps because of the obscure role of his wife, there was to be another expedition for Frémont after all, and greater fame.

Again accompanied by Carson and Preuss, Frémont led his second expedition from Kansas City in May of 1843, with the objective of connecting his previous survey with the recent reconnaissance of the Pacific northwest coast by Charles Wilkes of the U. S. Navy. This time, after exploring the Great Salt Lake, "Frémont proceeded down the Snake River and on down the Columbia to Fort Vancouver" (Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages) in Oregon Territory. With only a brief rest, the party turned south through present-day Nevada, where they discovered Pyramid Lake, then west across the high passes of the Sierra Nevada in the bitter cold of winter, into California. This second expedition "played a major role in the American annexation of California in 1847" (Id.).

Frémont's Report, issued in 1845 with the map by Preuss titled "Map of an Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842 and to Oregon & North California in the Years 1843-44," "advertised the West's agricultural capabilities, eventually guided emigrants west via the Platte River and South Pass, no doubt affected the Mormon decision to settle near the Great Salt Lake, and spread the explorer's fame throughout the nation" (Delpar). In the next year, there began "a veritable explosion of national expansion, with the outbreak of the War with Mexico, settlement of the Oregon question, and immense overland emigration to both Oregon and California - in which emigration Fremont's report and map was of great significance" (Wheat). The large folding map by Preuss literally became the roadmap for such westward emigrants, and it "radically and permanently altered western cartography. . . . This is an altogether memorable document in the cartographic history of the West, and for it alone Fremont would deserve to be remembered in history" (Id.). Otherwise, "Frémont's major contributions were symbolic and inspirational. If anyone in the nineteenth century depicted the romance and heroism of the American pioneer blazing trails west, it was Frémont" (Delpar) - and it was Frémont who served as "the spokesman for America's 'manifest destiny'" (Id.). Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages, p. 112. Howes F370. Sabin 25845. Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West II, p. 194. BT000085.

A FINE COPY OFFRÉMONT'S EXPLORING EXPEDITION- WITH THE MAP THAT "CHANGED THE ENTIRE PICTURE OF THE WEST"

A FINE COPY OF
FRÉMONT'S EXPLORING EXPEDITION
- WITH THE MAP THAT "CHANGED THE ENTIRE PICTURE OF THE WEST"