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How I met Fremont, Carson, and the Donners I was tired of the long winters and wanted to get back home to Illinois. But I had struck out as a trapper and fur trader and hadn't done too bad for myself. I had made a good trade of beaver traps and had set my own route down from the Oregon trail into the California Trail. There I was going up and down the Humboldt River in the Nevada Territory when one of my Paiute Indian friends told me of a bunch of American Army men had cross the Great Salt Lake and crossing the Utah Territory headed my way.
About a week later I met the group. They were under the command of a young soldier John Fremont. He and his guide Kit Carson would later become famous in the history books. Well I showed them how to catch the long ear white rabbits, a delicious food. And besides the great buffalo which the soldiers had heard of, they were delighted by the pronghorn, a kind of horned deer special in the Nevada area, with tasty meat. That Kit Carson was a good scout, he had a nose for the mountains and the game.
Both he and Fremont were good shots. I later found out the soldiers were there to explore that part of the west. I introduced them to the Paiute Indian Chief Paulina and then later the Washoe Indians further West. Fremont was a strong leader, he had direction. But it was getting late in summer and Carson wanted Fremont to cross the Western mountains to reach Sutter Fort in California. I brought Chief Naza, he was a Washoe Indian and I had done lots of trapping for beaver and rabbit with some of his men.
Chief Naza warned Fremont winter was coming and food or game would be gone. But this man Fremont was a head strong man. He had heard a rumor of a beautiful large lake off at a distance down in front of the Sierra Nevada mountains. He said he had a desire to see that lake while making it to Fort Sutter. I didn't tell him I had crossed the mountains with the Washoe and had actually swam in that lake (Lake Tahoe). It was my purpose to close camp and move up back east before the winter. But the Indians had a party that night and they had a lot pronghorn, rabbit, grass seed nuts and that large sucker fish, the cui ui, about.
The Indians were excited about seeing a large American Army in their camp with everybody getting along agreeable. My catch for that summer had been good. I had a few pounds of valuble beaver pelts and some nice buffalo skins. I got some of the Paiute women to weave me some large baskets and I made my own cart led by a donkey and an ox I had bought from a band of people I had met coming over the mountains. These people said they were fleeing some crazy religions sect over in Utah and that there were rumors that that sect had just massacred some people.
Well, I didn’t want no part of being too long with folks, that’s when rumors like that get started and then you find out you got to follow directions from someone you didn’t even know. I was always the longer type. It was time for me to leave and I bid all farewell and begin to trace my way back across Northern Nevada along the Humboldt river. But I soon ran into another party who I tried to persuade not to cross the snowbound Sierra Nevada. They had crossed over the Wasatch mountains from the Utah Territory and went over or around that Great Salt Lake.
They were just getting ready to make it across the Great Salt Lake Desert. I told them that mountain was very high with lots of peaks and with the winter coming in the snow fell real deep. They were a body of about nine wagons with some 30 men women and lots of children and were pulling a few head of cattle and ox. I told them I didn't think they would make it through the winter. But the man, I think he said his name was Donner and that he was coming from the state of Illinois Some of the people spoke a foreign language, German I think it was.
This was about summertime, 1846.
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