Naming of Carson Pass

Naming of Carson Pass. . In February of 1844, John C. Fremont led a group of men over these mountains as they struggled to reach Sutter’s Fort. Little did they know that the pass, which lay 20 to 30 feet under the snow beneath them, would be a major route for the Gold Rush in just a few years. Kit Carson, for whom the pass eventually be named, was among the group. Payroll records show that he was hired as a hunter and Indian Fighter and that Thomas Fitzpatrick was the official guide for the expedition., On this expedition, Fremont was charged with mapping the land, recording the flora and fauna, the elevations and evaluating the quality of land. Along with the mapping, Fremont would give names to plants and rivers. He changed the name of the Mary’s River to Humbolt River and named the river flowing east out of the mountains through Hope Valley for his friend Kit Carson., Carson Pass was named many years later – probably due to the fact that a tree stood in the pass with the carving “Kit Carson 1844”. It is not likely that Carson carved his name on that tree during Fremont’s Expedition in 1844. Weeks of heavy snowfall that winter made the crossing very difficult and the expedition was running out of food. Any man in those desperate conditions would not be digging down through 20 or 30 feet of snow to ground level to carve his name on a tree. However, in the summer of 1853, Kit Carson with a group of men and 6500 head of sheep did come over this pass headed for the gold fields to sell their sheep. Could it have been then that Carson took the time to carve his name on the tree but dated it back to 1844 when he was first here?, An American Indian directed the Fremont group to cross the mountains at this location. This had been a major Indian trading route for 5,000 to 10,000 years. Today, Carson Pass carries hundreds of cars on a daily trek over the mountain.