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Article: THE ORIGINS OF THE FREMONT EXPEDITIONS: JOHN J. ABERT AND THE SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION OF THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI WEST.
- Article from:
- The Historian
- Article date:
- January 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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John C. Fremont (1813-90), one of the most colorful and controversial figures in nineteenth-century U.S. history, based his heroic reputation as an explorer of the American West on expeditions he led to the Rocky Mountains in 1842 and 1843-44. In his own accounts and those of his powerful father-in-law, Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, he emerged as a heroic figure whose expeditions into the wilderness effectively marked the trails to be followed by immigrants on the western expansion. In 1842, Fremont surveyed the Oregon Trail as far as South Pass and then explored the Wind River Range of the Rocky Mountains. He followed up his success with a more ambitious journey ...