Roger Lauer, age 12, of Reno, Nev., for his question:
WHO WAS KIT CARSON?
Kit Carson was a famous Amercian frontiersman. He became known as a skillful and daring hunter, guide and soldier. He was often described as brave, gentle, honest and wise.
Carson's real first name was Christopher. He was born in Madison County, Ky., in 1809. When he was just one year old, his family moved to Boon's Lick, Mo.
At the age of 14, Kit was sent to work for a saddle maker. He hated the job and ran away in 1826 to join a group of traders headed for Santa Fe, in what is now New Mexico.
From 1829 until 1841, Carson worked in the fur trade. He trapped beavers in Arizona, California, Idaho, Wyoming and the Rocky Mountains and also took part in many fights with Indians.
John C. Fremont, who became a famous government explorer, hired Carson in 1842 to guide his party along the Oregon Trail to South Pass in the Rockies in Wyoming. The expedition passed safely through land of hostile Sioux Indians. Freemont praised Carson in his official reports which helped make Carson well known.
In 1843 and 1844, Carson helped guide Fremont's second expedition, which included a survey of Great Salt Lake in Utah and part of the Oregon Trail. In 1845, Carson guided the explorer's third expedition. The group traveled from Colorado to California and north into Oregon.
When the Mexican War broke out in 1846, Fremont and his group returned to California. They joined the American settlers there in a revolt against the Mexicans who controlled the region. The Americans defeated the Mexicans.
After the Civil War began in 1861, Carson was made a colonel of the New Mexico Volunteer Regiment. In 1862, he fought the Confederate forces in a battle at Valverde, N.M., near Sorocco.
Carson City, Nevada, the state capital, was named for the famous frontier scout.
During the fall of 1862, Carson gathered together about 400 Apache Indians and placed them on a reservation near Fort Sumner, N.M. He had been ordered to do this job.
Next Carson was ordered to lead a campaign against the Navajo Indians. By destroying their crops and animals, Carson forced about 8,000 Navajos to accept reservation life.
In November, 1864, Carson fought the Kiowas, Comanches and other Plains Indians at Adobe Walls, an abandoned trading post in Texas. His force of about 400 men retreated after being attacked by between 1, 500 and 3, 000 Indians.
Carson was made a brigadier general in 1865 and took command of Fort Garland in Colorado the following year. He resigned from the Army in 1867 because of illness and he died in 1868 at the age of 59.
Carson City was the seat of Ormsby County until 1969. In that year, the city and county merged and became the independent city of Carson City.