Gen. John C. Fremont

As a junior officer of the United States Army, at the age of 29 years, Frémont was designated by the Secretary of War to explore a route from western Missouri to the "South Pass." Exploration of the Southwest. - In accomplishing his mission he followed the Arkansas River to its source in the Rocky Mountains. On a later expedition he made his way through Utah to the Great Salt Lake and then through the deserts of Nevada and across the Sierra Nevada, where he found his journey leading through the mammoth trees and along the roaring torrents of the California country, reaching the Mexican city of Monterey, some 130 miles south of San Francisco on the Pacific Ocean. Mexican War. - Through exercise of diplomacy he was able to remain in this vicinity until after the outbreak of the Mexican War, when he headed a revolt against that Government and freed the territory of California from Mexican authority, becoming the governor of the territory which was ceded to the United States by treaty following the conclusion of the war with Mexico. A contemporary. - Contemporary with Frémont, another brilliant young Army officer, Colonel Kearney (afterwards brigadier general), fought his way across the plains of Texas to Santa Fe, N. Mex., and after its capture continued across the deserts of New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California to a union of his small army with Frémont in California. Territorial acquisition. - As a result of the splendid work of these men coupled with the success of Generals Scott and Taylor in old Mexico, there was added to the domain of the United States the last of the great southwestern area, a territory of nearly 1,000.000 square miles, a section of our country which within one year thereafter became the goal of the adventurous spirits of the world due to the discovery of fabulous gold deposits along many of the water courses flowing to the Pacific Ocean from the western slopes of the mountains bordering eastern California.