Col. J.C. Fremont was a military officer, explorer and the first republican candidate to run for US President. From 1838 to 1841 he worked on many expeditions exploring and mapping the western portions of the United States. In 1842 Kit Carson and 25 men went with Freemont to explore the South Pass. "The country thus explored is daily making deeper and more abiding impressions upon the minds of the people, and information is eagerly sought in regard to its natural resources, its climate, inhabitants, productions, and adaptation for supplying the wants and providing the comforts for a dense population. The day is not far distant when that territory, hitherto so little known, will be intersected by railroads, its waters navigated, and its fertile portions peopled by an active and intelligent population." is a quote from the preface to the book.