Kit Carson (December 24, 1809 - May 23, 1868), born Christopher Houston Carson, was an American frontiersman.
He was born in Richmond, Madison County, Kentucky. At the age of two his family moved to Franklin, Missouri. When he was fifteen, he left an apprenticeship to a saddlemaker and traveled west to New Mexico. He established himself as a trader and trapper in the American Southwest and California. He lived among several Native American tribes, and received the name "Rope Thrower."
During his career throughout the desert Southwest, he was a trapper, guide, military scout, Indian agent, soldier (rising to the rank of Brigadier General), and rancher. His renown initially came from guiding John C. Frémont on an expedition to map the western trails to the Pacific Ocean. Descriptions in Frémont's popular report of his expeditions made Kit Carson famous. After his trapping days were over, Carson settled in Taos, New Mexico and after receiving instruction from Padre José Antonio Martínez and being baptized as a Catholic became engaged to and married 14-year-old Josefa Jaramillo, his third wife, on February 6, 1843.
