Born January 21, 1813
Savannah, Georgia
Died July 13, 1890
New York, New York

American West explorer
known as the "Pathfinder"

Removed from his command as a Union general
for issuing his own "emancipation proclamation"
in Missouri

John Frémont "remains a symbol of a younger, untamed, and adventurous America."

John C. Frémont. (Courtesy of the Library of Congress.)

Writer Edward D. Harris

John C. Frémont was one of the best-known explorers of the American West in the first half of the nineteenth century. "His scientific and surveying work was crucial in opening America beyond the Mississippi, and his heroic image and legend helped imbue [fill] the West with the romance with which it is still colored," according to Edward D. Harris in John Charles Frémont and the Great Western Reconnaissance. "He remains a symbol of a younger, untamed, and adventurous...