Identifier: greatplainsroman01parr (find matches)
Title: The great plains; the romance of western American exploration, warfare, and settlement, 1527-1870
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Parrish, Randall, 1858-1923
Subjects:
Publisher: Chicago, McClurg
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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THE GREAT PLAINS

endurance, resourcefulness, and constant devotion
to duty these men have won fame that will endure in
the history of the Plains. Tireless as the Indian,
knowing their traits, characteristics, habits; reading
the secrets of the Plains like an open book, careless
of personal danger, and inured to loneliness, they
remained on the skirmish line of cvilization, and of
many of them the fate is unknown.

A Few Whose Fame will Endure

The scouts of the frontier were numerous, yet in
actual service only a few proved really valuable.
Those who rose out of the ruck did so through sheer
ability, and have been honored in the reports of the
army officers they guided in arduous campaigns of
war or exploration. They became famous through-
out the length and breadth of the frontier. It was
the reports of Fremont that lifted Kit Carson from
obscurity; Custer made the fame of California Joe;
Merritt and Carr gave wide spread to the reputa-
tions of Wild Bill and Buffalo Bill. The names
of these few Plains celebrities now belong to the
history of their country.

John Smith

There were few plainsmen who did not know
one or all of these great pathfinders, and deem the
knowledge worthy of a boast. Uncle John Smith
ranged from the Yellowstone to the Gila, and from
the upper Missouri to the Rio Grande; not an In-
dian tribe but had held him guest, scarcely a stream

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Text Appearing After Image:

C. Carson

THE FAMOUS SCOUT, TRAPPER, AND PLAINSMAN


FRONTIER SCOUTS AND GUIDES

along whose waters he had not trapped. In 1826,
when a mere boy, he ran away from home and
joined a party of Santa Fe traders, and ever after-
wards the wilderness held him captive. He mar-
ried a Cheyenne squaw, spoke four Indian dialects,
besides French and Spanish, and ruled like an auto-
crat the Indian trade of the Western Plains. As
late as 1869, when he was an old man, he was one
of Sheridan's most trusted guides, competent, tire-
less, unerring as a bloodhound on the trail. His life
had been one constant adventure; and when in con-
genial company he would recount for hours the
stirring events of his career. His facial resem-
blance to President Andrew Johnson was remark-
able, and led to some amusing incidents.

Kit Carson

Kit Carson was on the Plains and in the moun-
tains for forty-two years, and his name will always
stand forth preeminent among famous frontiersmen.
In turn a trader, a hunter, a free trapper, a scout
for the army, a guide to explorers and to travelling
caravans, and finally a Colonel of Volunteer Cav-
alry, he had a wider experience than any of his
contemporaries.

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