April, 2005. The History Channel presentation in their Conquerors Series: Frémont: Conqueror of California A few of the geographical, scientific, and temporal errors noted:

In 1838-39 Nicollet and Frémont used the thermometer to determine elevations.

Not so.
Nicollet, a student of Laplace, was the first to introduce the use of the barometer into American survey work.
Frémont was the first to measure a high mountain peak in North America--Fremont Peak.
He did have to resort to use of the thermometer (his barometers had been broken) to collect hypsometrical data in crossing the Sierra on his second expedition. But, Frémont and Dr. George Engelmann blew the reductions of that thermometric data.

Kit Carson, as a trapper, hunter, and guide was "legendary."

Not until introduced to the public in Frémont's reports.

Frémont was lost on the praire: but was saved when he saw a rocket from a 4th of July celebration at Nicollet's camp.

It was not a 4th of July celebration: it was a signal flair sent up by Nicollet of purpose that Frémont might locate the camp at night. He laid his rifle on the ground pointing in the direction of the flair and rode in that direction at first daylight.

Frémont's first expedition (1842) was to map the Oregon Trail into the Wind River Valley.

Frémont's orders were to map as far as the South Pass. His side excursion into the Wind River Range, and climb of Frémont Peak, was far in excess of his orders.

He carried an anemometer. He did not. Nor did he carry a surveyor's level, as appears in many of the scenes. All angular measurement was made by sextant or circle of reflection.

And the drawing of the peak shown was not, as it was said to be by the History Channel, done by expedition cartographer Charles Preuss.

For the actual drawings in the Wind River range by Preuss, see here.

In attempting to write the reports of his expeditions, Frémont suffered writer's block.

Mt. Shasta was seen on his expedition of 1843-44, and then Frémont crossed the Sierra Nevada.

Mt. Shasta (N41° 24' 33") in not in the Sierra Nevada.
Frémont crossed the Sierra at latitude N38° 41' 03" in an epic mid-winter crossing with 67 horses and mules.
There are 199 stature miles separating the two places.
Frémont did visit Mt. Shasta (he called it Tshastl) in 1846 on his third expedition.

Facing down General Castro in 1846, Frémont built a fort on top of Gabilan Peak (Frémont Peak State Park, CA).

Frémont was not on top of the peak today named Fremont Peak in the Gabilan Range inside Fremont Peak State Park, CA.
That rocky eminence affords no water, no graze, and no route of egress.
It also matches no contemporary description of the place.

The actual site was lower, and closer to San Juan Bautista.

Frémont was involved in the Bear Flag Revolt at Sonoma.

Frémont probably influenced that movement, but he was not there.

The History Channel makes no mention of the Gillespie mission from the President Polk as leading to these events.

And no mention of the epic 400-mile march of Frémont's California Battalion of Mounted Riflemen, formed under Commodore Robert S. Stockton of the US Navy, that resulted in the Capitulation of Cahuenga.

Frémont is portrayed throughout this production dressed in his Army uniform. In fact, he is recorded to have so dressed on only a few occasions. He is described by an officer of the H.M.S. Collingsworth as he led his mounted battalion into Monterey on June 23, 1846:

"Frémont rode ahead, a spare, active-looking man, with such an eye! He was dressed in a blouse and leggings, and wore a felt hat."

Frémont's cartographer Charles Preuss recorded one occasion when Frémont did don his uniform--on his return to Fort Laramie on September 3, 1842:

"Frémont was really at his finest. He donned his dilapidated uniform and looked quite martial...A young lieutenant is always a strange creature, on the old as well as on the new continent."

Here is a review of the History Channel production Frémont: Conqueror of California published in the Western Journal of the Huntington Westerners--an interview with our old friend and California historian Barbara. R. Warner.

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Bob Graham