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Interesting Links
These links open in a new window, so that you may explore them, bookmark them, and easily return to my list.
Please report any broken or changed links .

From the ashes of his campfires have sprung cities.
Jessie Benton Frémont

go The Society for the History of Discoveries was formed to stimulate interest in teaching, research, and publishing the history of geographical exploration. Founded in 1960, the Society includes members from several academic disciplines as well as archivists, non-affiliated scholars, and laypersons with an interest in history.

go The Volcanoes of John C. Frémont. This is from the USGS website on Living with Volcanoes.

go And, from the USDA, Forest Service, here a web cam on one of those currently active volcanoes--daylight hours only, of course.

go Frémont was the first to map portions of the Old Spanish Trail. The mission of the Old Spanish Trail Association (OSTA) is to study, preserve, protect, interpret, and promote appropriate use of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail.

go The History Guy website pages on the Mexican War.

go Wyoming writer Tom Rea has an internet article at Common Place: The Pathfinder's Lost Instruments; John C. Frémont's cavalier attitude toward his scientific apparatus. An article on Frémont's 1st Expedition travels in present-day Wyoming in 1842. The article includes the climb of Frémont Peak and the raft trip throught The Firey Narrows. This website made some very small contribution to the article and gets a nice credit at the end. Thanks, Tom.

This has now been published by Tom Rea as a chapter in his new book Devil's Gate: Owning the Land, Owning the Story published by the University of Oklahoma Press, 2006.

go October 8, 2004. The fifth book in the excellent series of books on the life of Joseph Walker by G. Andrew Miller has just been released by Silver Spur Publishing.
Joseph R. Walker: The California Expedition, 1833-34.

go People of Color on America's Western Frontier--a site created and maintained by researcher Bennie J. McRae, Jr.

go On this site, read about Jacob Dodson, a black youth who figured so prominently in Frémont's 2nd and 3rd expeditions.
To this Gate I gave the name of Chrysopylae, or GOLDEN GATE;
for the same reasons that the harbor of Byzantium was called Chrysoceras, or GOLDEN HORN.
John Charles Frémont

go Southwest Explorations; Kearny and Emory Across the Southwest--a really super website by Tom Jonas.

go John Charles Fremont and the exploration of the American West. A fine new biography by Gerald F. Kreyche available on-line.

go Frémont made first contact with the Washo, a Hokan language speaking people. See the Indigenous Peoples Institute. The webmasters who create and maintain the site are Sean and Riley Castillo, aged 12 & 14.

go Online book! FROM THE GOLDEN GATE TO MEXICO CITY: THE U.S. ARMY TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS IN THE MEXICAN WAR, 1846 1848 by Adrian George Traas. Office of History, Corps of Engineers and Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D. C., 1993
Chapter 2: ON TO THE GOLDEN GATE WITH FRÉMONT go

No one should try to understand California of 1845-46,
and the men who played leading rolls there,
without a thorough reading of the [Frémont] court-martial proceedings.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that
some of the historians of the period have not done so.
Mary Lee Spence, The Expeditions of John Charles Frémont, 1970.

go THE NARRATIVE OF FRÉMONT'S REPORTS ONLINE!
Smucker, Samuel M, A. M., The Life of Col. John Charles Frémont and His Narrative of Explorations and Adventures in Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon and California, Miller, Orton & Mulligan, New York, 1856.
This was one of three large biographies done for the 1856 Presidential campaign. This one contains all of the narrative of the official government Reports of Frémont's 1st (1842) and 2nd (1843-44) expeditions.
It is searchable, and is editable text!

go Topographical Engineers: A wonderful web site about the history of the Topographical Corps, including Frémont's Expeditions. There are also links to the complete texts of many reports online.

go The site also contains this excellent article:
Finding the Way and Fixing the Boundary: The Science and Art of Western Map Making, As Exemplified by William H. Emory and his Colleagues of the U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers, by Rollie Schafer

The nervous, rocky West is intruding a new and continental element into the National Mind,
and we shall yet have an American.
Emerson, The Young American, February, 1844

go Surveying Techlinks. A comprehensive website which includes links to Associations, Education, Geodesy, GPS - Global Positioning System, Land Surveying, Navigation, Photogrammetry, Products and Services,Publications, Remote Sensing

go National Surveyors Hall of Fame presented by the South Dakota Society of Professional Land Surveyors.

go The Sacramento District, United States Army Corps of Engineers, while not yet a half-century old, enjoys a heritage deeply rooted in the history of the West.

go Welcome to Bridgeport.: Follow the 2nd Expedition through The Devil's Gate. Find services and accommodations. From this page check the Sierra Gateway Map for other interesting places to go to and sights to see.

go Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West with Col. Frémont's last Expedition by S. N. Carvalho. This is the whole account, chapter by chapter, on the internet. Wow!

go Expedition Artists of the Fremont Expeditions: Charles Preuss (1803-1854), Edward M. Kern (1823-1863)

go Available on-line from the University of Michigan, the entire text of On the use of the Barometer on Surveys and Reconnaissances. Williamson, Robert Stockton, New York, D. Van Nostrand; London, Trübner & Co., 1868.

go A fantastic resource at the Bayerische Julius-Maximilians Universität Würzburg--physics, weather, maps and navigation--too much to list!
I found this searching links to this website; my link takes you to the maps page, which has a link to my navigational materials.
I wish I could read German, because this is one of the best sites on the WWW! Browse this site--I've spent hours on it!

His enterprises are full of hardship and peril,
and the wildest romance.
To sleep under the open heaven,
and depend on one's rifle for food,
is coming about as near the primitive state of the hunter
as a civilized man may well get;
and yet this life, in this case,
is adorned with the triumphs of science.
alcalde Walter Colton

go I have added some information and photographs on the roads through the canyon of the South Fork of the American River along the route that the Frémont Expedition traveled between February 23rd and 26th in 1844. From 1852 until present, this has been an area of intense road building.

go Cadastral Website: What if the batteries in your GPS receiver give out? Go to this site to download Sun and Polaris Ephemeris for year/month/day.

go Here is one sent by Stephen Thumblert, a surveyor from Stockton, California: U.S. Naval Observatory Celestial Navigation Data for Assumed Position and Time. Data can be produced for any date and time from year 1700 through year 2015.

The Frémont/Preuss maps:

go The 1848 Frémont/Preuss map of the West.

go And here the 7-segment map of the Oregon Trail was drawn by Charles Preuss and published by the government in 1846.

I must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe.
And that way the nation is moving,
And I may say that mankind progress from east to west.
Thoreau, Walking

go The Origins of the Fremont Expeditions: John J. Abert and the Scientific Exploration of the Trans-Mississippi West. Vernon L. Volpe.

go Celestial Navigation Net. This webpage is an attempt to bring together all of the best Celestial Navigation resources on the internet, with pointers to other resources as well.

go Heavenly Mathematics: The National University of Sinapore: Highlights of Cultural Astronomy.

go A super page of Time and Navigation links compiled by Gary Agranat.

go Timothy Burke has an interesting page The Astrolabe on the De Soto Expedition.

go Check also my Drake Navigation page for Astrolabe.

go The University of Bonn: History of Astronomy--Topics, Navigation.

go Approximate Sidereal Times of the Occultations of Jupiter's Satellites by Jupiter, and of the Transit of the Satellites and their Shadows over the Disc of the Planet.

go A Short Guide to Celestial Navigation by Henning Umland.

Frémont has particularly touched my imagination.
What a wild life, and what a fresh kind of existence!
But, ah, the discomforts!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

go About time and longitude and John Harrison.

go Get the UTC time from the US Naval Observatory Master Clock.

Not finding what you want?
Try the new search button on the topbar to have Google search this website, or the World Wide Web!

Google, the Mother of all Search Engines! The odds are that you found this site at Google, but here is an example of how it found the solution to a problem in short order.
The following query was posted on a history list:

On the night of January 16, 1851, Lt. George Horatio Derby, U. S. Topographical Engineers, experienced a spring tide at anchor above Arnold's Point, some forty or so miles upstream of the Colorado River's mouth. The force of the tidal bore's wave broke the Invincible's anchor chain at about midnight and made for a bit of fancy night sailing as the tide ebbed. Was the moon full or new that night? If it was new, Captain A. H. Wilcox ought to have been decorated, if full, merely commended for his boatmanship.

My search string entered in Google was simply any year day moon phase.
go The first page of returned links provided this U. S. Naval Observatory site with an on-line calculator to provide the answer to the query:
Phase of the Moon on 16 January, 1851: waxing gibbous with 99% of the Moon's visible disk illuminated.

go A neat site at Rice University on Latitude.

go And I like this one from St. Andrews University on Longitude.

go Here is a super page of links, a biography, and an image gallery for John Charles Frémont by Hugh Danaher

His reputation as an explorer,
for which he gave the enthusiam of his youth,
the maturity of his manhood,
and for which he sacrificed his profession and his private fortune,
must continue to grow steadily in the future.
His unwavering, if impractical, devotion to freedom
was forcibly illustrated by his emancipation proclamation in Missouri,
which he declined to recall,
even at the request of the President, who revoked it.
General A. W. Greely,
Gold Medalist of the Royal Geographical Society and the Société de Géographia, Paris

go Jerry Dwyer's Frémont webpage: Contains a biography on John C. Frémont, Jerry's Frémont in Klamath County (Articles written for the Klamath County GenWeb site), and other articles and features under construction.

go Frémont in Klamath County: Articles written for the Klamath County GenWeb site by Jerry Dwyer.
go Jerry also maintains the website of the Oregon - California Trails Association CA-NV Chapter.

go You can find the story of Frémont's crossing of the Sierra (much from the quoted narrative of the Report) on the website of the Western Country Living Center. There is much addtional Eldorado County history on this site.

Frémont was a great explorer
not so much because he broke new trails into the wilderness
as Smith and Walker did,
but because he brought enthusiasm, large ambition,
imagination and scientific knowledge to his task.
Robert Glass Clelland

go Bob Graham's article as posted on Brian Kelleher's Drake's Bay website. The author of THE CROSSING did an investigation into Elizabethan navigational method and results--DETERMINATION OF LATITUDE BY FRANCIS DRAKE ON THE COAST OF CALIFORNIA IN 1579. This study has shown that Brian Kelleher's Drake landing site at Campbell Cove, latitude 38° 19' North, actually matches Drake's determination of 38° 30' North for the California landing. Read why.

go Simon Barclay publishes FrancisDrakeInfo, a collection of information and links relating to Francis Drake.
go Be sure to check out Legends; Pirates and Privateers, and
go Renaissance, the Elizabethan World!
go The Sir Francis Drake related websites index.

Where still some grand peaks mark the way,
Touched by light of parting day,
And memories sun.
Backward amid the twylight glow,
Some lingering spots still brightly show,
On roads hard won.
Major General John Charles Frémont,
Founders Medalist of the Royal Geographical Society,
Baron von Humboldt Gold Medalist,
Gold Medal Société de Géographia, Paris

go Barometer World & Museum: Barometers to buy, restoration, Museum, books, spare Parts, FAQ, information.

go See Keith Pickering's Columbus Navigation Homepage for a comparison of Columbus's and Drake's navigational techniques and results in their determination of latitudes.

go Discoverers Web: A great resourse! An indexed site with links to hundreds of web pages of explorers, discoveries, navigation.

I find it impossible to describe the hardships through which we passed,
nor am I capable in doing justice to the credit to which he deserves.
But his services to his country have been left to the judgement of impartial freemen,
and all agree in saying that they were great,
and have redounded to his honor, and to that of his country.
Brigadier General Christopher "Kit" Carson

go Aerial photos and maps. Go to TerraServer, search, and zoom in on what you want to see (coordinates at the cursor too).

go Maps! Go to theTopoZone website to see anyplace! Choose the size and scale. Read coordinates at cursor!

go More maps! And, aerial photos! On the Terraserver website.

go Russell Towle lives in Dutch Flat, a small town in the Sierra Nevada gold region. His website contains much of interest, not only about Dutch flat, but also articles on geology and mapping with links to map sites and free mapping software. go See some images I have made with these tools.

go Backcountry Resourse Center by Paul Prichins, Jr.: A great outdoor adventure site with an article on Frémont's crossing.

go The Pony Express Home Station: Be sure to visit this site. It has many interesting articles, and links to all aspects of western history.

Professional assiduity, unusual self-control, readiness to endure any amount of monotonous hard work, deprivation, and exhaustion--these were traits of Frémont that we should not allow his many adventures, and the picturesqueness of the scenes in which he moved to obscure. It is significant that Carson, like that other expert frontiersman Alex Godey, regarded him with deferential respect. To both he was as efficient a man of action as they could desire--and in addition a scientist.
Allan Nevins, DeWitt Clinton professor of history, Columbia University

go Overland Trail, a site created by Elizabeth Larson which includes links to people and events in western history. This site has been featured as the September 2001 Spotlight of the Month on Elizabeth's web site.
Previous spotlights are found here go.

go Rock upon rock! Snow upon snow! The Battle of Carson Pass.

Dick Brock maintains these two web sites that are relative to this site .

goThe Eldorado National Forest Interpretive Association; visit the ENFIA constructed and staffed Carson Pass NFS Information Station and the NFS Information Center in Camino.
goTrails West --Markers of the California Trail; a group of volunteers dedicated to locating and marking the California Trail from southern Idaho to Northern California.
goA Tour of the Applegate Trail; the South Road to Oregon.
Thy error, Frémont, was to act
The brave man's part, without the statesman's tact,
And taking council but of common sense,
To strike at cause as well as consequence.
John Greenleaf Whittier

go Sorrenson's Hope Valley Resort: The place to stay when visiting Frémont's Long Camp. Buy a copy of THE CROSSING from Sorrensen's extensive selection of history and outdoors books, and read it in front of the fire.

go Hike, bike, and horseback ride on the spectacular Tahoe Rim Trail as it follows the ridges and mountain tops that circle Lake Tahoe.

go Helen Pelster, who does volunteer work for the Truckee Donner Land Trust, sends the URL for the Donner Lake Rim Trail web site which she maintains. Frémont entered California over this pass on his third expedition in 1845, days behind the Grigsby - Ide Party of immigrants. He returned from California in 1847 over the same route; this time, under arrest for mutiny, he followed in the dust of General Steven Watts Kearny.

go Amazon Books: 20+ book titles on John C. Frémont. Included is the brand new biography below--highly recommended by this web site!

click image for larger view
PATHFINDER: John C. Frémont and the Course of American Empire
by Tom Chaffin
Hill & Wang--Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2002
Order online at Barnes & Noble or amazon.com
There in no connection between this website and the publisher or any bookseller

go See Charles George Davis's EmigrantsWest.Com--Pre-Territorial Oregon's Unique Historical Publishings.

I get many emails asking about DREAM WEST, the 1986 mini-series based on a novel of the same name by David Nevin. The series starred Richard Chamberlain as John Charles Frémont:
"Is it based on fact?" Yes.
Where Can I buy it?" Sorry, I don't know if it is available for purchase.
But there is a website. go DREAM WEST

I had in my hand half a dozen squibs,
which I had made one day when encamped upon Laramie Creek,
with gunpowder and charcoal,
and the leaves of Frémont's Expedition,
rolled round a stout lead pencil.
I waited till I could get hold of the large piece of burning bois de vache
which the Indians kept by them on the ground for lighting their pipes.
With this I lighted all the fireworks at once,
and tossed them whizzing and sputtering into the air,
over the heads of the company.
Francis Parkman, The Oregon Trail, 1846.

In addition to most of the links above, I am gratified to find that my site has acquired links from many educational web sites and resource sites, including he following:

  • The National University of Singapore
  • The University of Bonn
  • Celestial Navigation in the Classroom
  • World Book online
  • Lehrstuhl für Didaktik der Physik Würzburg
  • Columbia University
  • Southern Polytechnic (Georgia)
  • United States Corps of Topgraphical Engineers
  • University of California San Diego
  • Education on the World Wide Web
  • Trails West --Markers of the California Trail
  • Indigenous Peoples Institute
  • Education America Network
  • The University of Kansas
  • Four Directions Institute
  • Plebius - Architecture of the Mind
  • BigTome.com
  • Lassen County California: History and Culture
  • Minnesota Public Radio: The Writer's Almanac
  • ENFIA -- The Eldorado National Forest Interpretive Association
  • Mill Valley Schools
  • Wirtualna Polska
  • Museum of Local History; Fremont, CA

H-CALIFORNIA, H-NET.MSU.EDU
[Editor's note: Bob tells me that the Long Camp site is his hobby. And what a hobby!
The camp site referred to above is depicted on the site in a photo that Bob took after hiking to it in snowshoes!! The site has a number of other Fremont-related links.. DSS]

And in these recently published books:

Pathfinder; John C Fremont and the Course of American Empire, Tom Chaffin, Hill & Wang, New York, 2002

A very nice mention and the URL to this website on the first page of the introduction. Wow!

John Charles Frémont: Western Pathfinder, Barbara Witteman, Capstone Press: Bridgestone Books, Part of Exploring the West Biographies, New York, 2002

This one is from a series of youth books. It contains links to the publisher's accompanying Internet search feature--FactHound--which leads to this website. A credit and url are also in the book.

Devil's Gate: Owning the Land, Owning the Story , Tom Rea, University of Oklahoma Press, 2006.

The history of the Sweetwater River valley in central Wyoming--a remote place including Devil's Gate, Independence Rock, and other sites along a stretch of the Oregon Trail.

And the Eldorado National Forest Interpretive Association's new guide, Hiking in the Greater Carson Pass Region, contains a map and hiking directions to Frémont's Long Camp, the historic site first discovered and presented on this website.


©1999, 2007
Bob Graham