News and Interesting Items Flash! Lost cannon parts found? Herb Kuehne of Kirkwood, CA tells us of items on display at the Humboldt-Toyage National Forest Ranger Station in Bridgeport. Herb took photographs of the parts and of three iron tires. They have been tentatively identified (lacking exact measurements) by Lt. Col. Paul Roswitz as the axle strap and trunnion plate of a pre-1848 US-made copy of the French mountain howitzer carriage. Mark Mysliwiec of Chicago regains his lead in the JCF Look-alike contest. I have not been as busy as usual with this Frémont project, because I have become involved with a group tracing out and mapping the remaining evidence of the 1852 Johnson Cut-off--the first wagon road across the Sierra on today's Hwy 50 alignment (more or less). The group of about 10 volunteers is led by Ford and Ellen Osborn and Eldorado National Forest archaeologist Krista Deal. This makes for great outings, fresh air, Nature, and a lot of fun. I have even been able to implement some of the barometrical work I have previously done regarding Frémont's routes in helping locate a site on the Johnson route. Here, a reenactment of the barometric data gathering of a survey of the Johnson road by civil engineer George H. Goddard in 1854. Goddard's use of the aneroid barometer on his survey was pioneering use of that instrument. Frémont's 1844 route from Red Lake to "THE PASS" (Carson Pass), nearly snowless in winter, has been developed by Peter Lathrop. As readers of The Report may have noted, there is no mention in the 1844 narrative of having to build a "road through the snow" between the "Long Camp" and the "summit of the pass." Peter locates that summit of February 1844. More of Peter's tracking of Frémont's route from the East Fork of the Carson River to Strawberry can be found below. February 2006: Tom Chaffin, Frémont's most recent biographer, and an old friend to this website, has had another new book released: Sea of Gray : The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah, Hill and Wang, 2006 The Crossing will be available at the Eldorado National Forest Interpretive Association (ENFIA) information center on highway 88 at Carson Pass. The Carson Pass center is staffed from late spring through fall. And ENFIA'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. See it In the Placerville area you can find a copy year-round at Placerville News Co, 409 on historic Main Street; right by the bell tower. Placerville News stocks a great selection of local. Also in the Hope Valley/Carson Pass area at Sorensen's Hope Valley Resort. Or call 1-800-423-9949 to order. Since July, 2004, Frémont's Long Camp has been a Geocache site. Click the Geocaching icon to visit the page. Anyone with a GPS device can participate in this popular new hobby. There are probably many geocaches right near you. Geocacher LFlood found it: Thank you for your scholarship and efforts to preserve our history. This is a highly deserving cache location. I'm glad it is still in its pristine state. Antiques Roadshow, April 4, 2005 (and rebroadcasts) Program #911 Reno Sparks Convention Center A model 1835 mountain howitzer tube dug up in a back yard near the California-Nevada border! The tube was marked "C. A. & Co. [Cyrus Alger], Boston." Just right, so far! However, the serial numbers indicated that this was "464" in Alger's production, and "87" in Alger's mountain howitzer production. It is marked by the proofer, Louis A. B. Walbach and carries the date 1853--the only year that Walbach was a proofer. So not Frémont's Lost Cannon, but these are still showing up in the region! Roadshow appraiser Christopher Mitchell put the value at $35-45,000. August, 2005. More from Nevada. Award-winning Cowboy Poet, singer and songwriter Richard Elloyan has a new smashing new CD Back in Heaven with a track entitled Frémont's Cannon. The lyrics are a roadmap to where the cannon was left in 1844. December, 2004. I was very pleased to receive a letter from Midge Sherwood advising me that I had been awarded an honorary charter membership in the Friends of Frémont organization, an adjunct of the Huntington Westerners. Ms. Sherwood serves as President of that group of Westerners, which is associated with the Huntinton Library and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, and as Founding Chairman of The Friends of Frémont. She is also the author of Frémont: Eagle of the West, Jackson Peak publishers, 2002. The Huntington Library is one of the great repositories of western material. Tom Chaffin, under an Andrew Mellon postdoctoral fellowship, spent much of nine months at the Huntington researching his new biography on Frémont (see below). Spring 2004. History Day I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Brittany Darrow, State History Day participant from Alta Sierra and Buchanan High in Clovis, CA. History Day in California is a statewide program sponsored by Constitutional Rights Foundation and the California Department of Education in conjunction with National History Day. Brittany was doing research for her presentation Exploring the West: The John and Jessie Frémont Story. I have since learned that Britanny has advanced to the State Finals, to be held April 29th - May 2nd, 2004 in Sacramento. Congratulations Brittany! In the course of her research, Britanny also interviewed Frémont's and Jessie Benton Frémont's biographers Tom Chaffin (see below), Mary Lee Spence, and Pamela Herr. Details of this program can be found on the following websites: Alta Sierra and Buchanan High, History Day in California, and National History Day Peter Lathrop of Minden, NV has spent years hiking the Markleeville/Carson Pass area--winter and summer--and has been looking at that part of the Sierra crossing route in detail. Usually accompanied by his mountain goat daughters ("Brittney and Heather never go around when they can go over"), Peter is collecting much new information on the western Nevada portion of the 1843-44 Frémont expedition--derived from Frémont's latitude determinations, the Report narrative, and extensive fieldwork. That work has now been extended to an examination of the west slope route beyond Carson Pass. A good place to start following the Lathrop adventures is with this initial page, which contains links: an email from Peter Lathrop. Peter's material can also be accessed by searching this website using the search button at the top of this page March, 2004. A side trip. A visit to the 1846 Hastings Adobe--the second oldest structure in Solano County, and one time home of Lansford W. Hastings, author of the Emigrant's Guide to California, and one of the framers of the Constitution of California. An important historic site in grave danger of being lost forever. See it. "MAYBYE" [sic] was the message I found inscribed on a marker when I visited the Long Camp site on July 8, 2003. Apparently a skeptic had visited the site! Over the years there have been many theories and suggestions for the location of the Long Camp. Most are presented on this website. They have, none of them, been very specific as to the exact location. See them This website has always provided space for contributors to provide alternate views and additional information. Some of these alternate views are by Peter Lathrop, Brian O'Connor, Lt. Col. Paul Rosewitz, Jiggs Caudron, Wayne Stark, John Grebenkemper, J. Patton, Raymond Aker (Drake Navigators Guild). Perhaps the author of the MAYBYE will come forward with his alternative. email Bob Graham See at Frémont's Longcamp on Google Maps! FRONT PAGE NEWS in 1842.--Frémont scales, and measures, a nearly 14,000' peak in the Rocky Mountains. No one had previously measured a peak of anywhere near that height in North America. The highest peak in the east was Mt. Washington at 6,288'. Frémont determined the height by making a series of barometric observations. The identity of the particular peak has been debated over many years. The American Alpine Society made a determination for Mt. Woodrow Wilson in the 1960s. But it was not Mt. Woodrow Wilson. Frémont's series of 12 barometric observations, when mathematically reduced by modern method, show conclusively that the peak was not Mt. Woodrow Wilson, but the nearby peak today called Fremont Peak, elevation 13,745'. See the route that the expedition took to the mountain, and a modern examination of Frémont's barometric observations. MAY 23, 1999 - Carson Pass Tom Chaffin (pictured) accompanied Bob Graham to Frémont's "Long Camp" site near Carson Pass. Professor Chaffin, of Emory University in Atlanta, was returning home from nine months at the Huntington Library in San Marino, where, under an Andrew Mellon postdoctoral fellowship, he has been researching a new biography of Frémont (see below). It was from this campsite on February 14, 1844 that Frémont and Preuss climbed Red Lake Peak (right) and recorded the first sighting of Lake Tahoe. The discovery of Lake Tahoe See an article by Tom Chaffin about visiting this campsite in the April 2000 issue of OUTSIDE MAGAZINE. UPDATE, December 2002-2006. PATHFINDER: John C. Frémont and the Course of American Empire by Tom ChaffinHill & Wang--Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2002 click image for larger view From the preface: "On one particularly splendid spring morning, up at the Sierra Nevada's Carson Pass, I strapped on snowshoes and, led by mountaineer Bob Graham, hiked up to Frémont's Long Camp, which the explorer established during his epic 1844 winter crossing of that range. Graham, a retired farmer from Sacramento--using Frémont's writings, modern topographical maps, and GPS technology--had discovered the site during his own rambles through the Sierras." Other books by Tom Chaffin Fatal Glory: Narciso Lopez and the First Clandestine U. S. War Against Cuba By Tom Chaffin University of Virginia Press. November 1996 Now in paperback. Sea of Gray : The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah By Tom Chaffin Hill and Wang Pub Date: 01/2006 Fall 2008: The H. L. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy By Tom Chaffin Hill and Wang Dayton, Nevada, January 29, 2002. "I am working on a song with the working title of Frémont's Cannon. I know a good deal about the events of the 43-44 expedition and have researched the net and library for additional information. I also had the good fortune of working as a range technician for the forest service at the Bridgeport Ranger District and have ridden or driven a good deal of the eastern slope of the Sierras. All this brings me to my question. Was the original cannon abandoned by Frémont ever found? Obviously you have done an incredible amount of research on the subject and I would really enjoy your thoughts on the matter." Richard Elloyan. Frémont's Cannon A sound sample in Quicktime® August 28 2005. Richard's latest CD, Back in Heaven [Lake Tahoe]. "Hello, Bob. I guess this has taken about three years from inception to completion. I hope you like it, regardless of the artistic license I used in telling the story. It is difficult to compress all this into a 5-minute song. Richard." I do like it! On Track 8, Frémont's Cannon [5:23], Richard has the history very correctly. He wasn't kidding when he promised it would be "very dramatic." He takes the listener right up Burcham Flat Road south of Bridgeport to where the Cannon was left in the snow on January 29, 1844. The chorus, which begins "Rock upon rock; snow upon snow," quotes the old Washo's warning to Frémont in Charity Valley on February 4, 1844. November 2005: "My Back in Heaven CD has just made it to #9 on the Western Music charts for albums, and Addicted to the Dust is the #5 song. A really big Thank you! to all my fans! Richard" Richard Elloyan is a singer, songwriter, and poet of unique wit and imagination. Writing his own music and poetry, he captures the spirit of the west and those who live its lifestyle. Raised in the historic mining town of Virginia City, Nevada, Richard grew up surrounded by the romantic stories and characters that shaped the growth of Nevada and California. In his day job, he is an environmental health specialist for the State of Nevada. In Frémont's search for the legendary Buenaventura River, he and the cannon nearly got to Richard Elloyan's hometown of Dayton, Nevada. Peter Lathrop of Minden, Nevada has been identifying and refining much of the Fremont 2nd Expedition route in western Nevada and the east slope of the Sierra Nevada. Peter has determined that Churchill Butte, just east of Dayton, was the mountain Frémont climbed on January 20, 1844 to survey the upstream course of the Carson River. Ominous looking storm clouds in the mountains determined him to move further south to attempt a crossing of the Sierra. Dayton, Nevada, June 28, 2004, The Reno Gazette, Frémont at Churchill Butte, by Laura Tennant. JULY 13, 2000 - Hope Valley. AND UPDATE Tom Howard: Professor Howard presented a slide show and talk on his book, SIERRA CROSSING: FIRST ROADS TO CALIFORNIA (University of California Press); the first book to deal comprehensively with the crossing of the Sierra Nevada from trails to highways. The talk was given at Sorrensen's Hope Valley Resort, which is situated on the West Fork of the Carson River at the top of Carson Canyon--just east of the Pickett's Junction. The next morning we did some hiking in the area; to my Frémont campsite, and down the original wagon route from Carson Pass to Red Lake. Click image to find Sierra Crossing at amazon.com See my photos of some of the historic roads written about in Tom's Book. FEBRUARY 13, 2000 - Sacramento. Like classic Jazz and Swing from the '30s, 40s, 50s? I have taken over the creation and maintenance of the website of my pal Shelley Burns and Avalon Swing. Check it out for events schedule, sound files, videos, and CD sales. No, this hasn't anything to do with John Charles Frémont or Francis Drake, but Shelley says she hasn't "anything at all against either of them." Hear Shelley in Quicktime® JULY 13, 2000 - Hope Valley. Early this year the Department of Defense eliminated the Selective Availability of civilian access to the Global Positioning System. Because of the increase in accuracy, it now makes sense to set the receiver to deg/min.mm, as opposed to the classic deg/min/sec. Elevations are now very good - better than a pocket aneroid and contour map! The refined coordinates made at the Frémont campsite are: The snow hole N38° 41' 02"; W119° 57' 22"; el. 8070' (EPE=6') Preuss vantage N38° 41' 01"; W119° 57' 18"; el. 8087' (EPE=6') Frémont's Long Camp is now a Geocache site. Click the Geocaching icon to visit the page. Anyone with a GPS device can participate in this popular new hobby. There are probably many geocaches right near you. Dunkerque, December 30, 1795. Precision is painstaking work. It demands precautions, stratagems planned like war. [Jean-Baptiste-Joseph] Delambre used astronomical theory to prepare his observations. He verified the verticality of his [Borda's repeating] circle by three different methods. He drew up formulas to correct his data for refraction and temperature. He estimated in advance the best precision he could expect. And only then did he begin his sightings of Polaris, a star particularly suitable for assessing latitude because its proximity to the pole meant that its angular height as it crossed the celestial meridian would, with only minimal correction, supple the angular distance of the observer from the equator.--or, in other words, his latitude. His thirty-eight observations of Polaris as it transited the celestial meridian below the pole gave him a latitude of 51° 3' 16.66", which shifted by a minuscule 0.06 seconds when he removed his least reliable data. The two hundred results for its transit above the celestial pole were trickier, due to the cloud cover, and differed by one full second with the earlier results. But when he excluded the less reliable data, the difference narrowed to within .5 seconds (or some twenty-five feet. It was another demonstration of the repeating circle's precision, as well as a testament to Delambre's preparation, skill, and integrity. Ken Alder, The Measure of All Things Frémont and Polaris and latitude SEPTEMBER, 2000. Grover's Hot Springs to Charity Valley: This is an on-site examimation of the Route to Carson Pass as traveled by the Expedition between Markleville and Carson Pass. The same route was traveled and described by Joseph LeConte on his trip from Yosemite to Lake Tahoe in 1870. Pictured are landmarks recorded by Frémont while led by his Washoe guide Mélo, the location from which the Pass was pointed out, and the location of the campsite of February 4th, 1844. The latitude determination of February 5th, which is the key to reconciling the Preuss detail map of the Sierra Crossing, is shown in an overview of the route from: Markleeville to Carson Pass. OCTOBER, 2000, Saint Louis, Missouri. Several emails regarding Frémont's mountain howitzer were recieved from Lt. Col. Paul R. Rosewitz, Field Artillery, U.S. Army, Military Education Quota Manager, in St. Louis, MO. The communications, because of their definitive nature, are posted on the website in their entirety. See the article Mountain Howitzer. AUGUST 25, 2001 - Piermont, New York. Rockland Cemetery. Rodger D. Cary writes: "General Frémont is buried in Rockland County New York, where I live. He has long been forgotten here. This year I have organized a ceremony at his grave to honor him. It will be on August 25, near the day he issued the first emancipation proclamation [in Missouri, as Major General of The Army of the West] in American history. In today's politically correct atmosphere that was the only way to get people and the press involved." Frémont's Emancipation Proclamation. NOVEMBER, 2001. First time in Paperback! Memoirs of My Life, John Charles Frémont , with a fine new introduction by Charles M. Robinson, III., professor of History at South Texas Community College, and the author of many books on the West. It contains over 650 pages. It is a photo facimile of the original slightly reduced, yet the text is perfectly readable. Unlike the heavy, oversized 1887 edition, I can carry this one to the coffee shop in the morning. The publisher, Cooper Square Press, has done a fine job of reproducing the 95 original plates. The price at Amazon is less than $20! Click the image to go there. And don't miss this one; Welsh, Stanley L., John Charles Frémont Botanical Explorer, Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Click image. "Among Frémont's most lasting and important works are those in the field of botany, a field largely ignored by his boigraphers." Stanley L. Welsh Frémont's contributions to the botany of the West. An email to this web site from a Forest Service nature guide. And SUMMER 2002, a new paperback printing of Frémont's Report of the Exploring Expedition: to the Rocky Mountains In the Year 1842, and to Oregon and North California in the Years 1843-44 by The Narrative Press at $27.95.   MAY 24, 1999 - Bodega Bay. Dr. Kent Lightfoot (foreground), head of the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, called a press conference to announce the results of a magnetometer sweep of Brian Kelleher's (white hat in center) Drake Landing Site at Campbell Cove. The survey's indications of habitation were strong enough that the State of California will conduct a "dig" within the next few months under the direction of archaeologist Breck Parkman (red jacket). Erika Radewagon, survey and remote-sensing specialist, demonstrates the use of the magnetometer Bob Graham's article on Drake's sixteenth century navigation. And, the results of his experiment in the determination of latitude using an astrolabe at Campbell Cove.  Read an email to this site by a descendant of Drake's crew. I get many emails asking about DREAM WEST, the 1986 CBS 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. If anyone does know, will they email me, and I will post it here. But there is a website created and maintained by Francisca and Alie. DREAM WEST This scene (left) from the mini-series is interesting. Frémont (actor Richard Chamberlain), with telescope, is apparently making a longitude determination by observing one of the four galilean moons of Jupiter. His assistant would be watching the chronometer to note the time to the second of the emersion or immersion of one of the satellites.. In the image above right, from the frontispiece of Soloman. N.Carvalho's 1856 Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the West with Col. Frémont's Last Expedition, Frémont is shown with sextant, and Carvalho recording the time of the chronometer. This is described in detail on this website in the following article. FRÉMONT AND THE DETERMINATION OF COORDINATES, or LONGITUDE AND THE BUENAVENTURA RIVER. ©1999, 2007 Bob Graham