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Kit Carson (credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

(born Dec. 24, 1809, Madison county, Ky., U.S. — died May 23, 1868, Fort Lyon, Colo.) U.S. frontiersman, scout, and Indian agent. Raised in Missouri, he ran away from home at age 15 to become a trapper and trader in the Southwest. In the early 1840s he served as a guide to John C. Frémont's explorations of the West. He guided Gen. Stephen Kearny's expedition to California during the Mexican War, often carrying dispatches to Washington, D.C. In 1854 he was appointed Indian agent (an official representative of the U.S. government to Indian tribes) at Taos, N.M. During the American Civil War he commanded the 1st New Mexico Volunteers. In 1868 he was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs for the Colorado Territory. His contributions to westward expansion made him a folk hero.

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