Report Of An Exploration Of The Country Lying Between The Missouri River And The Rocky Mountains, On The Line Of The Kansas And Great Platte Rivers Fremont, Lieutenant John C. (1813-1890) Americana & Canadiana

(8 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches). First Edition. 207 pp. with lithographed hand-colored folding map and six plates, three of which are tinted. Stitched in original brown printed paper wrappers, in a custom gilt brown morocco-backed clamshell case First edition of the report on Fremont's first expedition to the Rocky Mountains, in the rare original printed paper wrappers. Frémont's first expedition was an ambitious undertaking commissioned by the U.S. Army's Corps of Topographical Engineers. Its primary objectives were to survey and map parts of the American West and to assess the feasibility of potential transcontinental railroad routes. Frémont led the expedition accompanied by key figures including the German mapmaker Charles Preuss, who served as his assistant topographical surveyor, Lucien B. Maxwell of Kaskaskia, Illinois, who was engaged as a hunter, and the legendary frontiersman Kit Carson who acted as the guide. The rest of the small party of some twenty men included those from the St. Louis, Missouri area, principally Creole and Canadian voyageurs who had become familiar with prairie life in the service of the fur companies in the Indian country. The expedition explored various regions of the American West, including the Oregon Trail through the South Pass, the Wind River Valley, and several rivers and mountain ranges. They reached as far west as the Wind River Range in present-day Wyoming. One of the notable events during the expedition was the climbing of what is now known as Frémont's Peak in Wyoming. At its summit, Frémont planted an American flag, symbolically claiming the Rocky Mountains and the West as United States Territory. Upon his return home to Washington, DC, Frémont dictated much of the report to his wife, Jessie Benton Frémont, a political activist and gifted writer. "The horseback life, the sleep in the open air," she later recalled, "had unfitted Mr. Frémont for the indoor work of writing." Therefore, Jessie, intensely interested in the details of his expedition, became his recorder, making notes as he described his experiences. Adding human-interest touches to these printed reports, of which the present work is the pivotal first, she wrote and edited best-selling stories of the adventures Frémont had while exploring the West. The public's eagerness for more information coincided with a time when the concept of Manifest Destiny was becoming increasingly popular and these narratives were received with great enthusiasm. This first edition of Frémont's report serves to mark the beginning of the public's changing attitudes towards what was formerly perceived as the untamed and dangerous American West. This report stands as a vital document that significantly contributed to the watershed moment of Westward expansion that led to American prosperity but also to the devastating displacement of many indigenous populations, making it a highly significant and complex publication in American history. Howes F371; Wagner-Camp 95; Streeter 'Sale' 3130; Graff 1437; Sabin 25843; Wheat Transmississippi West 464; Wynar Colorado 203; Bradford 1784.