"Notice is hereby given to all persons, that Christopher Carson, a boy about 16 years old, small of his age, but thick-set; light hair, ran away from the subscriber, living in Franklin, Howard County, Missouri, to whom he had been bound to learn the saddler's trade. . . . One cent reward will be given to any person who will bring back the said boy.'' This notice appeared in the Missouri Intelligencer of October 6, 1826, at about the same time that Kit Carson, in the humble role of "cavvy boy" in Bent's Santa Fe caravan, embarked upon his notable career. Thirty years later, a postgraduate of...

In 1826 a seventeen-year-old Christopher "Kit" Carson ran away from his job as apprentice to a saddler in Franklin, Missouri and joined a merchant caravan bound for Santa Fe in the far Southwest. The flight marked his entry into the pages of history. In the decades that followed, Carson gained renown as a trapper, hunter, guide, rancher, army courier, Indian agent, and military officer. Along the way, his varied career as a frontiersman elevated him to the status of a national hero, on a par with Daniel Boone. In 1856, while at home with his family in Taos, New Mexico, Kit (being illiterate)...