Known as The Pathfinder for his early explorations west of the Mississippi and Missouri river system, Capt. John C. Fremont visited an Indian Village on Southern Oregon’s Klamath Lake on Dec. 11, 1843.
He wrote in his memoirs that the Indians were well adapted to their surroundings. He described “great quantities of small smoked and dried fish suspended on strings about a lodge.” They had shoes made of straw or grass and the women wore caps made of tightly woven baskets and adorned their noses with shells.
Dogs resembling wolves sat atop huts. Fremont “purchased” one and named it Tlamath after its birthplace, which he spelled with a “t” instead of a “k,” explaining it was closer to the Indian pronunciation. The dog was doomed, but that’s a story for another day.
Fremont described the marsh-like lake as “picturesque and beautiful,” surrounded by fertile land and forests filled with game.
He wrote, “Situated near the heads of three rivers and on the line of inland communication with California, and near to Indians known for treachery, it will naturally, in the progress of the settlement of Oregon, become a point for military occupation and settlement.”
Source: Fremont, John C. Memoirs of My Life and Times. First ed. New York, N.Y.: Cooper Square Press, 2001. Print. [Originally published Chicago: Belford, Clarke & Co. 1887. ]
