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Frémont's Fourth Expedition into the San Luis Valley
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The ill-fated 1848-1849 expedition led by
John C. Frémont into the San Juan Mountains of the San Luis Valley
of southern Colorado is the subject of one of the Museum's permanent
exhibits.
A group of 35 men followed Frémont and guide Bill
Williams into the then little-known San Luis Valley with the purpose
of locating a year-round railroad route through the central Rocky
Mountains.
Caught by winter storms in the San Juan Mountains,
the expedition members broke into smaller parties and lost ten
members because of exposure, before being rescued in mid-January of
1849.
The story of their ordeal, objects left behind by the
expedition members at their Christmas Camp (or Camp Hope), and
alternate routes proposed by historians are covered in this
exhibit.
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