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Jim Baker, the Forgotten Man Jim Baker: Trapper, Guide, Army Scout, Businessman and Pioneer

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Jim Baker, the Forgotten Man Jim Baker: Trapper, Guide, Army Scout, Businessman and Pioneer ASAC_Vol99_00-Carter_090004.qxp 7/23/09 4:49 PM Page 11 Jim Baker, The Forgotten Man Jim Baker: Trapper, Guide, Army Scout, Businessman and Pioneer By David Carter Often referred to as “the forgotten man,” Jim Baker (Figures 1 and 2) was a trapper, guide, army scout, Indian fighter, map maker, homesteader, pioneer rancher, business- man, husband, and father many times over, whose adventur- ous life was long and colorful, apropos to his 6’4” frame and bright red hair. He was friends with Jim Bridger, Kit Carson and other long-remembered mountain men, and he was one of General John C. Fremont’s favorite scouts. He has been called the forgotten mountain man, as found in the Daily (Colorado) Tribune, June 28, 1923: “While Jim Baker, living, had never meant so very much to Coloradans, Baker dead was remembered as Colorado’s first citizen, the original settler in that state, along with Wyoming.” Jim Baker was born in Belleville, St. Clair County, Illinois on December 19, 1818, of Scottish/English ancestry. Figure 1. Oil painting by C. Waldo Love, 1935 Colorado Historical Figure 2. Oil painting by Lansdale Fox, 1924 Colorado Historical Society, Denver, CO. Society, Denver, CO. 99/11 Reprinted from the American Society of Arms Collectors Bulletin 99:11-16 Additional articles available at http://americansocietyofarmscollectors.org/resources/articles/ ASAC_Vol99_00-Carter_090004.qxp 7/23/09 4:49 PM Page 12 Not much is known about his early days other than that he not fight at night, the trappers used darkness to reinforce developed a life-long love of the outdoors. He attended their small barracks. During the morning of August 22nd, school until he was old enough to apprentice as a shoemaker. the Indians withdrew, having suffered many losses. Stories of The apprenticeship lasted only about a year. Baker’s bravery, daring, leadership and marksmanship were He “borrowed” $20.00 from his mother and left for told by the survivors and his reputation as an Indian fighter St. Louis, the gateway to the West, at the age of 20. Walking was assured. Baker, in 1886, gave an interview to the Denver down the street in St. Charles, at over 6 feet tall with bright Republican and said that the Indians made about 40 charges red hair, he was noticed by Jim Bridger, who hired him to against the small log barracks on the island and, using mostly work for the American Fur Company. They left soon on the bow and arrows, came within 10–15 paces of the trappers steamer St. Peters for the beaver country in the West, travel- before being shot. All estimates were of approximately 100 ling up the Missouri, then overland to Ft. Laramie, then west attacking Indians killed with the loss of only four trappers. over South Pass to the 1839 Green River Rendezvous. Shortly after, Bridger, Baker and ten others left for the At the rendezvous Baker met Kit Carson and started life Southwest, going down the west side of the Rockies toward as a trapper. Baker spent 1839 and all of 1840 trapping on the Little Colorado. There they encountered Apaches, had the Green River and into the Wind River Mountains in what several fights, lost 4 men and turned back towards the Green is now Wyoming. In the fall of 1840, about 60 mountain men River until they ran into the Utes, who convinced them to and 800 Shoshoni Indians gathered in Brown’s Hole for the stop trapping and leave the area. Nine months later, they winter. Henry Fraeb, along with Father De Smet and his fam- arrived back at Bridger’s camp. ily brought supplies for the last rendezvous that year. General Fremont returned to Brown’s Hole on the Bridger, Fraeb, Baker and Jack Robinson spent the winter on Green River from his exploits in Utah, where Bridger and Henry’s fork of the Green River. Baker joined Fremont’s party with Kit Carson. They In 1841, with his two year contract completed, Baker explored the three central “parks” of Colorado, arriving at headed back to Illinois to see his family. After a limited time Pueblo on June 29, 1844. They went on to Bent’s Fort, and with his family and old friends, he realized that he couldn’t then Taos, the home of Kit Carson. live where “people were so thick.” Going back to St. Louis, Baker spent the winter of 1845–46 (called “the worst Baker caught a wagon train going to California, captained by winter on record”) near the North Platte River west of the Thomas “Broken Hand” Fitzpatrick and accompanied by Medicine Bow Mountains of Wyoming. Temperatures of 60 Father De Smet. Baker became the supplier of meat for the below killed not only the horses, but all the buffalo, deer, train. Upon reaching the Green River, the train met Henry moose and elk, leaving Baker and his companions to survive Fraeb and his party of 20 hunters and trappers on July 23, on rose hips and cottonwood bark. Having heard stories from 1841. The train split, with Father De Smet going on to Fremont, Carson and Fitzpatrick of tremendous horse herds Oregon with half the settlers and the other half going on to ripe for the taking, Baker and a few others set off for California to become the first Americans to arrive in California after acquiring the necessary horses and pack ani- California by overland travel. Jim Baker returned to his friend mals. Baker’s crew arrived in California in the spring of 1846, Jim Bridger on the Henry’s Fork and the mountains, where gathered a herd of 10,000 horses, then headed back east. he would remain the balance of his life. They were well-armed enough to drive off the various Indians Henry Fraeb and his 20-man party had gone east to the and Mexican vaqueros, losing only a few horses along the Little Snake River Valley, an area just north of present day way. Their real enemy was the desert between the Sierra and Baggs, Wyoming. Bridger received word that a large band of the Rockies. When they finally arrived back at Black’s Fort on Sioux, Arapahoe, and Cheyenne were on the warpath and the Green River, they only had about 4,000 horses to trade intended to wipe out the trappers and hunters. Bridger sent with the Indians. Baker and two others to warn Fraeb. Shortly after their In the fall of 1846, Baker and his horses settled in with arrival, another trapper came in and said that the Indians had a band of Shoshoni near the Wind River for the winter. killed his companions and were headed toward Fraeb’s Although never very good with a bow and arrow, he was group. On August 20, 1841, Fraeb moved his camp to an unmatched with a rifle. Kit Carson often said that Baker was island at the junction of a stream (now named Battle Creek) the best shot in the West, next to himself. Since he loved to that entered the Little Snake. The men, numbering 25 hunt, he was always welcome as a hunter for the winter. whites and about 20 Shoshoni warriors, set up a fort on the While out hunting with the bands’ braves in the spring, a island and fought against more than 500 attackers. The Blackfoot party raided the camp, killing several old people, attack continued through the 21st. Fraeb was killed and kidnapping two young girls, taking all the horses and burning Baker, age 22, assumed command. Since the Sioux would the tipis. Chief Arizona organized a party of his best warriors, 99/12 Reprinted from the American Society of Arms Collectors Bulletin 99:11-16 Additional articles available at http://americansocietyofarmscollectors.org/resources/articles/ ASAC_Vol99_00-Carter_090004.qxp 7/23/09 4:49 PM Page 13 along with Jim Baker, to go after the Blackfeet party. They west. Baker was sent to the site of the Mountain Meadows found the Blackfeet party at nightfall. Baker went into the Massacre and filed a report naming the Mormons as the per- camp to rescue the girls while the others took all the horses. petrators, which caused Brigham Young to offer a reward of After a small fight, the Shoshoni and Baker returned with the $5,000.00 for Jim Baker, dead. Finally, when Colonel Albert Shoshoni horses, the Blackfeet horses and the two girls. One Sidney Johnston arrived at Ft. Bridger on November 18, 1857, of the rescued girls was the Chief’s daughter, Marina. Jim he found everything burned as the Mormons retreated west. married Marina, the first of six Shoshoni wives for him. On November 24, Captain Randolph B. Marcy was In 1849, with too many miners traveling west to the ordered to select a unit of volunteers from Ft. Bridger and gold fields in California, Baker left for the Milk River country head 650 miles southeast for supplies at Taos, New Mexico. in Montana with a few friends. After a successful trapping Marcy’s unit left on November 27 with 40 volunteer troops, trip north of the Yellowstone River and many run-ins with 25 civilian mountain men, and 65 mules. Baker and his the Sioux and Blackfeet, they arrived back on the Wind River friend Goodale were the guides for the 25-day trip. They in June 1850, having covered 1200 miles. traveled southwest into the Unitah Mountains, across the In 1851, Kit Carson organized a new trapping trip, Green River and the Colorado River, finally arriving at the with written invitations to his old friends.
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