Jim Baker (frontiersman)
| Jim Baker | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1818 Belleville, St. Clair County, Illinois |
| Died | 1898 (aged 80) Savery, Carbon County, Wyoming |
| Resting place | Baker Cemetery, Savery, Carbon County, Wyoming |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Honest Jim Baker |
| Occupation | frontiersman, trapper, hunter, fur trader, explorer, army scout, interpreter, soldier, territorial militia officer, rancher, mine owner, toll keeper |
| Employer | Rocky Mountain Fur Company |
| Known for | Being a fur trapper, with Jim Bridger and Kit Carson, in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and a highly regarded, U.S. Army scout and Indian interpreter, for Generals John C. Fremont, William S. Harney, Albert Sydney Johnston, and George Armstrong Custer |
| Spouse(s) | married several times, to Native American women |
| Children | numerous |
Jim Baker (1818–1898) was a frontiersman, trapper, hunter, fur trader, explorer, army scout, interpreter, soldier, territorial militia officer, rancher, mine owner, toll keeper and mountain man and a friend of Jim Bridger and Kit Carson and one of General John C. Fremont's favorite scouts. He was one of the most colorful figures of the old frontier West.
The decline of the fur trade, in the early 1840s, drove many the trappers to quit, but Jim Baker stayed on. Little is known of his movements after 1844 but in 1855, he was hired as chief scout for General William S. Harney, of Fort Laramie, and was with the U.S. Army sent to pacify the Mormons in Utah. In 1873 Baker built a cabin with a guard tower near the Colorado Placers of the Little Snake River in Wyoming, where he raised livestock until his death in 1898. His cabin is currently, on display at the Little Snake River Museum in Savery, Wyoming. The grave of Jim Baker is marked with a stone at Baker Cemetery near Savery, Carbon County, Wyoming.
Baker was married several times, each time to a Native American woman, one of whom was the daughter of a Cherokee chief; he had a number of children. Another one of Baker's wives was a daughter of Shoshone chief, Washakie.
Jim Baker, was born in Belleville, St. Clair County, Illinois, of Scotch-Irish descent.
At an early age, Jim Baker traveled on foot to St. Louis, Missouri, where he met Jim Bridger. This was a beginning of a new adventure, as Baker signed a contract, with the American Fur Company, to join a trapping expedition.
At 21, Jim Baker was recruited by Jim Bridger, as a trapper for the American Fur Company, and on May 22, 1839, left St. Louis, with a large party, heading for the annual trapper rendezvous in the Wyoming mountains.
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