Kit Carson House

(Taos NM)
After many years of adventures in the mountain west, Christopher “Kit” Carson settled at Taos in 1843. There he married young Josefa from a prominent Mexican family; and, they raised seven children in this three room adobe with patio, ramada, and horno. He also had a ranch further east in Rayado NM (near Cimarron) and a place in Boggsville CO.

Kit Carson House – 1840s

The patio would not have had the large plants, except for perhaps a small kitchen garden. It would have been just a dirt yard, shared with a neighbor, and with an outhouse on the far side.

Sitting & Sleeping Room

Kitchen & Dining Room

He ran away from his childhood home in Kentucky when just 17, to explore the wild west. And became a skilled hunter, trapper, scout, horseman, rancher, army officer, Indian agent and friend to natives. Famed explorer John Frémont hired Kit as his guide; and, he became a buffalo hunter for Bent’s Fort along the Santa Fe Trail.

Patio with Ramada & Horno

Exhibit in Museum

He was instrumental in opening the west, involved in the mapping of what became Oregon and Washington, helped secure California independence during the Mexican War, as an Indian agent he encouraged the government to help the natives, and served as an army officer during the Civil War.

Portrait Painting of Kit Carson

Graves of Josefa & Kit Carson

One month after his wife passed away from a difficult childbirth, Kit died from an aneurysm in Fort Lyon CO, at age 59. Their bodies are now buried a few blocks from the Taos house in the Kit Carson Memorial Cemetery.

Camp: Eagle Nest Lake SP drycamp
Scene: House, history