John Wilusz, civil engineer and member of the Fremont Howitzer Recovery Team presents “Searching for Fremont’s Lost Cannon” at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. May 22 as part of the Frances Humphrey Lecture Series.
The recovery team’s mission is to better understand the second expedition of explorer John C. Fremont in 1843 and the mystery of the famous Western explorer’s lost cannon. In January 1844, Fremont abandoned a small cannon somewhere on the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada. At the time, he was a 31-year old lieutenant in the U.S. Army Topographical Engineers, leading a mapping expedition to facilitate the growing Western migration.
Exhausted and running low on provisions, Fremont and his men were searching for a pass over the range on their way to New Helvetia in Mexican California. The cannon was a burden not worth bearing under such difficult circumstances and was reportedly abandoned along the way. For the next century and a half, Fremont’s lost cannon has been the subject of many explorations, legends and controversies.
Between 1997 and 2001, a group of U.S. Forest Service volunteers discovered several iron artifacts, remnants of an 1840’s-era cannon carriage, in California’s Toiyabe National Forest. Their discoveries were the result of many years of research and field investigations.
The museum is at 600 N. Carson St. Doors open at 6 p.m. The program is free for museum members and for youth age 17 and younger. Regular adult admission is $8 and includes the lecture. For more information, contact Deborah Stevenson: dstevenson@nevadaculture.org or 775/687-4810, ext. 237.