Joseph R. Walker

Joseph R. Walker (December 13, 1798 – October 27, 1876) was a mountain man and experienced scout. He established the segment of the California Trail, the primary route for the emigrants to the gold fields during the California gold rush, from Fort Hall, Idaho to the Truckee River. The Walker River and Walker Lake in Nevada were named for him by John C. Frémont.

The R. stood for Rutherford, but is also found as Reddford, Reddeford, and Redeford. "Rutherford" came from his great-grandmother's, Kathleen Rutherford Walker, line, and not his mother's, as incorrectly stated in some sources.

Walker was born in Roane County, Tennessee, the fourth child of seven born to Joseph and Susan Willis Walker. In 1819, the family emigrated to Missouri, settling west of Fort Osage. In 1820, he traveled to Santa Fe and was detained for a short while by Spanish authorities. He may have become one of the "Taos trappers" trapping beaver in the Spanish/Mexican territory of Alta California, then working on the Santa Fe Trail from Missouri to Santa Fe with "Old" Bill Williams. He returned to Missouri and in 1827 was appointed sheriff of Jackson County.

In 1830, Walker was driving horses to Fort Gibson in Oklahoma, where he met Benjamin Bonneville. Walker wanted to explore the American frontier, and Bonneville offered him an opportunity to join him in his expeditions. In 1832, Walker left from Fort Osage with Bonneville and 110 other men, traveling to the Green River in Wyoming.

In 1833, Bonneville sent Walker in command of a party of men, including Old Bill Williams and Zenas Leonard, from the Green River to explore the Great Salt Lake and to find an overland route to California. They left on July 27 and eventually discovered a route along the Humboldt River across present-day Nevada. They followed it to the Humboldt Sink, then made their way to present day Genoa, Nevada at the base of the Sierra Nevada. They began their ascent of the Sierra by traveling up the west fork of the Carson River to Hawkins Peak. At that point, they began wandering, trying to find a path to a dividing ridge and down the western slope. They finally made their way to the headwaters of the Stanislaus River and descended on the ridgeline north of the river canyon. They eventually made it to the river itself, then followed it down to the Central Valley of California. According to Walker's gravestone, he camped in Yosemite on Nov. 13 1833, though this is disputed. The approach to the Sierra via the Humboldt River route later became known as the California Trail, the primary route for the emigrants to the gold fields during the California gold rush.

On February 14, 1834, Walker and his party of fifty-two men left on their return trip from California, crossing back over the Sierra Nevada through one of the southern passes. The group made it to Owens Valley on May 1, 1834, and traveled up it but became impatient to turn east. They crossed out of the valley on May 10 but soon became alarmed by the lack of water. They went back west to the base of the Sierra and traveled north to the Humboldt Sink, then they traveled back to the Rocky Mountains the way they had come the previous summer.

At some point in the ensuing years, Walker took a Shoshone wife.

In 1840 Walker and a band of followers made the first known north to south crossing of the eastern Great Basin by Americans. Starting from Browns Park (Brown's Hole) along the Green River, Walker and his men crossed the Wasatch Range to the Sevier Lake and traveled south to the upper Virgin River which they descended until reaching its confluence with the Colorado River. From the Colorado, they crossed the Mojave Desert to Los Angeles where Walker sold 417 pounds of beaver pelts to Abel Stearns, an American expatriate living in Los Angeles, who became Walker's business agent in purchasing horses. Walker left California with a hundred mares and an unknown number of mules.