Mural #6
“The Early Explorers”, the 6th of Barstow’s Main Street Murals, was completed in 2005. It is divided into six individual portraits of men involved in the pioneering and settling of our part of the Mojave Desert. They are installed separately on the front of the Mercado Mall complex on the south side of Main Street. The portraits were painted by master artist, Kathy Fierro and include an explanation of each man’s contribution. They represent nearly 80 years of exploration from Father Garces’ native-led trek across Southern California in 1776 to Amiel Whipple’s hunt for a possible route for a trans-continental railroad in 1854.

Location: 222 East Main Street (Mercado Mall front)

Father Garces 1738 – 1781
In early 1776, he set out northward from Yuma villages on the Colorado River on a journey that took him across the Mojave Desert to the Mission San Gabriel. He was the master of finding guides who would escort him through their own lands.

Jedidiah Smith 1798 – 1831
In 1826 he led a party of 17 men through the territory of the Mojave Indians, then across our Great Desert. During the trek, the heat became so intense that it forced him and his men to bury themselves in the sand to keep cool. They were the first Americans to enter Califonia overland from the east.

John C Fremont 1813 – 1890
Called “Path finder”, he was known as the West’s greatest adventurer, noted for bravery and his meticulous recorded notes on vegetation and geography. ON his 3rd expedition across CA in 1845 he, along with Kit Carson, led the California Pioneers to rebel against Mexico to gain Independence.

Christopher Houston “Kit Carson” 1809 – 1868
Kit Carson was born the 9th of 14 children on Christmas Eve, 1809 in Madison County, Kentucky. During his long and illustrious career ranging throughout the Desert Southwest, he was a trapper guide, military scout, Indian agent, soldier, rancher and authentic legend. Carson’s service guiding Fremont across the deserts and mountains of the American West… documented in Fremont’s widely read reports of his expeditions…made Kit Carson a national hero.

General Steven Watts Kearney 1794 – 1848
He was “the Father of the US Cavalry” and President Plk named him “Commander of the Army of the West”. In 1846 he went from Sabta FE, NM on to CA with 100 men on an arduous trip across our desert and on to a battle at San Pascal in the fight for Independence from Mexico.

Amiel Weeks Whipple 1817 - 1868
His expedition for a transcontinental railroad, crossed the Colorado River on February 27th 1854 and three weeks later reached Los Angeles, receiving aid from Mojave Indians. The Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad followed Whipple’s trail for much of the way from Albuquerque to California. The scientific reports are considered a ‘Glorious Chapter” in the history of American science.