John C. Fremont

John C. Fremont was one of most famous explorers of the American West and a towering figure in the history of California's 19th-century gold rush. John Fremont was among the second rank of explorers to follow Lewis & Clark into the American frontier. He explored and surveyed much of the American west, in particular the Oregon Trail, during the late 1830s and early 1840s. He eventually settled in California and grew wealthy during the gold rush of 1848. Nationally famous as an explorer, soldier and politician, Fremont became one of California's first two senators in 1850. He was the Republican party's first-ever candidate for president in 1856 and ran again in 1860, withdrawing in the latter year in favor of eventual President Abraham Lincoln.