Keeping in mind the end result is the infamous adventures of Joaquin Murrieta, I am attempting to answer the question: How does a man of such promise end up with his head in a jar? In so doing I am on a trail that includes not only his last moments on earth but his pillage of the California goldfields, and to understand this, the history of the Anglo conquest of the state. One pivotal character was John Fremont, who, by all accounts, cut a dashing figure, trumpeting the Bear Flag around and raising the banner of Manifest Destiny. Known as ‘the Pathfinder,’ Fremont’s commission was as a cartographer and explorer in the US Army, and he was one of the more adventurous personalities of his time. He also played a vital role in the ‘acquisition’ of California. Married to the beautiful, trilingual daughter of Senator Benton from Tennessee, who, with her father helped commandeer the ethos of Manifest Destiny into Fremont’s expeditions, as well as write up the reports that made him a celebrity, was about as fairy-tale a wife as one could imagine. The financial backing to fund his 25 or so hand picked Yankee buckaroos, who, along with the famed explorer and injun’ scout, Kit Carson, would have been considerable. The army sponsored the expedition, but the diverse and skilled hand-picked crew, suggests arrangements outside of normal government channels. Manifest Destiny had a hefty following at this time, fueled by the notion that god wills it so, and all the fervor this blood drenched incentive includes. So when he entered the state from the north in 1846 and raised the stars and stripes over the Presidio at San Francisco, there was a lot of ballyhooing, and saber rattling, and just as quickly Fremont vanished in the San Francisco fog, or more accurately back to Sutter’s Fort. In addition to Kit Carson’s fee, things like camping out at Sutter’, with his endorsement, was not quartered, but included at minimum a quid pro quo – to have a hand in the spoils of a liberated California. Sutter was a Swiss Anglo, who built a traditional medieval fort with impregnable walls and gun emplacements, out in the middle of, then, nowhere, now, Sacramento, in some sort of flight of aristocratic fancy, fashioning himself as the new royalty, complete with surrounding serfdom, (some call slavery) from the local population of disenfranchised Native Americans, and of course Mexicans. Sutter’s greatest hold on history is the gold that was first discovered at his saw mill. He was working on a saw that could harness the power of water to cut boards, instead of the manual intensive two man saw, then used exclusively, when the first nugget was spied in the diverted creek. But I’m getting ahead of myself. At Sutter’s Fort, Fremont then proceeded to play a cat and mouse game with Californio governor Pio Pico, (taunting the Mexican alcalde governor from the edge civilization meant that some kind of military campaign had to be launched, and Pico neither had the heart nor the money) Within months, Fremont meets Archibald Gillespie – Lieutenant in the American Navy, who had just sailed in from Hawaii – to shore up the coup. Gillespie, of course, under orders from the US government, no doubt to seize the state at all costs, but do so surreptitiously, was a critical piece of the puzzle. Keep in mind, the US had not yet declared war on Mexico.

First meeting Thomas Larkin in Monterey, before engaging Fremont off the coast of Oregon, he was charged with delivering his dispatch; a couple of years earlier, in 1844, Larkin was appointed American Council – whatever that means, and was the first American born Californio in the state. That is to say, the first born to an American family in California – ie: White Anglo decent. Larkin was a colorful dude in his own right, a builder who designed the Monterey Colonial, which in architecture embodies the blend of cultures colliding at this time – adobe with the second story porch, in a style found in Virginia, or North Carolina. To cut to the chase, Larkin, Fremont, Sutter, and company, were up to their teeth. Fremont ends up boarding ship in Monterey Bay, sailing into Los Angeles and taking over the town, more or less, without much of a fight. After the battle of San Pasqual, in San Diego, Pio Pico, a true Califonrnio, and legally appointed governor, was banished to Baja for a time, and will play a role in the legend of Joaquin when the dust settles over who owns the state. The gold dust that is. Keep in mind Murrieta is roughly 16 at this time, and would have known of, or come to know, Pico, Fremont and certainly Sutter.