 The author in the courtyard of Kit Carson's house, Taos. | Last month I took a weekend trip up to Taos, New Mexico to enjoy a little R&R and to snoop around a bit. Taos is as historic as a town can get. The area has been inhabited since around 1,000 AD. When the first European in the area, Hernando de Alvarado, saw the adobe walls of Taos Pueblo shining in the evening |
sun, he believed that he'd discovered the fabled El Dorado, or city of gold.
Beginning in the early 1700s, Taos was the site of annual summer trade fairs, where Comanches, Kiowas and other Plains Indians came to trade captives for horses, grains, and trade goods brought up from Mexico. It was also the center for the fur trade, attracting the wild mountain men who hunted beaver throughout the Rocky Mountains. One of the most famous of the mountain men, Kit Carson, married a local girl and made Taos his home.
Beginning in the early 1700s, Taos was the site of annual summer trade fairs, where Comanches, Kiowas and other Plains Indians came to trade captives for horses, grains, and trade goods brought up from Mexico. It was also the center for the fur trade, attracting the wild mountain men who hunted beaver throughout the Rocky Mountains. One of the most famous of the mountain men, Kit Carson, married a local girl and made Taos his home.
Located just off the town plaza, the Carson home was probably built around 1825. It is a one-story adobe with three rooms: a living/sleeping room, a kitchen, and a parlor/office. The ceilings and doorways were low. Although |  The fireplace in the kitchen of the Carson house was set in a corner, with access from two sides. |
now large and filled with glass, the original windows would have been very small, made out of thin sheets of mica, and barred with iron rods to protect against Indian raids.
Much of the day to day living in the Carson house occurred in the central courthouse of the house. It was here that Josepha would have done the laundry, cooked most of the meals, and processed wool. The well and outhouse would have been in the courtyard as well. During the time that Carson was the Indian agent for the area, Indians often camped in the court yard while waiting for him to make decisions.
Kit and Josepha moved the family to Colorado in 1867, when he became the commander of Fort Garland, but they loved Taos enough that they were both buried there, in the cemetery that is just a short walk away and is now part of Kit Carson Park.
Much of the day to day living in the Carson house occurred in the central courthouse of the house. It was here that Josepha would have done the laundry, cooked most of the meals, and processed wool. The well and outhouse would have been in the courtyard as well. During the time that Carson was the Indian agent for the area, Indians often camped in the court yard while waiting for him to make decisions.
Kit and Josepha moved the family to Colorado in 1867, when he became the commander of Fort Garland, but they loved Taos enough that they were both buried there, in the cemetery that is just a short walk away and is now part of Kit Carson Park.
Jennifer Bohnhoff is the author of several novels, including on in which Kit Carson has a small roll. You can read more about Rebels Along the Rio Grande, a trilogy of historical novels set in New Mexico during the Civil War, by clicking here.
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