Josepha Carson, wife of Kit, AKA our tour guide, explained the story of her marrying the explorer/soldier. One of family’s objections was that his first two wives were Indian. In spite of the nasty haranguing by her spinster tia (aunt), Carson persisted in courting this daughter of wealthy Spanish landowners. Maybe they were also influenced by his ability to speak thirteen Indian dialects, Spanish and French, while unable to read any language. In their twenty years of marriage, they had eight children of their own and ten adopted pueblo children. Josepha died in childbirth one month before her husband succumbed to a heart aneurism. First buried in Colorado, their graves are now in the Kit Carson Memorial Park.