Joseph R. Walker
Born in Tennessee on December 13, 1798, he grew to be six feet tall and at least 200 pounds, and was a powerful mountain man and trail blazer. Walker helped establish the Santa Fe trail, and discovered "Walker Pass" the gap in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. He was the first white man to find the Yosemite Valley in California.
Walker spent about 12 years as a trapper in the far west, and had long hair and a full beard, and always had a number of Indian women to keep him company. Later on he became the first sheriff of Jackson county, Missouri. Walker headed west again with Captain Benjamin Bonneville to lead an expedition to California, this group left Green River in Wyoming in July of 1883 and arrived on the pacific coast in November of that same year. They spent the winter in California and in February 1834 started back and arrived at the Bear River rendezvous in Utah in July.
Walker also served as John Fremont's guide on his expedition in 1845, later on Walker served as an Army scout and he also prospected for Gold.
William Walker
1824-60, American filibuster in Nicaragua, b. Nashville, Tenn. Walker, a qualified doctor, a lawyer, and a journalist by the time he was 24, sought a more adventurous career. After a short stay in San Francisco, his filibustering expeditions began with an invasion of Lower California (1853-54) intended to wrest the region together with Sonora from Mexico. The invasion failed miserably. He was tried for violating neutrality laws but was acquitted by a sympathetic jury. In June, 1855, Walker set out on another filibustering expedition, this time to Nicaragua, at the invitation of one of the country's revolutionary factions. His capture of Granada brought an end to the fighting, and, after obtaining recognition (May, 1856) from the United States for the new government, Walker declared himself president of Nicaragua in July, 1856. An alliance of hostile Central American states and the enmity of his former friend Cornelius Vanderbilt, whose Accessory Transit Company controlled Walker's supply lines, led to his defeat and surrender to the U.S. navy in May, 1857. Considered a hero by many Americans, Walker was again acquitted of violating neutrality, but he then alienated U.S. public opinion by blaming his defeat on the U.S. navy. From the Islas de la Bahía of Honduras, Walker made a final abortive attempt (1860) to
conquer Central America but was forced to surrender to the British navy. He was turned over to Honduras and was shot by a firing squad Sept. 12, 1860.
