Charles Preuss

Charles Preuss
Pruess Lake, Snake Valley, Utah

George Karl Ludwig Preuss (born 1803), Anglicized as Charles Preuss, was a surveyor and cartographer who accompanied John C. Fremont on his exploratory expeditions of the American west, including the expedition where he and Fremont were the first to record seeing Lake Tahoe from a mountaintop vantage point as they traversed what is now Carson Pass in February 1844. [1] He participated in expeditions until he reached the age of 50. One year later, in 1854, he committed suicide.

Pruess Lake (sic), in west-central Utah (south of Garrison, Utah) is named after him.[2]

His diary of the Fremont expedition was featured on a 2008 episode of This American Life. It contrasted Fremont's exuberance with Preuss' sober, often humorously melancholy opinions of the expedition. [1]

References

  1. ^ Charles Preuss
  2. ^ Van Cott, J. W., 1990, Utah Place Names, ISBN 0-87480-345-4