Zebulon Pike

“ I do not profess to be able to trail a mosquito over a granite bowlder, but I think we shall be able to discover precisely where Pike went on this trip, where he entered South Park, his course through it, the place where he left it, and how, after ascending the Arkansaw for two days, he descended this river to Cañon City. Every one of Pike's camps can be fixed within 2 or 3 m., and some of them with absolute precision. He was never on the Gunnison, or any other Pacific waters. One who wishes to satisfy himself on all these points needs only to study Pike's text with Sheet vii. ”

“ My father: I promise you, and you may confide in my word, that I will preserve peace; that I bury my hatchet; and that even should the Sioux come and strike me, for the first time I would not take up my hatchet; but should they come and strike me a second time, I would dig up my hatchet and revenge myself.
Art. 12. Extract of a letter, Pike to Robert Dickson, Lower Red Cedar Lake, Feb. 26th, 1806. (Orig. No. 9, pp. 23, 24.)
Mr. Grant was prepared to go on a trading voyage among the Fols Avoins ”

“ On Pike's folding Abstract, the individual whose mouth, jaws, and throat are so much in literary doubt figures as "Eskibugeckoge, Geuelle Platte, Flat Mouth, first chief of his band." This was a large one, best known as the Pillagers, also as Muckundwas, who had long maintained a separate tribal organization. The medal which Flat Mouth had received from the British at Fort William on Lake Superior, and which Pike took from him to substitute an American one, was replaced by a large solid silver one given him by Schoolcraft July 19th, 1828. ”

“ This was the river which Pike might have found, had his search been more fortunately directed, though neither he nor any other American was aware of that fact at the time. Nevertheless, he determined to carry out his orders to the letter, and with more courage than discretion pushed southward from his camp at Cañon City to discover an elusive Red river. He passed up that tributary of the Arkansaw which is now called Grape creek, and thus into the Wet Mountain valley. There the party suffered almost incredibly from cold and hunger; some of the men were frozen and crippled for life. ”

“ At its end stood a blockhouse, in a position known as Gibraltar point; another blockhouse stood at the mouth of the Don, on the left or east bank of that river. One now drives a few blocks from any hotel in the heart of the city to "old" Fort York, at present dismantled, but very much in evidence still of the scene of General Pike's victory and mortal hurt. The visitor will be warned off the premises by the functionary who has these disjecta membra in charge, as Lossing had been before I was ”

“ This sort of talk is not that mixture of youthful enthusiasm with prudence for which Pike begs Wilkinson's pardon in the next paragraph; but the determination of a resolute young fellow to obey orders to the best of his ability, and accomplish if possible the purpose of the secret instructions given him by General Wilkinson. It is also what boys call a "dead give away"; for here, at the outset of his Expedition, Pike is talking about going to New Mexico, intending to deceive the Spaniards he expected to meet there, and weighing the chances of their good or bad treatment of himself and party. ”

“ If this witness of arduous duty ardently done in the service of his country stand dumb before that startling tragedy which set the seal of sacrifice upon a devoted life, we may reflect that such a consummation of noble aspirations but capped the climax of unswerving patriotism and unwavering fidelity to lofty ideals when it transfigured the already celebrated explorer into a national hero and a popular idol. Pike's personality is not less picturesque than is his career unique ”

“ We will hear from Pike himself once more before he falls. It is before any landing has been effected. Forsyth's boats are nearing the shore; they are fired upon from the woods, but have not yet answered a shot. Pike is standing on the deck of the flagship, surrounded by his staff, straining his eager eyes impatiently at the boats, which he sees have been driven beyond the intended point of debarkation. ”

“ LIEUTENANT PIKE, THE TRAIL OF HONOR, FLAG AND DUTY
I. Always preserve your honor free from blemish.
II. Be ready at all times to die for your country.
General Pike’s rules for his little son.
[7]
FOREWORD
This story takes the adventure trail of that young soldier-explorer Zebulon Montgomery Pike, who was lost in the mountains of southern Colorado one hundred years ago. Another story in the Trail Blazers Series has told of Captains Lewis and Clark, who explored the northwestern part of the new Louisiana Territory. They, also, were young. Captain Lewis had just turned thirty. ”

“ Everything begins in watery elements; the force of falling water controls the course of empire; and the conversion of gravitational potentialities into electrical potencies realizes dreams of destiny, without the intercession of saints or the interference of God.
[II-6] Decidedly less than this; it is only 18-20 m. by river or rail from Minneapolis to Anoka, which Pike does not reach till to-morrow night; to-day's camp between Casey's isls. and Coon cr., in Anoka Co. if on the right, in Hennepin Co. if on the left. The three rapids he passed raised him from 792 to 808 feet above sea-level ”

“ Croix from his camp opposite Cannon r., Pike has bluffs off his right nearly all the way, and the town of Diamond Bluff, Pierce Co., Wis., is at the point where they first reach to the river, a mile and a half above the mouth of Trimbelle r., right, and 11 m. below Prescott. On the left the bluffs are off the river all the way, and for most of this distance Vermilion slough, running under the bluffs, cuts off an island 11 m. long and at its widest near 3 m. broad. The lower outlet of the slough is below Trimbelle r.; the middle opening is only 3 m. below Prescott; the upper one is at Hastings. ”

“ Those who may be more interested in Pike's Peak at a distance are referred to a dainty booklet entitled Legends of the Pike's Peak Region, 8vo, Denver, 1892; it is full of quaint local lore, especially of the traditions of the only mountain Pike climbed part way up. Among all the myths that cling to the Peak, obscuring the facts in the case like the clouds that mantle the mountain, the very basic one—that one on which the mountain rests, so to speak—is the universal tradition that the brave young officer discovered and ascended the Peak which upholds his name. ”

“ For many miles above and below this place—from Chippewa r. down to Winona, say 40 m.—the Father of Waters, like the father of Shem, Ham, and Japhet, if we can credit the chronicles of that ancient mariner, gets himself in very bad form. He reels along as if he would like to take both sides of the bluffs at once. Great skill has been shown by engineers in trying to steer him in the way he should go; much money has been spent in throwing out jetties like friends at each elbow of the staggering patriarch, to mend his ways ”

“ Pike was brave to excess, as we know; that and the mysterious crux of the orders he had from Wilkinson about the Spanish business must excuse this particular piece of foolhardihood. A more experienced mountaineer, with any concern for his own life, to say nothing of the lives of his men, would not have bucked up against those mountains under such circumstances. ”

“ Returning from Cass to Leech lake, and thence, by a more direct overland route than he had before taken, to the Mississippi in the vicinity of Lower Red Cedar lake, he descended the river to his stockade, picked up the men who had wintered there, and as soon as the ice broke up started in boats for St. Louis, which he reached in safety with all his party in April, 1806.
II. In July, 1806, Pike left St. Louis on his second expedition. He ascended the Missouri to the Osage, and the latter to the villages of the Indians of that name. ”

“ Pike's expeditions were the first military and the second governmental explorations which were pushed to any considerable extent in our then newly acquired territory of Louisiana. The name and fame of the brilliant young soldier who impersonated the authority of the United States over all the ground between British and Spanish possessions are thus inseparably linked with those of Lewis and Clark in the beginning of our history of the Great West—a West so great that it reached from the Mississippi to the Pacific. ”

“ Pike calls it "Leech Lake river" in this place, not because that was then or ever has been its name, but because it was on the route he was going to take from Sandy l. to Leech l. He flatters our intelligence further by giving us a perfectly blind snow-shoe trail, for the most part 'cross lots, without a single compass-point, with wild mileage or none, and not even a geographical hint, from the 20th to the 26th. He takes it for granted that we know all about the swamps of N. Minnesota in midwinter. ”

“ Pike's expectation of climbing his peak and getting back to his camp on Turkey cr. in one day may serve to console some who have thought they would like to take a stroll before breakfast to the same peak from the Antlers Hotel in Colorado Springs. Though Pike's actual footsteps in these mountains be not recoverable with exactitude, there is no uncertainty as to about where he was on the 26th and 27th, when he climbed S. of Mts. Cheyenne and Rosa to an altitude of about 9,000 feet, and then returned. Mt. Cheyenne is the foremost of the group of peaks in this part of the Front range ”

“ Before the end came, the British flag was brought to him. He made a sign to place it under his head; and thus he expired. [M-30]
Military history hardly furnishes a closer parallel than that between the death of Pike before York and of Wolfe before Quebec. Each led to the assault; each conquered; each fell in the arms of victory; each is said to have pillowed his head on the stricken colors of the defenders. On the other hand, no contrast could be more obtrusive than that between the fall of Brock before Queenstown Heights and the conduct of his successor, Sheaffe, at York. ”

“ As he had chosen the former, he sent his pipe to the Sioux and requested me to inform them that he and his people would encamp at the mouth of the Riviere De Corbeau the ensuing summer, where he would see the United States flag flying. As a proof of his pacific disposition, the Fols Avoin chief then spoke and said: "His nation was rendered small by its enemies; only a remnant was left, but they could boast of not being slaves; for that always in preference to their women and children being taken, they themselves killed them. ”

“ But for some miles after leaving Camp Independence, Pike must have kept pretty close to the south side of the Little Osage, to avoid the unnumbered mounds into which the country further to his left is broken. The hill to which Pike came in the forenoon represents a rise from the general 750-foot level hitherto traveled to about 1,100 feet. From its southern slopes, Mill and Wolverine creeks gather to flow into the Marmiton at and near Fort Scott; while from the other side some small runs seek the Little Osage. ”

“ It should be recorded of his explorations that, taking into consideration his small force, and almost inadequate means, no other man ever contributed to the geographical knowledge of the United States an amount comparable to that which the world owes to the heroic efforts and indomitable perseverance of Zebulon Montgomery Pike. ”

“ Past Pine cr., to some point on Grape cr. short of the boundary between Frémont and Custer cos., probably in the vicinity of Soda Springs or the station Grape. Pike is flanking a mountain as well as meandering a crooked creek; and, aside from any question of typographical error, we have to adjust his whole set of ostensible mileages by the topography of the country. If we should apply the figures he gives to the flat face of the map, we should run him clear over into New Mexico before he reaches his camp on the Conejos in Colorado. ”

“ In undertaking to follow a traveler, the first thing to ascertain is his "personal equation"—i. e., the probable error of his mileages. Pike traveled entirely by his watch, and all his distances are guesses based upon rate of progress—so many hours, so many miles. The way to approximate accuracy in this matter is to take him between two fixed points whose actual distance apart is ascertained, see what he makes of this, and adjust him accordingly. From St. Louis to Keokuk, by the present usual steamboat channel of the Miss. r., is 2021⁄4 m.; say to the foot of Des Moines rapids, roundly 200 m. ”

“ They are close together; each is about 2 m. long and at one point only a mile or so to the left of the river. Lake Taliaferro of Nicollet is on this connection, but further off. Pike is fairly within the great lacustrine region of Minnesota, where there are more lakes than have ever been counted. Half Moon l. is a little one, about half a mile below the discharge of Duck and Swamp lakes. The most notable point Pike passes to-day is the mouth of Rabbit r., on the right. ”

“ In the evening I went out upon a small but beautiful creek [i. e., Pine creek of Pike, now Swan river [II-21] ] which empties into the falls [on the W. 106 side] , for the purpose of selecting pine trees to make canoes. Saw five deer, and killed one buck weighing 137 pounds. By my leaving men at this place, and from the great quantities of game in its vicinity, I was insured plenty of provision for my return voyage. In the party [to be] left behind was one hunter, to be continually employed, who would keep our stock of salt provisions good. ”