USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 34
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 34
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 34
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General Wilkinson, whose military duties included keeping peace with the Indians, thought to serve his country and gratify the president by sending young Pike to explore the upper Mississippi, under the pre- tence of communicating with Indian tribes in that region. To this end, in August 1805, a keel-boat seventy feet long, manned by a crew of one sergeant, two corporals, and seventeen privates, under Lieuten- ant Pike, left St Louis to discover the source of the Mississippi, being provisioned for four months. He had started late for such an undertaking, encounter- ing many difficulties, and performing the last part of the journey with sledges drawn by his men. On the last of January 1806 he reached the utmost source of the great river, arriving at a fort of the North- west Fur company, by whose officers he was gener- ously entertained. He returned to St Louis about the last of April.
General Wilkinson had meanwhile found cause for another expedition, having on his hands some rescued captives of the Kaw nation, who lived on the Osage river, a southern branch of the Kansas, and whom he had promised to restore to their people. On this errand, possibly, Pike set out July 15th, after a brief rest at home with his family.
345
VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS.
His party consisted of one lieutenant, one surgeon, one sergeant, two corporals, sixteen privates, and an interpreter, besides fifty-one Indians of all ages, and both sexes. He ascended the Missouri in two boats, taking six weeks to this part of the journey, which brought him to the Osage river. Here he landed his expedition, purchased horses, loaded them with pro- visions and presents, and set out north-westward across the plains, delivering his Indian wards to their people as previously agreed upon. Having performed this part of his duty, he entered upon the more inter- esting one of exploration. Crossing the country to the Arkansas river he ascended that stream, finding the plains black with buffaloes. At two o'clock on the afternoon of the 15th of November he first dis- cerned a small blue cloud, which being viewed with a spy-glass he perceived to be a mountain. A half hour later the range came into view, and his men gave "three cheers for the Mexican mountains."
It was already too late in the autumn for mountain travel, but Pike knew nothing of fear or discourage- ment. Pressing eagerly forward for yet another week, he at length reached the most eastern ridge of the Colorado range, thinking to come to the base of the peak which bears his name; but finding, when with great toil and suffering from struggling through snow that he was still distant fifteen miles from this moun- tain, he relinquished the attempt, his men being with- out proper clothing, and having quite worn out their stockings. Before beginning the ascent Pike had established a depot at or near the mouth of Fontaine- qui-Bouille, where he left most of his party; thence he moved camp nearer to the foot of the Sangre de Cristo range, about where Cañon city now stands. The cold was severe, and many of the men were frost- bitten. Leaving these in camp he began exploring for a river by which he might return to the Missis- sippi, it having been specially charged upon him to discover if possible the sources of the Red river.
346
DISCOVERY AND OCCUPATION.
Coming to the South park by the present route from Cañon City, he called the first stream he reached the Platte, in which curiously enough he was correct; but in his wanderings striking the head of Grand river, he believed it to be the Yellowstone. Other errors were entered on his chart, given in chapter XV of my Arizona and New Mexico. The geography of the west was very vague as yet; and toiling about in the mountains with the mercury below zero was but a poor way to improve it.
But in the South park he made a discovery that white men and Indians had been there before him, and that recently. Not wishing to fall into the hands of Mexicans or Indians, he retreated toward the south, and became entangled among the cañons of the upper portion of the Arkansas river, but finally reached camp with only one horse able to travel. After a little rest he again set out, this time on foot, in search of Red river, and crossing the Arkansas, violated the terms of the recent arrangement by entering Mexican territory. Marching up the Wet Mountain valley, leaving disabled men by the way in improvised shelt- ers, he moved straight to and up the Sangre de Cristo range, and from its summits looked down on San Luis park and the Rio Grande del Norte, which he believed to be the Red river. Greatly rejoiced, he descended to the valley, erected a fortified camp, and sent back a detachment of his little party to pick up the stragglers.
Not long did he enjoy his dreams of success. The Mexican authorities had been on the lookout for his expedition, which had become known to them, and a few days after completing the above arrangements he was politely arrested by a squad of Mexican soldiers, and persuaded to accompany them to Santa Fé, El Paso, and subsequently to Chihuahua, more than a year being consumed in this courteously managed captivity, during which the most valuable portion of
347
PIKE'S DISCOVERIES.
his papers were lost, and his command scattered. They were finally returned to the United States through Texas.
One thing pertinent to the subsequent history of Colorado, Lieutenant Pike discovered during his detention in New Mexico. An American, James Pursley, of Bairdstown, Kentucky, whom he met there, showed him lumps of gold brought by himself from the South park; and he learned that the traces of white men and Indiansseen by him, and which had turned him southward, related to gold discoveries in that region.6 In 1807 Pike was permitted to return home, and in the second year of the war of 1812 was killed at the assault on Toronto, after having been previously promoted to the rank of brigadier-general." The peak which bears his name was measured by him, on the base of a mile, and on the presumption that the plains were 8,000 feet above sea-level. He made the height of the mountain to be 18,581 whereas it is really but 14,147. Most early explorers exaggerated the height of mountains, whether purposely or not.
5 Pursley went up the Platte in 1803 or 1804, and was conducted by Ind- ians to Santa Fé. A French creole, La Lande, took some goods up the Platte in 1804 for his employer, Morrison, a merchant of Kaskaskia; but he took the goods to Santa Fé, and established himself in business, where he remained. Barber's Hist. West. States, 549.
6 W. B. Vickers, in Hayden's Great West, 98, says there is no evidence to show that there were any settlers in Colorado previous to 1843, or any knowl- edge of the treasures hidden in the soil or rocks at that time. This is a hasty conclusion. The Spanish-Mexicans would conceal as much as possible any such knowledge from Americans; but it existed. The American referred to above discovered the gold on the head of the Platte while a captive in the hands of the Indians; and he assured Pike he had been frequently solicited to go and show a detachment of Mexican cavalry where to find it, but re- fused. It was probably this detachment which had just left the park when Pike arrived in it. Appendix to An Account of an Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi, and Through the Western Part of Louisiana, etc;, in the Years 1805, 1806, and 1807; Philadelphia, 1810. I have seen it stated that old de- serted shafts had been found in southern Colorado, together with some cop- per vessels, the writer attributing these evidences of mining to the ancients who inhabited the ruined cities and the cliffs; but these people used only stone implements, and clearly knew nothing of mining. The prospect holes were undoubtedly made by the Mexicans about the beginning of the century.
James Parton, in The Discoverer of Pike's Peak, MS., 7, an abridgement of Parton's account of Pike's expeditions. See also Denver Rocky Mountain Herald, Aug. 21, 1875.
348
DISCOVERY AND OCCUPATION.
Probably the cold had something to do with the reported altitude of Pike's peak.8
No further official explorations of the country at the base of the Rocky mountains were ordered until after the treaty of the 22d of February, 1819, by which the boundary between the possessions of Spain and the United States was definitely settled,' giving to the latter the northern two thirds of the present state of Colorado, with all the country north of the Arkansas river. Immediately after the confirmation of the Florida treaty, Secretary-of-war Calhoun or- dered an expedition more complete in equipment than any which had preceded it, comprising besides military officers a number of men of science. The company, commanded by Major Stephen H. Long, left Pitts- burgh May 30, 1819, and proceeded by a steam-vessel, constructed especially for the purpose, to St Louis, and thence by land travel to Council Bluffs, on the Missouri, where they wintered. In the following June, Long explored the Platte valley to the junction of the north and south forks, where he took the di-
8 From the original Pike's Expedition-for a biographical notice of which see my History of the Northwest Coast-come scores of accounts which follow, such as is found in the Colorado Gazetteer for 1871. This book, which con- tains besides a brief history of the state, a comprehensive account of its mining, agricultural, commercial, manufacturing interests, and climate, will be frequently referred to for statistics on these subjects. Notice of Pike's expedition is found in Thomas B. Corbett's Colorado Directory of Mines, 1879, p. 34. This also is an important book of reference, containing a description of the mines and mills, and the mining corporations. The Northwest, by Samuel J. Parker, son of Samuel Parker, explorer and missionary to the Oregon country in 1835, is a manuscript history of the north-west country, compiled partly from the father's writings and partly from the accounts of other explorers. It is, like the other missionary writings, very bitter against the fur companies. A writer in Harper's Magazine, xli. 372, gives a good brief account of Pike's expeditions.
9 U. S. Laws and Treaties, 1815-21, vi. 614-29. This boundary, which was changed by conquest and purchase, subsequently gave the U. S. the Florida territory east of the Mississippi. West of the Mississippi the line began at the mouth of the Sabine river, continuing north along the west bank of that stream to the 32d degree of north latitude, thence due north to the Red river, which it followed up to the degree of longitude 23 west from Washington, running thence due north again to the Arkansas river, which it followed to its source in latitude 42° north, and thence it was drawn west- ward on that parallel to the 'South sea.' It will be seen that this boundary supposed the Arkansas river to be two degrees longer than it really was, and left the actual boundary from central Colorado northward to the 42° still in doubt.
349
LONG'S REPORT.
rection of the southern branch, which brought him to the South park by a route different from that of Pike's. The high peak first seen by Lieutenant Pike received the name of E. James, botanist of the expedition,19 he being the first man known to have reached a sum- mit of the Colorado mountains. He also measured it, and made it almost as much too low as Pike had made it too high. 11 Long descended the valley of the Arkansas to the Mississippi, having gained much valuable geographical information of the country ex- plored. But his account was not one pleasing to the secretary of war, or to the government. He repre- sented the whole country drained by the Missouri, Arkansas, Platte, and their tributaries as unfit for cultivation, and uninhabitable in consequence. He found all between the 39th and 49th parallels, and for five hundred miles east of the Rocky mountains, a desert of sand and stones, whereupon this region was represented on maps as the Great American desert. The report of Long was a stumbling-block in the way of the advocates of the American claim to Oregon in congress for many years, for no sooner did an advocate of that claim open his mouth than he was reminded of Major Long's scientific observations and explora- tions, and asked what value could attach to a desert. This impression was to some extent the key which kept Colorado a locked treasure-house until Oregon and California had both been settled, and proved to be rich agricultural countries, even where they had appeared as much deserts as Colorado.
It should be borne in mind that small parties of adventurers, like Pursley, had already penetrated the Rocky mountains in advance of either of the above-
10 The name of Pike has been retained, but to James and Long were given peaks elsewhere. For Long's note on the subject see Long's Exped. Rocky Mountains, ii. 45. Another peak has been named after Lieut Graham of Long's party, and the hot springs on the Arkansas after Captain Bell. Col. Gazetteer, 21; Frémont's Explor. Exped., 30.
11 James called Pike's peak 11,500 feet high. Frémont in 1843, made it 14,300. Its present received measurement was made in 1862 by Parry, whose careful examination of the country entitles his work to credit.
350
DISCOVERY AND OCCUPATION.
named expeditions,12 and that previous to that of Long's, a number of traders had established posts on
12 See Hist. Northwest Coast, this series.
A little work by David H.
Coyner, first published in 1847, and republished in Cincinnati in 1859, called
The Lost Trappers, gives a particular account of the wanderinge of a com- pany of 20 men who left St Louis in 1807, intending to cross the Rocky mountains. The leader was Ezekiel Williams, and this was the first over- land expedition to the Pacific of the kind ever undertaken. It proceeded to
Soon after finding a locality where beavers were plenty in the streams and the mouth of the Yellowstone, up which they travelled looking for beavers. to Fort Mandan. From this point Williams's party proceeded by land to who had accompanied Lewis and Clarke to Washington, and was returning the Mandan village under the guidance of a chief of that tribe, Big White,
buffaloes upon the plains, a hunting party of ten men went out, but were
southward until they fell in with the Crows, by whom they were so well slain, the other five escaping to camp. The company at once set off again set upon by Indians, whom they believed to be Blackfoot, and five of them
whose character as an outlaw was not known to Williams, determined to re- treated that a man named Rose, who had joined the party at St Louis, but
was ever one of those unprincipled men who gave to the trappers the unsa- rick and Sublette, and afterward joined the American Fur company, but a residence in the Yellowstone country. He returned as guide to Fitzpat- main among them, and did so until 1823, being the first white man who had
this fight, for which the company were prepared by the the theft of their another loss of five men. In the first attack one Indian had been killed; in the headwaters of the north Platte were attacked by Crows and sustained 14 members, proceeded in a direction toward the South pass, and when upon vory character dwelt upon by the Parkers. Williams' party, now reduced to
horses, twenty or more of their enemies were killed. The party now re-
duced to ten, their horses being gone, hastened on foot out of the vicinity of
the battle-ground, caching their furs and such things as they could not carry
only three remained, Williams, James Workman, and Samuel Spencer, who Colorado. One after another of them were cut off by the Comanches until they found themselves on the sources of the south Platte, and of course in on a long march, and moved southward, wandering about until spring, when
determined to return to St Louis if they could. But as often happens, mis- fortune had made them not only reckless, but at enmity with one another; and the three wanderers separated, Williams journeying down the Arkan- sas, which he mistook for Red river, in a canoe, and by travelling at night arrived safely among the Kansas, who directed him to Fort Cooper, on the
pay the Indians their annunities, and who first compelled the Kansas to re- Missouri. Here he found an Indian trader of the U. S., C. Cibley, about to
turn to Williams several packages of furs they had stolen from him after his departure from their village. In the following year, 1809, Williamns re- turned to the mountains with a party and recovered the furs cached by his company on the Platte. Workman and Spencer in the meantime had made their way to the Arkansas, which they also mistook for the Red river, and in following which toward its source they discovered the trail of Pike's party of the year before, who had cut in the rocks the name of Red river, which confirmed them in their error. Hoping to find that its headwaters were in a range by crossing which they would find themselves at Santa Fé in New Mexico, they followed up this stream, coming in sight of Pike's peak, which they said seemed so high 'that a cloud could not pass between its top and the sky.' They became entangled among the mountains and canons of Col- orado, passing many weeks in endeavoring to find the sources of the Rio Grande Del Norte, but coming instead to the Rio Colorado, which they fol- lowed-believing it would take them to Santa Fé-until they came to a crossing and a plain trail, which they resolved to follow. Meeting a Mexi-
351
INCOMING FUR TRADERS.
the Arkansas and other rivers,13 forerunners of the more powerful fur companies. A profitable trade was also carried on between the merchants of St Louis and the inhabitants of New Mexico, of which all of Colorado south of the Arkansas river was a part. The Indians on the Santa Fe route-the Co- manches of the plains-gave traders and travellers much trouble; and in 1823 the government ordered an escort, commanded by Captain Riley, to meet the Santa Fé train, and conduct it to the Missouri fron- tier.14 He advanced to the crossing of the Arkansas, and conducted it to Independence, the eastern termi- nus of the Santa Fe trail, the first military expedition by United States troops west of the Missouri and north of Texas. Four years afterward Fort Leaven-
can caravan bound to Los Angeles, California, two days afterward, they joined it, and the following spring returned with it to Santa Fé, where they remained trading for 15 years. When Workman and Spencer set out to de- scend the Colorado it was by canoe. From the description given by them to the author of the Lost Trappers, I think they were upon the Gunnison branch of the Colorado, and that it was the black canon which interrupted their navigation. The crossing of the Spanish trail could not have been far from the present crossing of the Salt Lake road. At all events, they were the first Americans to float upon the waters of this stream, or, so far as I have discovered, to cross the Rocky mountains south of Lewis and Clarke's pass.
13 Manuel Lisa, a Mexican, enjoyed a monopoly of the Indian trade west of the Missouri at the beginning of the century under a grant of the Mexi- can government. Peter Choteau, a rival trader and U. S. agent for the Osages, managed to separate a part of that nation from their adherence to Lisa, and established a post among them on the Verdigris branch of the Ar- kansas in 1808. It was, however, removed in 1813, and it was not for ten years afterward that a regular fur trade to the Rocky mountains was begun. 14 This was in consequence of the capture of the previous year's train from Santa Fé, commanded by Capt. Means, who, with several of his men, was killed. Coyner relates that in 1823 the Mexican government, having ban- ished several citizens of importance for alleged treasonable designs, per- mitted them to go to the U. S. with the annual Santa Fé train, and sent as an escort a company of 60 men, Mexicans and Pueblo Indians, under Capt. Viscarro, who was to conduct the exiles along the road until he met Capt. Riley. When near the Cimarron river, 60 miles from the crossing of the Arkansas, he was attacked, and 8 or 10 of his command killed. Viscarro himself is accused of cowardice. The Pueblos and two Americans named Barnes and Wallace fought and pursued the Comanches, inflicting severe loss upon them. The company hoping to meet Riley at the Arkansas, yet fearing that he might be gone, sent a detachment, consisting of the Pueblos, Wallace, Barnes, and Workman, to overtake him. They found he had moved away from the river, but overtook him in two days' travel, and detained him until the train came up, after which they were under the protection of American troops, and Viscarro with his depleted force turned back to Santa Fé. Coyner's Lost Trappers, 170-86.
352
DISCOVERY AND OCCUPATION.
worth was established on the west bank of the Mis- souri, twenty miles above the mouth of the Kansas river, and near enough to the Santa Fé trail to afford protection to travellers. For many years this was the initial point of expeditions west and northwest- ward, as all books of travel show. In 1829 Major Riley, with four companies, escorted a caravan as far as Bent's fort, on the Arkansas. Captain Wharton was on the trail in 1834, and Captain Cook in 1843.
The establishment of a fort in the Indian country did not precede but followed the adventures of private individuals and associations in the public territory of the United States, to which I have already referred. Among those who followed their pursuits in Colorado were the Bents, St Vrain, Vasquez, Bridger, Carson, Lupton, Pfeiffer, Nugent, Pattie, Baker, Beckwourth, Sarpy, Wiggins, the Gerrys, Chabonard, and others. Bonneville's company of trappers and explorers passed through the Arkansas country in 1834. 15
15 See Victor's River of the West, 157, and Hist. Northwest Coast, this series. It is difficult to give satisfactory accounts of men who lead a wander- ing life in an unsettled country. Only scraps of information are preserved, whose authenticity may well be questioned. From the best information ob- tainable the following biographies have been gathered: James P. Beckwourth was born in Virginia of a negro slave mother and an Irish overseer. His white blood impelled him to run away from servitude in or about 1817, and he joined a caravan going to New Mexico. Some years afterward he was in the service of Louis Vasquez in Colorado, and subsequently so ingrati- ated himself with the Crows that they made him head chief, an office in which he used to give the American Fur company much trouble. Later in life he severed his connection with savagery, and became interpreter and guide to government expeditions. He resided for a time in a valley of the Sierra Nevada, but being implicated in certain transactions which attracted the notice of the vigilants, fled and went to Missouri. When the migration to Colorado was at its height in 1859, he proceeded to Denver, and was taken into partnership with Vasquez and his nephew. Being tired of trade, he went to live on a farm, and took a Mexican wife; but fell out with her, and finally relapsed into his former mode of savage life, dying about 1867. Montana, Post, Feb. 23, 1867, Bridger, Carson, Pattie, and others have been frequently spoken of in other volumes of this series. The last named came to the mountains of Colorado in 1824 with a company of 120 men. He was a youth at the time. The company fell apart, and drifted in various direc- tions through New Mexico and Arizona. Pattie and a few companions de- scended the Colorado, and reached the coast at San Diego, naked and starv- ing. They were arrested by the Mexican authorities and imprisoned, suffering much; but Pattie, on account of his knowledge of the Spanish lan- guage, was employed as an interpreter, and escaped back to the states. James Baker came out, probably with Bridger, and roved about in the mountains until he finally settled on Clear creek, four miles north of Denver, I do not
353
FORTS
No forts of importance were erected within the present limits of Colorado before 1832, when the Bent brothers erected Fort William on the north branch of the Arkansas river, eighty miles northeast from Taos, and one hundred and sixty from the moun- tains.16 They traded with the Mexicans and the Co-
know exactly at what date; but he is recognized as the first American set- tler in Colorado. He had an Indian wife and half-caste children grown to manhood in 1859. The occupation of the country displeased him, and he left Clear creek for the mountains of Idaho, where he ended his days. O. P. Wiggins, a Canadian, formerly a servant of the Hudson's Bay Co., came to Colorado in 1834, and was employed by the American Fur Co., and sta- tioned at Fort St John. He became a wealthy citizen of Colorado. Peter A. Sarpey was one of the French families of St Louis. He had one trading- post in Colorado, and another at Bellevue in Nebraska; a small, wiry, mer- curial-dispositioned man, who lived among savages simply to make money, which furthered no enterprises and purchased no pleasures such as a man of good family should value. Col Ceran St Vrain began trading to New Mex- ico in 1824, working up into American territory a few years later, where he built a fort named after himself. He died at Mora in New Mexico, in Octo- ber 1870, to which country he returned on the decline of the fur trade. Godfrey and Elbridge Gerry were lineal descendants of Gov. Elbridge Gerry, one of the signers of the declaration of independence. They came to the Rocky Mountains while quite young men, and spent their lives on the fron- tier. After settlement began, Godfrey built an adobe residence on the Platte, and kept a station of the Overland Stage Co. During the Indian disturbance of 1864 his station was besieged-it went by the name of Fort Wicked-for days by a large force of the savages, who endeavored to fire the buildings. With no help but his own family he successfully resisted all their attempts to reduce his fort, and killed many of the besiegers. The Indians also conspired to capture Elbridge Gerry and his large band of horses, but his Indian wife having discovered the plot, informed him of it, and he, too, saved his life and property. These brothers were among the earliest settlers in Colorado. Byers' Hist. Col., MS., 61-8. Elbridge Gerry died in 1876. Kit Carson, Bill Williams, Pfeiffer, the Autobeas brothers, John Paisel, and Roubideau were all noted mountaineers. Carson rendered himself a second time famous during the civil war. He died at Fort Lyon in June 1868. Denver Rocky Mountain News, June 3, 1868. Williams was killed by the Utes in south-western Colorado in 1850. Folsom (Cal.) Tele- graph, Oct. 28, 1871. And so died many a brave man. But none who went to the mountains in those early times were better known than the Bent fam- ily of St Louis. There were six brothers, John, Charles, William, Robert, George and Silas. Robert and George died in 1841. Charles was the first American governor of New Mexico, and was killed in the massacre at Taos in March 1847. Silas, the youngest, was a member of the expedition to Japan under Perry, and made a report to the Geographical Society of New York concerning the warm current from the Japan sea, which touches the coast of North America. The other brothers were fur traders, and William was subsequently government freighter. He died May 19, 1869, the last of the original firm. Colorado Paper, in Montana Democrat, June 17, 1869; Ar- kansas Val. Hist., 830.
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