USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Vol. I > Part 8
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In 1775 two Spanish padres, Escalante and Garcia, began a lonely pilgrimage northward. From Valencia, south of Albuquerque they passed northwest to Pajorito; thence inclined a little south of west across the Puerco, reaching the pueblo of Laguna, situated on a small stream then called Rio de Belen ; thence southwest to Acoma, one of the ancient rock fortresses of the pueblo Indians. From Acoma they passed to Coquina, a few miles south of the Ojo de Zuni, probably the place now known as Deer Springs. The itinerary of the fathers does not claim to be exact as to the cardinal points. Here, inclining some 15° to the north, they crossed what is denominated by them the Sierra de las Casninos, a dividing plateau between Zuni and the head of the Colorado Chiquito, and reached a spring which they located, and is the same as is now designated "Navajo Spring," or perhaps "Jacob's Well;" continuing on the same course, crossing the Puerco of the west, they arrived at Hualpi, one of the seven Moqui towns, thence to another pueblo, marked on their map as Mosconobi, where a trail is indicated as leading direct to San Bernardino in California, a road known and traveled from Santa Fe via Cebolleta on the Rio Belen above Laguna ; thence to the Great Colorado at San Pedro, and thence to San Bernardino. Without following the sinuosities of their desul- tory course, it is found that they eventually passed by Sevier River and the Vegas de Santa Clara to near Lake Utah, and thence northward.
From the trading post on Great Salt Lake the padres returned southward along their trail to near Lake Utah ; thence by the head of Provo and Weber Rivers, across the Wahsatch Range, striking Green River about thirty miles south of White or Uintah River, keeping a southwest course after leaving Green River. They crossed the Grand and the San Miguel or Dolores Rivers, and reached the head branches of the San Juan, called by them Rios San Coyetano and De Velas- quez, to a place on the Rio de Velasquez, called Santa Maria de los Nieves (Saint Mary of the Snows). This point was at the base of the
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San Juan Mountains, shown on their map and designated as Sierra de las Gruellas or Crane Mountains. Here they turned to a northeast course over the San Juan Mountains, reaching the Valley of the Del Norte at San Pedro, a point which cannot be intelligently located.
Here they turned about to a course of south by 25° east, indicating Hot Springs at the head of a river called Otter or Nutrias River. Undoubtedly Father Escalante attempted to locate in his itinerary the Pagosa hot springs, but he makes the stream from the springs flow into and form a part of the Rio de Chama, an affluent of the Del Norte, while the Rio Nutria to-day heads in the mountains ten miles northwest of Pagosa, and Pagosa is on the San Juan River, of which Nutria is an affluent. Another hypothesis might locate the Hot Springs on the Rio Navajo, from which it is a comparatively short dis- tance to the Rio de Chama, but the Hot Springs of the padres' route are too far north to give it much probability. Having arrived at a
point about twenty miles north of the parallel of 37º north latitude, a place they christened San Pablo Piedra Lumbra, they altered their itinerary to an east-southeast course, reaching the Chama at Santa Clara, thence down that stream to a point called Gomez ; thence to San Ildefonso on the Del Norte, and finally to Santa Fe.
In the light that to-day is thrown over the whole region, explored one hundred and ten years ago by these indefatigable priests, we must accord them the merit of great endurance and fearless courage. But this has been from time immemorial a characteristic of the church and its missionaries. To perpetuate his fame, a great range of moun- tains has been christened for Father Escalante, who with his companion was doubtless the first European to set foot upon them, and they were probably the first white discoverers also of the Great Salt Lake.
Notwithstanding the considerable numbers of Spaniards-priests, laymen and soldiers-who explored the country to the north of New Mexico, and as far east as the Arkansas and the Platte, they planted no missions, established no churches, and left no traces whatever of their visitations in any portion of the country. There are no vestiges
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of early Catholic establishments from the Rio Grande to the Missouri, neither in the Rocky Mountains nor upon the plains east or south.
In the diary kept by Escalante, several places are noted where ancient ruins were observed, among them on the banks of the Dolores River, situated on a height, and built upon the same plan as those in New Mexico, "as shown by the ruins which we examined." At another point (the Rio de San Cosme) "we saw near by a ruin of a very ancient town, in which were fragments of metals and pottery. The form of the town was circular, as shown by the ruins now almost leveled to the ground." Again, in the canon of another stream, " Toward the south there is quite a high cliff on which we saw rudely painted three shields and a spear head. Lower down on the north side, we saw another painting which represented in a confused manner two men fighting, for which reason we named it the Cañon Pintado."
But the expeditions of greatest importance to the people of the United States, measured by the events which followed the publica- tion of their reports, were conducted, the first by Captains Lewis and Clarke, and Lieutenant-subsequently Major-Zebulon M. Pike, by order of Thomas Jefferson, very soon after the Louisiana purchase, for the dual purpose of exploring the then unknown wilds of our western country, and, as Pike quaintly expresses it, "of obtaining information founded on scientific pursuits, and with a view of entering into a chain of philanthropic arrangements for ameliorating the condition of the Indians who inhabit those vast plains and deserts." But the actual purpose may be summarized in the fact that, having secured an im- mense territory, only a small portion of which had been settled, and but a fraction traversed, the government was seized by a strong desire to ascertain what the trackless wilderness of forests, plains and moun- tains contained in the way of natural resources which might at the proper time be developed for the benefit of the incipient Republic.
Therefore, Captain Merriweather Lewis, in conjunction with Cap- tain C. Clarke, was directed to proceed to the sources of the Missouri, and Lieut. Pike to the Mississippi and the headwaters of the Platte.
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As we are more especially interested in the latter expedition, that only will be considered, leaving the reader to consult the reports of Lewis and Clarke, which may be found in any well-selected library. Pike's journal being out of print, is rarely obtainable. The work as published, is simply a quaint, and at times grotesque, diary in which the principal occurrences of each day are briefly narrated.
After exploring the Mississippi for some distance, he was recalled and directed to examine the country between the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains; to discover the sources of the Arkansas, Platte and Red Rivers, take note of everything worthy of record, and "to acquire such geographical knowledge of the southwestern boundary of Louisiana, as to enable the government to enter into a definite ar- rangement for a line of demarkation between that territory and North Mexico." He was further instructed to pay especial attention to the various Indian tribes met with on the way, and to report everything of importance concerning them. To insure greater accuracy of surveys, he was provided with a complete outfit of astronomical and mathe- matical instruments.
On the 11th of July, 1806, the expedition, comprising two lieu- tenants, one surgeon, one sergeant, two corporals, sixteen privates, and an interpreter well versed in the Indian languages, embarked from Bellefontaine, Mo., and was accompanied by several Osage and Pawnee chiefs who had been to Washington for a conference, and were then returning to their homes. Omitting the details of the voyage up the Osage River, which they ascended in boats to the head of navigation, we find that they crossed thence overland to the Kansas River, and fin- ally to the Arkansas, marching along the course of that stream. On the 23d of November they arrived at the Third Fork, now known as the St. Charles or San Carlos. Here, on the 24th, a breastwork of logs was thrown up, and a detachment left to defend it, while with the re- mainder Pike advanced to the Second, or " Grand Fork," and encamped near the present site of Pueblo. If any fixed settlers or habitations existed there at that early period, no mention is made of them, and
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it is unlikely that features of so much importance would have escaped observation. They next pursued the left or south side of the Foun- taine qui Bouille northward, keeping near the mountains, and in due time found themselves at the base of Cheyenne (Shian) Mountain, in front of the "High Peak." On the 27th, says the journal, "We com- menced ascending, and found it very difficult, being obliged to climb up rocks, sometimes almost perpendicular ; and after marching all day, we encamped in a cave without blankets, victuals, or water. * * Some distance up we found buffalo; higher still the new species of deer," (probably mountain sheep) "and pheasants," (grouse). Next morning, after a wretched night in the cave on the steep moun- tain-side, they arose "hungry, dry, and extremely sore from the un- equality of the rocks on which we had been all night, but were amply compensated for our toil by the sublimity of the prospect below. The unbounded prairie was overhung with clouds which appeared like the ocean in a storm ; wave piled on wave and foaming, whilst the sky was perfectly clear where we were." Continuing the ascent, after an hour of climbing, they reached the summit, where they found the snow waist- deep, and the mercury at 4° below zero. Pike in scaling this mountain anticipated that it would lead him to the apex of that stupendous elevation which now bears his name, and was both astonished and cha- grined to find it apparently as he says, "Fifteen or sixteen miles away, and as high again as what we had ascended, and would have taken a whole day's march to have arrived at its base, when, I believe, no human being could have ascended to its pinnacle. This, with the con- dition of my soldiers, who had only light overalls on, and no stockings," to say nothing of the principal objection that they were half-frozen, had nothing to eat and no prospect of killing any game, decided him not to undertake it. Arrived at the foot of Cheyenne Peak, a heavy snowstorm set in, and " we sought shelter under the side of a projecting rock where we all four made a meal on one partridge and a piece of deer's ribs, the first we had eaten in that forty-eight hours." None but the early pioneer gold hunters of our time can fully appreciate the
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terrible hardships of these brave men, floundering about in snow two or three feet deep, thinly clad, without stockings, shod with coarse army shoes, and without food for two days and nights, all in the pursuit of knowledge for "philanthropic uses," and without hope of further reward. With all his labor Pike never reached the summit, or even the base of "High Peak," nor lived to enjoy the honor of its christening, which fell to Dr. James, who, with two others attached to Major Long's party, made the ascent to the highest point. It was known for many years as "James' Peak." Neither of them could have imagined or dreamed of the picturesque beauty since added to the scenes of their exploits by their countrymen of a later generation, though Fitzhugh Ludlow, who came sixty years after Pike, when that section of country, though thinly populated, was practically unchanged, foresaw as in a prophetic vision the future of Manitou and the magnificent cañon of the Fountaine, and photographed them from this impression in his "Heart of the Continent," published in 1868.
November 28, weary, half-frozen, destitute and disappointed, the party retreated to their starting point on the Arkansas. While crossing the hills they shot a buffalo and made the first hearty meal they had enjoyed in three days. Pike says, -"The land here is very rich, and covered with old Teton (Comanche) camps." While at the base of Cheyenne Mountain he measured by triangulation the altitude of "Grand Peak," with the following result: "The perpendicular height of the mountain from the level of the prairie, was 10,581 feet, and admitting that the prairie was 8,000 feet from the level of the sea, it would make the elevation of this peak 18,581 feet. * y Indeed, it was so remarkable as to be known by all the savage nations for hundreds of miles around, and to be spoken of with admiration by the Spaniards of New Mexico, and was the bounds of their travels northwest. Indeed, in our wanderings in the mountains it was never out of our sight, except when in a valley, from the 14th of November to the 27th of January."
Resting a short time at the mouth of the Fountaine, they next marched up the Arkansas. On the Ist of December a violent snow-
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storm occurred, causing men and beasts intense suffering. "Our horses were obliged to scrape the snow away to obtain their miserable pit- tance, and to increase their misfortunes, the poor animals were attacked by magpies, who, attracted by the scent of their sore backs, alighted on them, and in defiance of their wincing and kicking, pecked many places quite raw. The difficulty of procuring food rendered these birds so bold as to light on our men's arms and eat out of their hands." Later on, buffalo, deer and wild turkeys were killed.
An encampment was made near the spot now occupied by Cañon City. From this point Pike took a small detachment, and, as near as can be ascertained from his diary, passed into the mountains via Currant Creek, and thence to the South Park, which was explored to the sources of the Platte. They also visited the Salt Marsh (now Hall's Ranch), and appear to have crossed the divide on or near the present line of the South Park Railway, descending Trout Creek to the valley of the Arkansas, mistaking it for the Red River, which they were strongly instructed to explore. With this erroneous under- standing, they ascended the stream nearly to its source; then, as if its identity had been unmistakably established, turned about and followed its course down through the magnificent cañon, only to find themselves on reaching its debouchure, after a month of immeasurable suffering, back at the starting point, and the Red River of their quest still as much of an unknown quantity in their calculations as before. Pike did not learn until long afterward that he had passed the sources of this stream while en route to the Arkansas.
But the indomitable Lieutenant, bent upon making the discovery at all hazards, as soon as the weather permitted, struck south through the Wet Mountain Valley, and across the Sangre de Cristo Range to the Rio Del Norte, which he was now entirely convinced was the Red River. The point from which it was first discovered must have been, from the description, near the present site of Fort Garland. He descended the Rio Grande some eighteen miles to the Conejos River. On the north bank of this river, five miles above its confluence with
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the Rio Grande, he erected a strong stockade as a rallying point and base for future operations, and with the further intention of tracing the river to its sources in the mountains. Struck with the loveliness of the San Luis Park, as every visitor to that picturesque valley must be, he gives rein to his descriptive powers thus: "From a high hill south of our camp we had a view of all the prairie and rivers to the north of us. It was, at the same time, one of the most sublime and beautiful inland prospects ever presented to the eyes of man. The prairie, lying nearly north and south, was probably sixty miles by forty-five. The main river, bursting out of the western mountain, and meeting from the northeast a large branch which divides the chain of mountains, pro- ceeds down the prairie, making many large and beautiful islands, one of which I judge contains 10,000 acres of land, all meadow ground, covered with innumerable herds of deer. In short, this view combined the sublime and the beautiful. The great and lofty mountains, covered with eternal snows, seemed to surround the luxuriant vale, crowned with perennial flowers, like a terrestrial paradise shut out from the view of man."
But his occupation of the fort was of brief duration. Shortly after its completion a troop of Mexican cavalry appeared upon the scene, and to his astonishment, informed him that he had invaded Spanish territory ; that he was not upon the Red River, but upon the Rio Grande, and that Governor Allencaster, the executive head of New Mexico, desired to see him. Notwithstanding his explanations and protests, they politely but firmly compelled him to accompany them to Santa Fé. He was taken to headquarters, then, as now, "the Palace," searchingly examined respecting his invasion of the country of a friendly power, and subsequently transferred to Chihuahua, whence, some months afterward, he made his way back to the United States, through Texas.
While in the South Park, and near the headwaters of the Arkansas, he reports having discovered the remains of immense Indian encampments. "The sign made by their horses was astonishing, and
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would have taken a thousand horses some months to have produced the marks left by them." In some of these camps were great quan- tities of corn cobs, which he concluded might have been from maize of their own cultivation, but more probably obtained from the Mexicans by purchase or theft. At another place they discovered a camp which had been occupied by three thousand Indians at least, "with a large cross in the middle," from which he decides that this particular brand of savage was of the Roman Catholic persuasion. All these observa- tions have some bearing, more or less important, upon facts which will be elaborated hereafter, namely, that the South Park and upper Arkansas Valley were for centuries perhaps, certainly for long periods, the favorite resorts and undoubtedly places of refuge of the Shoshone, Snake, Arapahoe, Ute and other nomadic tribes.
In the appendix to his diary, written after his return from Mexico, Pike pays some attention to the physical conditions of the country lying between the Missouri and the Sierras. The following extract is inter- esting in view of the present stage of its development. He writes : "In this western traverse of Louisiana the following general observations may be made, viz .: That from the Missouri to the head of the Osage River, a distance in a straight line of probably three hundred miles, the country will admit of a numerous, extensive and compact population. From thence on, the rivers Kanzes, La Platte, Arkansaw and their various branches, it appears to me to be only possible to introduce a limited population on their banks." He therefore advises such people to give their undivided attention to raising cattle, horses, sheep and goats, "all of which they can raise in abundance." He anticipates, however, that the lack of timber, which renders the country unfit for habitation, may one day be filled by the discovery of coal. Here is another conclusion: " But from these immense prairies may arise one great advantage to the United States, viz., the restriction of our population to some certain limits, and thereby a continuation of the Union ; our citizens being so prone to rambling and extending themselves on the frontiers, will through necessity be constrained to limit their extent in the West to
James m. Daily
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the borders of the Missouri and Mississippi, while they leave the prairies, incapable of cultivation, to the wandering and uncivilized aborigines of the country."*
But Kansas had not then bled, Ireland suffered for home rule, nor Germany poured out her millions upon our shores. The enormous volume of population which eventually swept straight westward, rarely or never southward,-for the cause of a mighty rebellion and awful sacrifice lay slumbering there,-and distributed itself over all these vast prairies, however sterile, which Pike traversed, causing them in process of time to blossom as the rose, had not then commenced its migration. How could he bridge the next half century, and behold the vision of marvelous consequences of which his little book was the beginning ?
The original discovery of gold in the Rocky Mountains, if the record before us is trustworthy, was made by one James Pursley, whom Pike met in Santa Fé, and who came to the western prairies from Bairdstown, Kentucky, in 1802. Leaving St. Louis with two com- panions, he hunted and trapped for a time, experiencing some violent encounters with the Indians, and passing through a long series of strange adventures. In the course of time Pursley, according to his own account, reached the headwaters of the Platte. " He assured me," says Pike, " that he had found gold on the head of La Platte, and had carried some of the virgin mineral in his shot pouch for months, but that, being in doubt whether he should ever again behold the civilized world, and losing in his mind all the ideal value which man- kind has stamped upon that metal, he threw it away,"-which may be taken cum grano salis. The Spaniards frequently importuned him to conduct them to the place where the gold was found, but he steadily refused.
While Pike assumes, and so states, that Pursley was the first American to cross the plains into Spanish territory, in another portion
"Following are some of the tribes then in possession of the country: Tetons (Comanches), Pota- wattamies, Arkansaws, Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Padoucas, Caddoes, Osages, Pawnees, Reynards, Sacs, Delawares, Shawnees, Kickapoos, Otoes, Missouris, Mahaws (Omahas), Kans (Kansas).
7
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of his diary he relates that, in consequence of information obtained by the trappers, through the Indians, relative to this isolated region, a merchant of Kaskaskia, named Morrison, had already dispatched, as early as 1804, a French Creole named La Lande up the Platte River, with directions to push his way into Santa Fé, if the passage was at all practicable. It appears that this Creole succeeded in reaching Santa Fé, but neither returned nor rendered any account of his trip to his employer.
In concluding our account of Lieutenant Pike's expedition, which, owing to the lateness of the season when he reached the mountains, was filled with suffering and disasters, it is proper to state that he was killed in December, 1813, at Little York, Canada, by an explosion during a battle in which he was engaged, and that it was not until some few years prior to the discovery of gold in Cherry Creek, in 1859, that the prodigious promontory took his name, and became the rallying point of thousands of gold hunters from that date until long after the organization of the Territory of Colorado, in 1861.
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CHAPTER VII.
1812 TO I840-ROBERT STEWART'S JOURNEY FROM CALIFORNIA-MAJOR LONG'S EXPLORATIONS-ASCENT OF PIKE'S PEAK-ORIGIN OF THE COMMERCE OF THE PRAIRIES-THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL-THE GREAT TEXAS-SANTA FE EXPEDITION CAPTURED BY DIMASIO SALEZAR-AMERICAN FUR COMPANIES AND NOTED PIONEERS -GENERAL ASHLEY-CAPT. BONNEVILLE-DECLINE OF THE FUR TRADE AND ITS CAUSES-THE PRIMITIVE HUNTERS AND TRAPPERS, THEIR HABITS AND CHARACTER.
Toward the latter part of June, 1812, one Robert Stewart, con- nected with the Pacific Fur Company, started from San Francisco over- land for New York, accompanied by Crooks and Mclellan, two famous frontiersmen, as guides. They had accomplished about seven hundred miles of their long and tedious journey-how long, tiresome and monotonous only those who passed over the old military trail years prior to stage coaches or railways can comprehend-when they met a man named Joseph Miller en route to the mouth of the Columbia River. In relating his adventures, he stated that he had fallen in with two tribes called Black-Arms and Arapahoes, who generally occupied the sources of the Arkansas; that they had stolen everything he pos- sessed, and at the time of this meeting he was naked and well nigh starved. Soon afterward Stewart and his party were met by a band of Crow Indians who, after treating them with marked insolence, took all their horses and decamped. On foot Stewart and his Frenchmen con- tinued their journey toward the Rocky Mountains, and finally reached the head waters of the North Fork of the Platte, which they descended to its confluence with the main stream, and thence to the Missouri.
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