USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Vol. I > Part 9
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The next great expedition to follow that of Lieut. Pike was inaug- urated in the year 1819 by order of John C. Calhoun, Secretary of
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War,-to whom the published result is dedicated,-who directed Major Stephen S. Long, of the Topographical Engineers, to explore the Mis- souri and its principal branches, and thence in succession the still mys- terious Red River, the Arkansas, and Mississippi above the mouth of the Missouri.
Major Long left Pittsburg, Pa., early in April, 1819, and after having partially executed the first paragraph of his instructions, returned and went into winter quarters at a point twenty-five miles north of the mouth of the Platte, on the west bank of that river, which was first called Council Bluff, and later Fort Calhoun. It was about fifteen miles north from the present city of Council Bluffs. At the period under consideration it took the name of "Engineer Can- tonment." Here the time until the following spring was occupied in acquiring general information of the neighboring country, the lan- guages, religious rites, manners, customs and traditions of the numerous tribes of Indians. During their stay they were visited by the some- what celebrated frontier soldier, Major O'Fallon, who had been for sometime engaged in alternately chastising and treating with the turbu- lent savages. Having felt the edge of his sword in many a contest, they were inspired with great respect and reverence for this powerful chieftain.
The name and exploits of this gallant officer have been perpet- uated to this day in St. Louis and along the old frontier. "O'Fallon's Bluffs," on the Platte River route to Oregon, California and the Rocky Mountains was a prominent landmark with all travelers by that thoroughfare.
The Missouri, Arkansas, American and other fur companies estab- lished their base of supplies in the region mentioned above, whence their trappers and hunters ranged through Indian Territory and Northern Texas on the south, and to the Rocky Mountains on the west. This, it can well be conceived, was not only an immense but an exceedingly rich field for their traffic, and some of the colossal fortunes enjoyed by the first families of the Mound City had their origin there,
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Captain Riley, for whom a prominent military post in Kansas was named years afterward, commanded a company in Major O'Falion's small but vigorous army. Their mission among the Indians was to quiet the internecine disturbances which interfered seriously with all trading operations.
Major Long's instructions were to proceed to the eastern base of the mountains and follow along the same to the Arkansas River, and then return. He marched from Engineer Cantonment on the 6th of June, 1820, accompanied by geologists, topographers, bota- nists, naturalists, physicians, surgeons, landscape painters and inter- preters, with a journalist to "write up" the interesting details, the whole guarded and protected by one corporal and six privates. To this formidable array were subsequently added two French Canadians from one of the Pawnee villages. The Indians about the mouth of the Platte affected amazement at the temerity of this party in attempting so great a journey, and predicted its failure, as the country swarmed with hostile bands, and besides, was for long distances wholly destitute of water and grass.
They proceeded up the Platte Valley, meeting with no serious difficulties en route. On the 30th of June the early morning splendor of the magnificent Cordilleras burst upon their vision, and toward evening they descried far to the southward the lofty crest of the peak discovered by Lieut. Pike fourteen years before. "On the 3d of July," says Long, "we passed the mouths of three large creeks heading in the mountains, and entering the Platte from the northwest. One of these, nearly opposite to which we encamped, is called Pateros Creek (probably the Cache la Poudre), from a Frenchman of that name who is said to have been bewildered upon it, wandering about for twenty days, almost without food. He was found by a band of Kiowas who frequent this part of the country, and restored to his companions, a party of hunters at that time camping on the Arkansas."
On the 5th of July they camped near the site of old Fort Lupton. From this point Dr. James and a few others endeavored to reach the
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base of Long's Peak, but after traveling five or six hours without apparently diminishing the distance, they returned. Like all first vis- itors, they were the victims of an optical illusion.
On the 6th they passed the spot on which Denver now stands, and reached the base of the mountains at the mouth of Platte Canon, whence a general survey of the surrounding country was made. The next reconnoisance took them up Plum Creek, across the divide, down Monument Creek to the Fountain qui Bouille, named by Long " Boil- ing Spring Creek," and thence to the present site of beautiful Man- itou. From this encampment Dr. James and two others of the party made the ascent of Pike's Peak, to its highest point, and on their return to the valley Major Long christened it "James Peak," in honor of the intrepid botanist, who was undoubtedly the first white man to set foot upon its crest.
The expedition next passed in a southwesterly direction, along the base of the mountains to the confluence of the Fountain with the Arkansas (Pueblo), expecting to find Pike's block house there, but no trace of it remained. They marched up the Arkansas to the mineral springs just above Cañon City, where they encamped for a short time. On the 19th they turned their backs upon the mountains, and followed the line of the Arkansas River some distance, thence crossed to Red River, and thence back to the States.
Major Long's book is one of the most complete and interesting epitomes of the country traversed by him that has ever been written, abounding in valuable information respecting the savage tribes, the geology, fauna and flora, and the general configuration of the plains and mountains, the principal streams, and their tributaries. The magnifi- cent peak which bears his name was not so designated on the maps until many years afterward.
The publication of Lieutenant Pike's report may be said to have given rise to the extensive commerce of the prairies, to which it is now proper to give such attention as will afford the reader a general idea of its origin, initial points, and the magnitude of its operations from the
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earliest times to the dates when trails beaten by innumerable caravans became crowded thoroughfares between the United States, the Spanish settlements in New Mexico, and the British Possessions of the North- west. For much of these data we are indebted to one of the more intelligent of the early pioneers, Josiah Gregg," who wrote from the experience of nine years in the Santa Fé trade, and who has undoubt- edly written the most complete and comprehensive review of it ever published. According to this eminent authority, an expedition was fitted out in 1812 under the auspices of McKnight, Beard, Chambers and ten or twelve others, who followed the directions laid down by Pike, and in due time arrived in Santa Fé without serious mishap. The province happened to be engaged in one of its periodical revolutions at the time, and as all Americans were even thus early viewed with suspi- cion, they were seized as spies, their goods confiscated, and the entire party thrown into prison, where they languished until the next turn in the revolt set them at liberty. "It is said that two of the party con- trived, early in 1821, to return to the United States in a canoe which they succeeded in forcing down the Canadian Fork of the Arkansas."
Notwithstanding their misfortunes, the tales they recited, tinctured more or less with extravagant romancing, of Santa Fé, the wild exciting life on the plains and the character of the Mexican settlements, the enormous prices paid for the cheapest American merchandise, and the opportunities open for this kind of traffic, inflamed other adventurous spirits with an unquenchable passion to attempt the experiment, always under the sanguine impression that they could succeed, no matter who failed. Among the foremost of these was a merchant of Ohio named Glenn, who at the time had an Indian trading house near the mouth of the Verdigris River. He also loaded up a stock of goods and taking the Arkansas River route, after encountering innumerable difficulties event- ually reached Santa Fé about the close of 1821. "During the same year Captain Becknell, of Missouri, with four trusty companions, went out to Santa Fé by the far Western route." This caravan started from
* Commerce of the Prairies, 1831.
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the vicinity of Franklin, Missouri, with the intention of trading with the Tetons or Comanches, but fell in en route with a party of Mex- icans who persuaded the owners to proceed direct to the "City of Holy Faith." Becknell returned to the States alone the following winter. His report being favorable, " it stimulated others to embark in the trade, and early the following May Colonel Cooper and sons from the same neighborhood proceeded to Taos." Some time later Beck- nell took $5,000 worth of merchandise and launched forth again upon this always difficult and ofttimes perilous enterprise. He pursued a more direct route on this occasion, but encountered appalling hardships in crossing the desert east of the Cimarron.
" It is from this period-the year 1822-that the virtual commence- ment of the Santa Fé trade may be dated. The next remarkable era in its history is the attempt to introduce wagons in these expeditions," all prior caravans having been composed of pack animals. This was successfully accomplished in 1824 by a company of traders, about eighty in number, carrying $25,000 to $30,000 worth of assorted goods, with which they arrived in safety. But it was not until some years later "that adventurers with large capital began seriously to embark in the Santa Fé trade."
Thus far none of the caravans had been seriously molested by Indians, but the savages now began to comprehend their advantages, and the value of the plunder to be obtained by sudden surprises and bold, quick dashes. The Arapahoes and Cheyennes, then strong in numbers, well mounted and armed with bows and arrows, began to be especially active in swooping down upon and robbing the richly laden trains. After many outrages had been committed, the traders were compelled to invoke the protection of government troops. Thereupon Major Riley, with three companies of infantry and one of riflemen, was ordered to escort the caravan which left in the spring of 1829, as far as Chouteau's Island, on the Arkansas. Here, considering the remainder of the journey free from danger, the troops turned back, but they had taken no note of a band of Kiowas who had been stealthily lurking in
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their neighborhod, and keenly watching every movement. The troops were no sooner out of sight than they descended upon the defenceless traders. A swift courier was immediately dispatched after Riley, who returned in time to save the train from destruction.
"This escort by Major Riley, and one composed of about sixty dragoons, commanded by Captain Wharton in 1834, constituted the only government protection ever afforded to the Santa Fé trade until 1843, when large escorts under Captain Cook accompanied two differ- ent caravans as far as the Arkansas River."
The central point of departure of trains destined for New Mexico was the town of Franklin, on the Missouri River, about one hundred and fifty miles west of St. Louis, which seems to have been the actual birthplace of the trade, notwithstanding the common impression that it originated in St. Louis. Franklin and towns in the vicinity continued for many years to furnish the larger proportion of the caravans and traders, and even after 1831 a number of wagons were taken over the several routes. Subsequently, however, the main depot was transferred to the new town of Independence, in the same State, situated only twelve miles from the border of the Indian country. From this point also, traders, trappers and emigrants bound for Oregon, took their departure. By this time, likewise, the rugged life and the healthful atmosphere of the plains became widely known as a certain cure for invalids, and more particularly professional men emaciated by over- work or afflicted with dyspepsia or pulmonary diseases, many of whom joined these expeditions and were speedily restored. Gregg himself, a confirmed dyspeptic, adopted this life for sanitary reasons, and pur- sued it uninterruptedly for nine years. In process of time the Arkan- sas crossing became a conspicuous point as a halting place where the trains were repaired, reloaded, and put in order for the final stage of the long and trying journey.
A few of the original traders marched directly west to the Rocky Mountains, and thence by a circuitous and difficult route, to Taos. Later they proceeded along a line parallel to that now occupied by the
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Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railway, across the Raton Range to the Rio Grande. But the route which found greatest favor, was most frequently taken by wagon trains, and which may properly be desig- nated "The Santa Fe trail," lay along the Arkansas, and via the Cim- arron to Las Vegas, San Miguel and Santa Fé. The time consumed in the passage was from sixty to seventy days, according to the course pursued, but the return trip was made in about forty days.
On the 18th of June, 1841, a great expedition, gathered from vari- ous points in Louisiana and Texas, left Austin, now the capital of the latter State, for Santa Fé. Its course was nearly due north and after the usual difficulties it reached the river Pecos in New Mexico. The journalist of this force was George Wilkins Kendall, one of the editors of the New Orleans "Picayune," who, much broken in health from the too ardent pursuit of his profession, joined it in the hope of recuper- ation. His narrative in two volumes, published in 1844, like that of Gregg, is a rare collection of the thrilling experiences of these early pioneers of Western exploration, each in itself an interesting epitome of the trials and dangers passed through by such as possessed the cour- age to venture out into the then trackless wilds of the Louisiana pur- chase. Although long out of print, a copy is occasionally found among the dingy second-hand bookstores of New York, whence were brought to Denver some years ago by the present Governor of our State, the works consulted in framing this sketch. Both accounts in their time attained wide circulation, assisted by extracts reproduced by the lead- ing newspapers.
On arriving at the Pecos the Texans were intercepted by a troop of Mexican soldiers, roughly dressed but well mounted, some armed with lances, swords and escopetas, others with bows and arrows. The officer in command proved to be the notorious ruffian Dimasio Salezar, who rode up, and though his ferocious aspect belied his words, saluted the Texans as friends. As they were entering Spanish territory he observed blandly that it would scarcely be proper to proceed with arms in their hands, and trusted they would have no objection to surren-
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dering their weapons into his charge, each so labeled that its owner would be able to identify it when returned, after their business with the authorities should be arranged. Finding it useless to resist, as they were completely surrounded, and trusting to the friendly assurances of Salezar, they gave up their arms, which he at once distributed among his own followers. Next, their papers were required. When every- thing of value they possessed had passed into his hands, the atmosphere of cordiality which had up to that moment prevailed, suddenly changed to one of almost fiendish ferocity. He formed the hapless Texans in line as if for instant execution, and ordered twelve of his ruffians, who appeared to be ready for any crime, however revolting, all armed with muskets and carbines, to march up in front of the line and shoot them down. But he was finally dissuaded by a Mexican named Vijil, who, moved by a touch of humanity, implored him not to murder his defence- less prisoners, and so the order to fire was suspended. In the march which followed, many of the Texans perished from natural causes, as subsequently reported, and some were shot on the charge of insubordi- nation. The survivors finally reached Santa Fé, and were entombed in the loathsome prisons of that city. All through the march Salezar visited his immeasurable brutality upon these unfortunate men, seeking every occasion to humiliate and torture them.
In 1867-8 Mr. Wm. N. Byers, of Denver, passed much time in and about Santa Fé. The streets swarmed with mendicants, but, said he to the author, "the most abject, miserably ragged and destitute of the entire horde, in the last stage of wretchedness, and totally blind, was the once renowned and powerful Colonel Dimasio Salezar, despised by every one, and most intensely by his own countrymen, to whom his barbarity to the Texans was well known. Omnipotent wrath had been slow in coming, but when it came, a most crushing judgment fell upon one of the most hardened criminals of his day. It was openly related in Santa Fé that during their terrible journey across the Jornada the Texans reported by Salezar as having died from sickness, were in fact killed by him; that he cut off the ears of the slain and made a
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necklace of them for his war horse, and finally turned them in to the Governor as his account of the shortage of prisoners.
The Northwest division of the Rocky Mountains was brought into great prominence by the accounts given of the Lewis and Clarke explo- rations, which opened the way for a vast commerce in furs, and for a considerable lodgment of people, while the region we now occupy was but little known until 1858-9, when the discovery of gold brought it to universal attention. All the romance associated with the stirring adventures of a host of hunters and trappers, and emphasized by the fierce contests waged between the Hudson's Bay Company, and the Northwest Company led by John Jacob Astor, centered there, while the Western chain which towers grandly above us to-day, was wholly without history or romance, except such as may be attached to the pre- historic remains of the San Juan. Nevertheless, it is eminently proper to interpolate here a brief epitome of the fur trade as a fitting intro- duction to the primitive commerce of the prairies.
The Missouri Fur Company was organized about the year 1807, and was composed of twelve partners. St. Louis was at that time a smalí frontier settlement or trading post, on the northern border of the French territory of Louisiana. Irving tells us* "that it possessed a motley population, composed of the Creole descendants of the original French Colonists, the keen traders from the Atlantic States, the back- woodsmen of Kentucky and Tennessee, the Indians and half breeds of the prairies, together with a singular aquatic race that had grown up from the navigation of the rivers, the boatmen of the Mississippi who possessed habits, manners and almost a language of their own, and strongly technical. The old French houses engaged in the Indian trade had gathered around them a train of dependents, mongrel Indians and mongrel Frenchmen, who had intermarried with Indians." It was from this source that the hunters and trappers in the years following Pike's explorations drifted out toward the headwaters of the Missouri, and the Arkansas and Platte and their tributaries. The Missouri Fur
* Astoria.
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Company employed two or three hundred men, Americans, Frenchmen, Creoles and Canadians.
Shortly after 1808 Mr. Wilson P. Hunt of the Northwest Com- pany appeared in St. Louis, with the intention of planting a separate post there. Naturally enough he met with strong opposition from the existing company, but finally succeeded in accomplishing his purpose. At the beginning their operations were confined to the Northwest, but were subsequently extended westward to the Wind River Range and to the Columbia. The American fur companies' men were worsted in their struggle with the great Hudson's Bay syndicate.
In 1822 General William H. Ashley, one of the most celebrated of the early residents of St. Louis, inaugurated a movement looking to the unification of the Indians throughout the Rocky Mountain region of the Northwest in a great scheme of hunting and trapping. His associates in this enterprise were William Sublette, Jim Bridger, Robert Campbell and Major Thomas Fitzpatrick, who together directed a force of about three hundred men. Regardless of the adversities of their pred- ecessors, they pushed this force straight across the prairies into the British stronghold, where they wrestled with, and if they did not over- come the English company, at least succeeded in holding their own. In a few years General Ashley amassed a handsome fortune from the trade and retired. He was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Missouri upon the admission of that State into the Union, and from 1831 to IS37 was one of its Representatives in Congress.
Thenceforward the association which he had conducted so bril- liantly became known as the " Rocky Mountain Fur Company," with Captain William Sublette, a renowned frontiersman, at the head. Its operations extended to the division of the Far West embraced within the limits of Colorado. Later this trade fell into the hands of Pierre Chouteau and his associates.
In May, 1832, Capt. B. L. E. Bonneville, of the 7th U. S. infantry, inspired with an irresistible passion for exploring the Rocky Mount ains, obtained leave of absence until October, 1833. Instead of the
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allotted time he was absent until 1835. From the date of his depar. ture from the frontier nothing was heard of him. His leave expired, he was given up for lost, and his name stricken from the army rolls. It appears that he left Fort Osage, on the Missouri,* in May, 1832, and marched for the Kansas River. From the middle to the end of May he pursued a westerly course, and in June reached the Platte, twenty- five miles below Great (now Grand) Island, passing thence to the North Fork, which he followed to the Wind River range, and thence to the Northwest country. Bonneville combined profit with pleasure in this expedition, by engaging quite vigorously for a time in hunting, trapping and trading on his own account.
Washington Irving,t in company with a large and distinguished party of huntsmen, came West on a pleasure excursion in October, 1830, halting at Fort Gibson, a frontier post on the Neosho or Grand River, near its confluence with the Arkansas. Just beyond the cross- ing of the Verdigris River, a few miles west of Fort Gibson, stood the Osage Indian agency, where Pierre Chouteau, of St. Louis, had a large post filled with stores for his various expeditions. The route taken by Irving's party lay parallel with the Arkansas, "with the gen- eral plan of crossing that stream just above where the Red Fork (of the Canadian) falls into it," and thence westerly to the great forest known as "Cross Timbers." They came on to the North Fork of the Canadian, and then took a southerly route home.
At the early period under consideration game of all kinds native to the country was everywhere abundant, and especially numerous in all the beautiful grass covered parks of the Rocky Mountains. Of these, however, the South Park was especially favored, because it formed one of the finest grazing sections of the country, but was rendered particularly inviting by the salt marshes and springs, which gave it the name of Bayou Salado among early hunters and explorers. Here were found vast herds of buffalo, big horns or mountain sheep, elk,
* Washington Irving. Capt. Bonneville.
tA Tour on the Prairies.
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deer and antelope, and along the streams were hundreds of beaver and fur-bearing animals. This region had also been the Snug Harbor of the Yutas, Eutaws or Utes for generations, but was frequently invaded by their hereditary enemies of the plains, when of course, bloody conflicts ensued.
The beaver fur long ago passed out of the uses which then gave it greatest value, and with the fashion disappeared the intelligent and industrious animal which attracted thousands to its slaughter. Even as early as 1845-6 the depreciation in value became very depressing to the trade, the decline falling from six and eight dollars per pound to one dollar and less, which soon discouraged, and eventually deprived the trapper of his vocation. This state of things was hastened chiefly by the French invention and application of silk to the manufacture of fashionable hats, and the substitution of seal and other furs for beaver in wraps and garments.
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