Zebulon Pike's Wandering Explorations
From St. Louis, Missouri, to Natchitoches, Louisiana.
By: Candy Moulton 01/01/2007
I guess you could say Zebulon Pike made a grand circle tour in 1806-07, although that wasn’t his intention when he set out on a reconnaissance of the Louisiana Purchase in July 1806. The explorer organized his crew of 19 enlisted men, including interpreter Antoine Baronet Vasquez, physician John H. Robinson, Lt. James B. Wilkinson (son of Louisiana governor James Wilkinson) and 51 Indians, including eight who had just returned from Washington, D.C., where they had been guests of President Thomas Jefferson. With them, Pike intended to explore the southern portions of the Louisiana Purchase. He would seek out the headwaters of the Arkansas River, find the source of the Red River and return home.
He had a few other objectives for the trip: negotiate a peace between the Kansas and Osage Indians, find and negotiate with the Comanches, study the natural resources and make scientific observations. Oh, yes, he was also to “scout” as close to Santa Fe as possible, gathering intelligence for the United States although that wasn’t a mission approved by the War Department until after the fact.
Taking a direct route didn’t figure into his plans. Intentionally, he would range north and then back south. Unintentionally, he ended up in Mexico as a captive “guest” of the Spanish authorities.
Louisiana Gov. James Wilkinson, in collusion with Aaron Burr, almost certainly intended for Pike to gather intelligence that could lead to a power play for Wilkinson and Burr to control what is now the American Southwest. The jury is still out on whether this was a deliberate attempt to separate those Western territories from the U.S. or undertaken in a desire to wrest control of the region from the Spaniards without officially involving the United States. Either way, Pike played into Wilkinson’s scheme so much so that by the time he fell under control of Spanish authorities, he actually may have been lost, which had been the cover story he and Wilkinson concocted before the journey began.
Trailing the Lost Pathfinder
Leaving from Fort Belle Fontaine, today’s Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, the party used the Missouri River as a conduit across eastern Missouri with camps near such present-day communities as St. Charles (July 17, 1806), Washington (July 20, 1806) and Hermann (July 24, 1806). The route turned toward the southwest at the confluence of the Osage River and the Missouri since Pike, intent on establishing relations with tribal groups and returning former hostage Osages to their home territories, took a route up the Osage. To follow Pike’s route across Missouri, begin in St. Louis and travel west on highway 94 to Jefferson City and then take U.S. 54 to Fort Scott, Kansas.
Pike’s entourage crossed into Kansas in early September, where he camped north of present-day Fort Scott before following the Little Osage River to the Neosho, generally traveling due west with campsites south of Emporia and near Marion. (Take U.S. 54 and Highway 196 west to 135 then travel north to Salina.)
Diverting from his westerly course near Salina, Kansas, Pike took a route almost due north (U.S. 81) eventually striking the Republican River in present-day southern Nebraska, where he ran up an American flag at his campsite of Sept. 25-Oct. 6 at a location west of Guide Rock (off U.S. 136). Pike then reversed his march, traveling almost due south during the next 10 days to eventually reach the Arkansas River, again near Salina. There he also did a bit of wandering before he resumed his westerly explorations. His route across Kansas and Colorado remained close to the Arkansas River with a stated intent of finding its source. Much of this route would eventually become the path of the Santa Fe Trail. Follow Pike’s route by traveling west along Highway 156 and then on U.S. 50 through western Kansas and into Colorado.
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