Maj. Zebulon Pike must have been pleased to see his 15-year-old son in uniform. The major had served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution and was now commander of the Third U.S. Infantry Regiment. The young cadet entered his father’s regiment and experienced a meteoric rise despite the relative peace and the fact that he was posted at forts along the frontier lands.
By 1799, at the age of 20, young Zebulon Pike was promoted to lieutenant. His primary role in the Army was that of quartermaster, where he ensured the forts were well supplied. It was hardly a life of adventure, but adventure would soon come.
While stationed at Fort Kaskaskia (located in today’s Ellis Grove, Illinois), Meriwether Lewis arrived in search of laborers for his upcoming expedition. William Clark, the co-leader of the expedition, arrived a few days later. They recruited 12 soldiers to join them in exploring the northwestern regions of the recently purchased Louisiana Territory. Lewis and Clark were not interested in officers joining them, and thus Pike remained at the fort. Luckily for Pike, Louisiana had plenty of territory to explore.
The Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase had actually been acquired through unconstitutional methods. President Thomas Jefferson had sent representatives James Monroe and Robert Livingston to Paris to discuss the purchase of New Orleans. They were to offer no more than $10 million.
France had recently signed the Treaty of Amiens with European states in 1802, which brought an end to the Wars of the Revolution. The treaty did not last long. By 1803, war again was on the horizon. In need of money, the French made an offer Monroe and Livingston knew they could not refuse. All of the Louisiana Territory—828,000 square miles—for $15 million. Monroe and Livingston accepted; Jefferson approved, despite knowing the Constitution required Senate approval first. The Senate did approve the purchase retroactively on Oct. 20, 1803.
On May 14, 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition began with the Corps of Discovery paddling up the Missouri River. Jefferson had also appointed William Dunbar and George Hunter, both from Philadelphia and both men of science, to lead an expedition into the southern regions of the territory of what is today Louisiana and Texas.
The Dunbar and Hunter Expedition, originally organized to follow along the Red and Arkansas rivers, was to be on the same grand scale as that of Lewis and Clark. The Dunbar and Hunter Expedition was successful in some of its discoveries, but it paled in comparison to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, lasting a little more than 100 days and never reaching either river.
The First Pike Expedition
The person appointed by Jefferson to be territorial governor of Louisiana was Gen. James Wilkinson (Wilkinson has gone down in American history as one of the nation’s most unscrupulous and duplicitous characters, especially for his collaborative efforts with Aaron Burr).
Wilkinson, who was also the commanding general of the U.S. Army, contacted Pike, who was, by this time, commanding Fort Kaskaskia, and ordered him to St. Louis to prepare for an expedition to paddle up the Mississippi River in search of its headwaters. Along with this search, his expedition was to mark potential sites for U.S. Army outposts, communicate with the local Indian tribes, attempt diplomatic relations with the Ojibways and Sioux, and calculate how many British traders were in the area.
Pike recruited 18 soldiers from his First Infantry Regiment whom he later identified as his “Dam’d set of Rascals.” He added three others: Dr. John H. Robinson, as the expeditionary physician; Baronet Vasquez, as an interpreter; and the son of Wilkinson, Lt. James Biddle Wilkinson, who would be the expedition’s second-in-command.
Altogether, the nine-month and nearly 5,000-mile-long expedition was a success, which included a treaty with the Sioux, much of that success hinged on the tireless efforts of Pike. In his memoir, “The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike,” published in 1810, he recalled:
“In the execution of this voyage I had no gentleman to aid me, and I literally performed the duties (as far as my limited abilities permitted) of astronomer, surveyor, commanding officer, clerk, spy, guide, and hunter; frequently preceding the party for miles in order to reconnoiter, and returning in the evening, hungry and fatigued, to sit down in the open air, by firelight, to copy the notes and plot the courses of the day.”
Of that list of duties, “spy” certainly stands out. The Americans wished to know where the Spanish were and how strong their forces were in the region. The Louisiana Territory did rightfully belong to America, but in numerous places around this massive tract of land, there were border disputes.
The Spanish were adamant that the Americans not cross over into their territory. Furthermore, the Spanish had an inside man who would tip them off regarding future explorations. Gen. Wilkinson had long been a double agent for the Spanish, taking money for information. He had actually tipped off the Spanish regarding the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The Spanish, however, were not able to locate the Corps of Discovery to stop their expedition.
Pike was unaware of Wilkinson’s treachery, so when the general approached him again about a second expedition, Pike was only too willing.
The Second Pike Expedition
The objective was to reach close to Santa Fe, a small provincial capital in New Spain. Pike was informed that if he and his men were captured by the Spanish that he was to tell his captors that his expedition had gotten lost looking for Natchitoches, Louisiana.
Pike assembled his “Dam’d set of Rascals” again in St. Louis. It was during this week in history, on July 15, 1806—less than three months after the end of his first expedition—that the Second Pike Expedition began. About 500 miles into the expedition, Pike and his men arrived at a Pawnee village (near today’s Guide Rock, Nebraska). The Pawnee had been ordered by the Spanish to keep any Americans from passing through—by force, if necessary. Heavily outnumbered by the Pawnee, Pike was undeterred.
“Nothing but death can stop us,” Pike informed the Pawnee chief, “It is my duty as I have already fully explained to you—if you think it is yours to obey the Spaniard, so to stop me, be it so: But be assured that the attempt will cost the lives of many brave men—this you may be sure of.”
Not only were Pike and his men allowed to pass through, but Pike convinced the Pawnee to replace their Spanish flag with an American one. The expedition soon reached the Arkansas River. At this location, the expedition split in two with Lt. James Wilkinson and five others commissioned to navigate and map the Arkansas. Despite losing three men to desertion, the Wilkinson portion of the expedition was successful.
A Dangerous Winter
Pike and his 15 other men continued onward through Nebraska and into Colorado where, in November, he discovered a large mountain that peaked above the rest. Unsuccessful in his attempt to summit the mountain, he nonetheless charted it and named it Grand Peak. Over the ensuing decades, the mountain was later renamed Pikes Peak.
The expedition moved southward, but they were still in the southern stretch of the Rockies—Sangre de Cristo Mountains—when the worst of the winter storms hit in January. He and his men, wearing only their summer clothes, were both starving and freezing, most of whom were now frostbitten. Pike and a few men pressed through the thick snow in the Medano Pass, which is directly east of the Great Sand Dunes and approximately 150 miles north as the crow flies of Santa Fe.
The Second Pike Expedition made it through the pass and entered the Great Sand Dunes. Just south of the Dunes, Pike and his men built a stockade in today’s Alamosa, Colorado. At this point, Robinson, the expedition’s physician, received permission to reach Santa Fe. When Robinson met Spanish officials there, he told them he had been with a party of hunters. The officials became suspicious and sent a patrol to Alamosa where they found Pike and his men. They were all arrested, but treated well. Their arrest may have ensured the frostbitten and gangrenous men did not die.
Pike returned to America, and although he was unaware of the Aaron Burr conspiracy, he was nonetheless implicated in it. He was eventually found innocent of any wrongdoing, but it soured his reputation for several years and it also kept him and his men from receiving their due praise, extra pay, or land grants, which typically were given to American explorers.
Pike published his exploring accounts in his successful memoir in 1810, which was published in England the following year, and then translated and published in French, Dutch, and German over the next two years. He was killed in Toronto during the War of 1812, ending his military career with the rank of brigadier general.
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