Born January 5, 1779,
Lamberton, New Jersey
Died April 27, 1813,
York, Ontario
Zebulon Montgomery Pike was born in Lamberton, New Jersey, on January 5, 1779. His father, who had the same name, was a major in the American army during the American Revolution; after the United States gained its independence from Britain he continued as a regular officer in the United States Army. At the age of 14 the younger Pike became a cadet in his father’s company; six years later he was commissioned a lieutenant and assigned to various frontier posts.
In 1805 Pike was instructed by General James Wilkinson to lead an expedition to locate the source of the Mississippi River. Wilkinson was the governor of the newly acquired Louisiana territory, but he was also in the pay of the Spanish government, which still controlled Florida, Texas, New Mexico, and California. In August 1805 Pike embarked north on the Mississippi River from St. Louis along with 20 men and enough supplies to last four months.
When winter set in the party built a camp below the Falls of St. Anthony at the site of present-day St. Paul, Minnesota. In December Pike departed overland by sledge with a small party to continue his mission. When they reached Leech Lake in northern Minnesota, Pike concluded he had found the source of the Mississippi; actually the farthest reaches of the river are at Lake Itasca to the west of Leech Lake. Finding several British fur-trading posts in northern Minnesota, Pike informed the trappers there that they were trespassing on American territory.
Pike returned to St. Louis in April 1806, but he had been there for only a short time when Wilkinson sent him on another mission. In addition to returning members of the powerful Osage tribe who had been taken captive and mediating peace between the Osage and Kansas tribes, Pike was instructed to explore the upper reaches of the Arkansas and Red rivers. There is strong evidence that he also received a secret directive to investigate a route to Spanish settlements in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Historians have been unable to determine why Wilkinson wanted Pike to travel to Spanish territory. At that time the general was involved in a conspiracy with former U.S. vice-president Aaron Burr to separate the West from the rest of the United States. Whether Pike was supposed to have a role in this conspiracy is not clear. Even more mysterious, there is reason to believe Wilkinson betrayed Pike by warning the Spanish authorities that he was traveling in their territory.
Pike left St. Louis in July 1806 with 23 men, including Wilkinson’s son, who was an army lieutenant, and one of Wilkinson’s agents, Dr. John Robinson. They followed a route up the Missouri and Osage rivers in central Missouri to the Arkansas River. Along the way the Osages were returned to their homes in eastern Kansas. When Pike’s party reached the Arkansas River, Lieutenant Wilkinson returned to St. Louis with six of the men to report on the progress of the expedition.
Pike and the remainder of the party crossed the Rocky Mountains in mid-November. A week later they arrived at the site of present-day Pueblo, Colorado; from there Pike and three of his companions set out to climb the tall mountain that was later named Pikes Peak. Although they were unsuccessful in reaching the top they did climb Cheyenne Peak, a smaller mountain about 15 miles away. After they rejoined the other men, Pike led the party up the Arkansas River to Royal Gorge, which is known as the “Grand Canyon” of Arkansas.
By now some of the men were ill, so Pike built a small fort near the gorge for those who were too sick to continue on the journey. Pike left the fort in January 1807 with Dr. Robinson and 12 others and, in the middle of winter, they crossed the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in southern Colorado. Six men got gangrene from walking through the snow, two so badly that their feet had to be amputated. Pike finally decided to stop on the Rio Conejos to build a small fort; a tributary of the Rio Grande, the Rio Conejos ran through the heart of Spanish New Mexico.
A few days later, in February 1897, Dr. Robinson left alone for Santa Fe, where he claimed to have business. Within three weeks of his departure a party of Spanish cavalry arrived at the fort to arrest Pike and his men for illegal entry into New Mexico. Pike resisted, saying he thought he was on a branch of the Red River that formed a boundary between American and Spanish territories. There is general agreement among scholars, however, that he knew exactly where he was and he was simply putting on a show for Spanish authorities.
Pike was taken to Santa Fe and then to Chihauhau in the area that is now northern Mexico to meet the Spanish governor. Interestingly, Dr. Robinson was also in Chihauhau when Pike arrived. Pike was well treated by the Spanish; although his papers were taken away from him, he carefully memorized his trip so he could supply important geographical and military information to Wilkinson when he returned to the United States. He also hid notes in the barrel of his gun.
In July 1807 Pike was released on the American side of the border at Natchitoches, Louisiana. By then the Wilkinson-Burr conspiracy had been discovered and Pike was suspected of collaborating in the plot. When he protested his innocence to the secretary of war his defense was accepted. In the two-volume report on the expedition that he published in 1807, Pike said that the Great Plains would never be suitable for settlement by Americans; however, he proposed several possible routes through the Southwest to the Pacific Ocean. In his report on Santa Fe he noted the military weakness of the Spanish and the potentially profitable overland trade with Mexico. These comments helped to fuel American expansionism into the Southwest, especially Texas, in the following years.
After the outbreak of the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain, Pike was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. He was put in charge of the assault on York, which is now the city of Toronto, in Canada. The attack was successful, but Pike was killed in an explosion on April 27, 1813.
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