Zebulon Pike Should Have Gone to Oklahoma
(Instead of the Rocky Mountain)
Zebulon Pike is the brave explorer who led one of many expeditions west of the Mississippi River following the purchase of the Louisiana Territory in 1803. And while he did get a Rocky Mountain peak named after himself, he might have been better off exploring Oklahoma instead.
Who Was Zebulon Pike?
Zebulon Pike was a captain in the United States Army before setting off for parts unknown west of the Mississippi River in 1806. President Thomas Jefferson had arranged the Louisiana Purchase three years earlier, and had sent teams out to explore the unchartered land.
The first team sent out was the famous Lewis and Clark expedition. Lewis and Clark trekked across the Rocky Mountains. Pike's expedition came two years later.
Pike apparently had an adventurous spirit. His father, Zebulon Pike, Senior, had severed in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. After the war ended, Pike Senior continued to serve in the army, and Pike Junior and his family moved from place to place.
Pike Junior eventually joined the Army and volunteered for one of the expeditions. He brought with him several men, including an interpreter and a surgeon. He also brought several Osage who had been taken captives. Pike planned to return the Osage to their families.
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803
Napoleon Bonaparte entered into a secret treaty with Spanish governor Don Juan Manuel de Salcedo ceding the land in the Louisiana Territory to France. Bonaparte then sold the land to the United States. Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States when this happened.
Jefferson was keen to ensure that the more than 828,000 miles of land be explored as quickly as possible, and he had expeditions ready to go by the time the purcahse was completed. Louis and Clark made their famous expedition just a few months after the purchase was completed.
Apparently, many Spaniards weren't thrilled with the loss of the Louisiana Territory.
A couple of years after the Lewis and Clark expedition, Captain Richard Sparks headed up the "Expedition of the Red River" with the purpse of exploring the Red River Valley.
The Red River served as the boundary between the Louisiana Territory and the Louisiana Territory purchased by the United States and land still owned by the Spaniards.
Spain still owned the land west of the Louisiana Territory, including most of Texas and New Mexico. When Sparks and his team arrived in the southern tip of Oklahoma, Spanish Captain Francisco Viana blocked Sparks and his men from going any farther.
Sparks abandoned the trip, and Americans wouldn't explore the area again for many years.
Zebulon Pike's Expedition
Just one month after Captain Sparks' team set off, Pike left with a group of soldiers, an interpreter and a surgeon. Pike and his team traveled through Missouri and then headed north into what is now Kansas. Then the group headed south toward the Arkansas River and stopping at what is now the Great Bend in Kansas.
In addition to traversing the Rockies, Zebulon Pike also wanted to explore the Red River Valley, so he decided to split up his team and he sent Lieutenant James B. Wilkinson along with five other men to travel down the Arkansas River and see what they could see.
Then, Pike headed west, figuring he could meet up with Wilkinson and explore the Red River Valley then.
Wilkinson's Expedition Into Oklahoma
Wilkinson and his men prepared two canoes. They built the first one by hollowing out the trunk of a cottonwood tree. They made the second one by assembling some poles and stretching animal hides over the poles.
The second canoe they'd made turned out to be unseaworthy. Wilkinson and his men had to abandon the canoes after one day and trek down the Arkansas River on foot.
Eventually they came across a grove of cottonwood trees, cut down two of them and make two more canoes out of the trunks. These canoes proved seaworthy, and Wilkinson and the men were able to travel down the Arkansas River. They discovered Webbers Falls and passed the mouth of the Poteau River, entering Oklahoma on December 31, 1806.
Pike Reaches the Rocky Mountains
Meanwhile, Pike continued west until he reached the Rocky Mountains. He was intrigued by one of the larger mountains that he called the "Great Peak". He made up his mind to climb this mountain and set off with three other men.
Unfortunately, the group was ill prepared for a trek up the mountain. They didn't wear sufficient clothing to keep themselves warm and only carried blankets to sleep in at night.
They started climbing the mountain in November. Pike's Peak is chilly in the summertime. In the fall and oncoming winter months, it's downright freezing. It started snowing, and wouldn't stop.
The men were soon wading through the snow. Their toes were freezing, and they cut up their blankets to wrap around their feet to protect them from frostbite. Some of the men got frostbite anyway.
They finally gave up and came down the mountain. The rest of Pike's team weren't faring much better, and Pike knew that if they remained exposed to the elements, they would freeze to death come January.
He and his men tried to head east, but the snow was too deep, so Pike decided to head south.
The problem was, some of the men had frostbite and it was difficult for them to travel. Pike promised these men he would come back for them, and he left with the men who weren't injured and headed south.
They reached what they thought was the Red River. There were sufficient trees that Pike thought they could build a stockade and ride out the winter months.
He sent a few of the men back to retrieve the injured men, and Pike and the others began to build a stockade.
They finished building the stockade. The injured men arrived, and Pike and his team stayed inside the stockade to ride out the harsh winter months.
But they made a tragic mistake.
As it so happened, Pike and his team weren't on the Red River, but instead, they were on the Rio Grande River, right in the heart of New Mexico, which was a part of the Spanish Territory at the time.
Spanish soldiers came upon Pike and his men. They were already angry about the Louisiana Purchase, and they deeply resented American soldiers building a stockade on their land. The soldiers arrested Pike and is men and took them to Santa Fe. Then they took the team down to Chihuahua, Mexico.
It took months of negotiations before Pike and his men were released and allowed to return home. Pike was gone for almost a year.
He should have gone to Oklahoma instead. We have mountains in Oklahoma, and generally, you don't get frostbite when you climb them.
I talk about it in the video below:
