Santa Fe Trail group hopes for Pike celebration
Staff writer
In 2006, the 200th anniversary of the explorations of Zebulon Montgomery "Monty" Pike will take place, and there will be celebrations. Hal Jackson hopes Marion County folks will take part, since Pike and his entourage stopped in Marion County in September 1806.
Jackson, from Placitas, N.M., president of the National Santa Fe Trail Association, was guest speaker Thursday evening at the quarterly meeting of the Cottonwood Crossing Chapter of the National Trails Association.
The meeting was held at Kingfisher's Inn.
A five-person commission is studying Pike's trip to the West and Southwest.
Pike's journals are very clear and specific; for instance, as to where he was when he first saw the Rocky mountain that now bears his name, Pike's Peak.
Pike and one of his men set out to climb the mountain. It appeared to be much closer to their camp than it was. Pike told his men remaining at camp that they would be back that evening.
They were gone for four days, and did not reach the mountain even then.
Pike and his entourage camped in what later became Marion County in mid-September 1806. "He ripped through here (Marion County) in four days," Jackson said.
On Sept. 13, 1806, the group camped where Marion now stands. There was lots of game in the area, Pike noted in his journal — including panthers (mountain lions).
There are four possible "Pike sites" in Marion County, Jackson said.
Pike also camped about two miles west of where downtown Great Bend now stands, Jackson said.
Pike was trying to avoid the Kanza Indians at the time. He thought he was proceeding westward when actually he was headed northwesterly, Jackson said.
Pike, who went by "Monty," is an important figure in American history, and has been much-maligned by writers and historians, as "The Lost Pathfinder."
"He was a youngish lieutenant, and a protégé of General Wilkinson," Jackson said Thursday. Wilkinson was an associate of, even a co-conspirator with, the notorious Aaron Burr, who hoped at one time to carve out his own nation, a kingdom he could rule.
"Wilkinson was Burr's confederate in treason," Jackson said. Wilkinson was the one who told Pike to make his famous journey in 1806-1807.
Pike's purpose was to increase the claim of the United States under the Louisiana Purchase of 1804. The Purchase was no "done deal" at that time. Spain, for one, was still claiming some of the huge land area involved.
Pike and Co. started out from St. Louis. At a Pawnee village in Nebraska, the Spanish flag flew over 500 Spanish soldiers. Pike had about 20 men.
He was imprisoned for a while by the Spanish there, who thought he was a spy. He was under house arrest, largely free to come and go as he wished.
But they did confiscate some of Pike's papers. Mexico gave some of them back to the United States in 1912, Jackson said.
Interestingly, Wilkinson was on the Spaniards' payroll, so he was being quite duplicitous with Pike, too.
There is no evidence at all that Pike was involved in any way with Burr's conspiracy, Jackson said.
At Leadville, Colo., Pike thought he had found the source of the Red River, but was mistaken.
Pike lived to be only about 32 or 33. He was a brigadier general in the War of 1812. His forces attacked Toronto, which was then called York, and won the battle. He was a hero.
While he was celebrating the victory, a magazine nearby exploded, killing him.
The only other clear American win during that war was Andrew Jackson's, at the Battle of New Orleans, which occurred after the war was officially over. With no Internet and no telephones, Old Hickory and his troops didn't know it was over.
Pike's route in Kansas pretty much followed the Santa Fe Trail.
Jackson told the 40-some people at Thursday's meeting that the Santa Fe Trail Association may seek more business memberships.
The group is having "budget problems," he said. Dues for a business are $40 per year, and the local chapter gets to keep half of that for the first year's dues only.
"We need more members. We have to increase our income, or decrease our outgo," Jackson said. He said the SFTA doesn't want to curtail its educational and marketing projects, but may have to.
The SFTA ran an ad in True West, which he praised as a good magazine, Jackson said, but got zero new memberships from the ad.
The Association does not sell or share its membership lists with anyone, he said, answering a question.
