For youth, Bigfork’s tiny public library had one short shelf of biographies, jacketed in red and yellow, illustrated with black and white drawings. After finishing the life stories of all the women (maybe 7 total), I kept on, reading about men like Lewis and Clark and Abraham Lincoln and George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. And Zebulon Pike.
When I recently realized that Lt. Z. M. Pike, Jr. reconnoitered IN Minnesota IN 1805-06, the exact years of Book 4 in my series with André as an “Unlikely Voyageur,” I dug deeper.
Who was Zebulon Pike, Jr.?
Pike grew up in the frontier of Ohio and Illinois. His father was a general in the Revolutionary War. At 26, the son had worked in military payroll and logistics before Gen. James Wilkinson, territorial governor of the Louisiana Purchase area, (and more, so read to the end), assigned him to the Expedition on the Upper Mississippi. Pike may have been bummed — Lewis & Clark were not that much older, but they were given the plum task of exploring the west, whereas the upper Mississippi had been written about as early as 1670 by Father Louis Hennepin and by Peter Pond in 1766.
Is it a coincidence that Pike returned before L&C did, upstaging their accomplishment. He also published his own account of his travels before they did — and made a killing.
National Park Service ranger David Wiggins, who gave talks at Pikes Peak State Park in northeast Iowa, didn’t think much of Pike. “He was a puffed-up little popinjay who had all these pretensions to greatness.”
Pike’s expedition was given 4 tasks:
- locate land suitable for forts,
- make peace between various tribes,
- end unlicensed British trading
- and find the source of the Mississippi.
Keelboat, around Pittsburgh, late 18th century, unknown artist (Wiki Commons)
On August 9, 1805, he left St. Louis, with 20 men to pole and paddle his 70-foot keelboat (like L&C).
However, a heavy keelboat wasn’t suitable for the Mississippi, shallow and full of islands and shoals that late in the summer.
His men dragged the keelboat over sandbars and rapids, achieving barely 5-10 miles a day.
He drove them relentlessly and ran roughshod over them.
When his dog disappeared, 2 of his men offered to search for it. However, Zeb, Jr. abandoned them in his hurry. Even so, 8 days later, the 2, plus the dog, amazingly caught up with the crew who’d arrived near Dubuque, Iowa, A Scottish trader and a Fox Indian chief had generously helped them, with no possible thought of recompense to themselves.
By September 4, the group, exhausted with the drudgery of hauling their heavy boat, got to Prairie du Chien. They stayed two days and, while there, Pike started Job No. 1 — selecting a bluff as a site for a future fort (never used — a lower site was later preferred).
At Prairie du Chien, he swapped his keelboat for smaller barges. With a long way to go and the autumn weather quickly upon them, they continued upstream.
Interestingly, Pike wrote in his journal about on the local scenery. At the Sugarloaf bluffs around Winona, Minnesota, he mentioned its “rare and romantic beauty.” After hearing the legend of a woman throwing herself off Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, rather than marry, he wrote, “a wonderful display of sentiment in a savage!” He otherwise wrote about the problems he was solving.
My bad?
Historic Fort Snelling at B’dote (Photo courtesy Minnesota Historical Society)
On September 21, after more heaving and dragging the barges, they arrived at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, (the Minnesota then known as the La Rivière de St. Pierre). Pike decided it was perfect for a fort. Within two days, he checked off Job No.1: get land. He convened 7 Dakota chiefs and convinced 2 to sign a treaty for 100,000 acres of their homeland — what would become Minneapolis and St. Paul — in exchange for $200,000, plus trinkets and whiskey. The treaty was written in English (a language none of the chiefs spoke).
However, Pike had no actual authority to spend federal government money. It was the first of many treaties, both made and broken, and a harbinger of things to come. Unfortunately, Pike’s imperious behavior was typical of military officers of that time.
- Three years later, the government lowered the payment to $2,000, and added more alcohol.
- That money, however, went to traders, who said the Dakota owed them money.
- In 1819, when Col. Henry Leavenworth came to take possession, the Dakota had no idea they’d “sold” their homeland 14 years before.
However, Pike showed himself poorly the following day — his flag went missing and he beat one of his soldiers, in front of the Dakota. Pike became known for his fits of pique.
The next day, Chief Little Crow told him the flag had floated 15 miles downstream and had two of his braves return it. [Did Pike apologize? He didn’t note that in his journal.] Instead, he felt the pressure of the weather and his other tasks and moved on.
In Minnesota
Pike dubbed this complicated section of the river as “Beaver Islands.”
It required three days to portage their barges around the brutal Falls of St. Anthony. Seven men became ill due to Pike’s intense pressure to keep slogging, and the rest dropped from exhaustion. The going didn’t get better.
About 70 miles north, near Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, Pike encountered a series of beaver dams that choked the river, making navigation difficult. He dubbed the area “Beaver Islands.”
His men trudged on, dragging and portaging his barges around many rapids, though his sergeant, corporal and others lost much blood due to the Pike’s demands.
On October 16, they arrived at the rapids near Little Falls, Minnesota. But now the temps were dropping and snow was falling! They quickly built a stockade.
Pike also ordered his men to build dugout canoes. Dugouts? [Apparently he didn’t notice local Indians and fur traders all paddled light, efficient birch bark canoes.] However, Pike went with what he knew — dugouts.
As soon as the first dugout was complete, Pike ordered it to be loaded with his gear and special black gunpowder. It sank.
Unfortunately, Pike ordered his men to dry it on trays — over a fire — in the tent.
Guess what exploded? Guess if the tent survived?
Accomplishing the tasks (sort of)
Map shows Pike’s travels in northern Minnesota (Pike National Historic Trail Association)
By December 8, the stockade was completed. Watching the arrival of winter weather, Pike headed north on December 8 with part of his crew on sleds, leaving the most exhausted men to guard the stockade.
He often ignored the warnings of his Ojibwe interpreter, preferring to be “heroic” but endangering his men’s lives through negligence.
They stopped at the fur trade post on Sandy Lake to get directions to the one on Leech Lake. At that North West Company post — run by a British trader — Pike enjoyed the hospitality of the winterers, borrowing clothes and getting their expertise. Pike then thanked the proprietor by shooting down his Union Jack flag and hoisting his own US flag. [Would the trader accompany him to another post, and offer sled dogs, sled, snowshoes and a French-Canadian guide just to be rid of him?]
He stayed at several more British posts. Pike wrote a scathing letter to rebuke their trade practices and lack of paying customs to the new country. The proprietor of the Fond du Lac Department answered back in a letter, apologizing, promising to honor future tariffs.
Job No. 3 — End British trade. Pike checked that off. However, after he left, the fur trade resumed as usual.
Job No. 2 — Broker peace among the various warring Indian tribes.
Wabasha, a Dakota chief, had given Pike a ceremonial pipe to smooth his way upriver. Further north, Pike met with many prominent Ojibwe chiefs, pressuring them to surrender the British medals and flags — symbols of allegiance and friendship — to be replaced by his American medals.
From the Ojibwe chiefs, Pike received diplomatic tokens to present to Dakota chiefs in a gesture of reconciliation.
Pike also invited the Ojibwe chiefs to attend a peace conference in St. Louis, but they declined the honor — it meant traveling through hundreds of miles and back in hostile territory. The Dakota, Fox, Ojibwe and other tribes may have enjoyed a short time of peace while Pike was there. However, Pike’s exhortations didn’t make the long-term difference.
Job No. 4 — Find the source of the Mississippi River.
This 1697 map shows the Mississippi beginning far north of Lake Superior. It was drawn for Louis XIV, the Sun King.
This was of critical importance. Previous British maps indicated the headwaters might even be in Canada. On a short side trip to the NWC fur post on Cass Lake, Pike took readings, determined that latitude and designated Cass Lake the true source of the Mississippi.
He was in a hurry to get back to St. Louis, so Cass Lake was “close enough for government work,” as they used to say. Fortunately, Beltrami got closer in 1823 and Schoolcraft located the true source in 1825.
Having sort-of accomplished all four missions, Pike and his men returned to Little Falls about March 5. They left April 7, as soon as the ice was off part of the river, and paddled/poled back to St. Louis by April 20.
Having left after L&C, he reported back before them. [That would look great on his resume.]
In sum:
192 days up the Mississippi and up north (1015 miles)
72 down (903 miles)
[Did you notice a lot of “howevers”?]
On the one hand:
- Pike was an excellent hunter and often supplied his crew with game.
- He had incredible stamina — he covered a lot of territory, even if his moccasins were full of bloody blisters.
- His book about the expeditions and adventures was hugely popular.
- He worked hard to please — his father, his mentor.
- Pike died in battle on April 27, 1813, at Fort York (now Toronto, Ontario).
And concerns:
- Recklessly brave; negligent of his men’s needs
- A by-the-book teetotaler who used alcohol to seal deals, but spied on his men while they were carousing so he could report them for punishment
- Immediately on his return to St. Louis, his mentor Gen. James Wilkinson, who’d suggested this expedition, ordered him on Expedition #2. (Wilkinson was tried for treason by Jefferson, and later discovered as a well-paid double agent for Spain!)
- In the Southwest and Mexico, Pike was even more recklessly brave.
What should I do with this?
Having such a colorful personality makes Zeb Jr. interesting to me. André is paddling up the Mississippi a month or so behind Pike, but unhampered by a heavy keelboat. Their Native American and fur trade hosts along the route will certainly have opinions of this leader representing the new American government. The British-owned North West Company which employed André in Books 1 and 2 might be seeking insider information.
I’m open to your suggestions — What might André make of Pike or vice versa? What would make things go sour quickly? How much trouble will that cause? It will be fun to write.
Final Thoughts
- Read “story” in your history — buy “Waters Like the Sky” and “Treacherous Waters” and “Uncharted Waters.”
- Subscribe to this blog and read each post as it goes public!
- For current discoveries and quirky comments, visit me on Facebook.
- Book me as a speaker.
- Request to be on the waiting list for Book 4
- Ask your library, local school or gift shop to buy copies of “Waters Like the Sky” and “Treacherous Waters and “Uncharted Waters.”
- Get recruited for a voyageur brigade (only for an hour) — come to a presentation.
Sources:
- The Project Gutenberg: eBook of The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, Volume 1
- Wikipedia: Zebulon Pike
- “Pike’s 1st Expedition—MN” Zebulon Pike National Historic Trail Association (For Wisconsin, change the last 2 letters to WI, for Iowa–IA, for Illinois–Il for Illinois, for Missouri–MO.)
- Encyclopedia Dubuque: Pike, Zebulon Montgomery
- Was Pike a Failure? – A writer in Morrison County, Minnesota, where Pike’s winter fort was located, examines the other side of the data.
- “Pike on the Prowl: For better or worse, America’s first emissary on the Upper Mississippi set history in motion” Midwest Weekends feature
- “Revisiting Zebulon Pike’s Expedition to Minnesota” Minnesota Public Radio feature
“Heroic” figures in our short history have a way of melting into less than when held under modern scrutiny. Custer comes to mind. Thank you for this and the other histories that you give us. BTW, I grew up in Balsam Township, a relatively short way from Bigfork. I now live in Seattle, a place rich in history and names such as Vancouver and Cook.
Hi David,
Fair enough to acknowledge that the lens of modern scrutiny can be an unforgiving bias–thank you for that reminder. Who knew that I’d be so riveted by history that it’d become my third career. And to have our hometowns of Bigfork and Balsam Township connecting over historical figures–what a delight to hear from you!
Nikki, love your pike article. i am digging deeper into pike as ive been asked to do a presentation this summer. im working with primary sources , then secondary for perspective. I worked at Historic Fort snelling many summers ( great summer job for a teacher) and knew dave wiggins.
Im also involved with “La Company,” a minn/wisc based voyaguer group with an education focus. we love your stuff. Spencer Johnson
Hi Spencer,
Pike is an interesting character, always in the shadow of Lewis and Clark. The Morrison County source was most sympathetic to him. Unfortunately, I may not be–I’m still considering how my characters will intersect, and it doesn’t seem likely that Pike will come off heroically. I hope to be at Ft. Snelling when you do a presentation this summer–that sounds interesting. Best wishes!