ZEBULON PIKE: Man of Mystery

“Nothing that Zebulon Montgomery Pike ever tried to do was easy, and most of his luck was bad.” – Author and historian Donald Jackson

Ask anyone who lives in the Pikes Peak region, and they know two things about Zebulon Pike: There’s a mountain named after him, and he never climbed it. But there’s so much more to know about the somewhat elusive man after whom the towering granite peak and the region that surrounds it are named. “He explored the West about the same time as Lewis and Clark, but he never got the recognition they did,” says Matt Mayberry, director of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.

Pike, then a lieutenant and protégé of the commander of the U.S. Army, Gen. James Wilkinson, was sent to Minnesota in 1805 to discover the source of the Mississippi River. Wilkinson, who later was accused of being a traitor, then sent Pike West in 1806 to foster peace among several warring native tribes, while mapping and exploring the lands that made up part of the Louisiana Purchase. He was supposed to find the sources of various Western rivers that feed the Mississippi.

Some say that was a ruse, that he really was expected to spy on the Spaniards, who were then in control of New Spain (Mexico, including modern-day New Mexico).

Unlike Lewis and Clark, he did not have the ear, and blessing, of President Thomas Jefferson.  “The most amazing thing about Pike is how little known he is,” Mayberry says. Pike set out from St. Louis early that summer and didn’t reach Colorado until November – when he was already supposed to be back home. He camped at what later would become Pueblo and his journals suggest he was fascinated by the majestic blue peak he spied to the northwest. He took a small party with him to explore it, but was foiled by harsh winter weather and had to turn back.

There are many misconceptions about Pike, Mayberry says. “First of all, he never said that no one would ever climb Pikes Peak,” says Mayberry, who has researched the historic figure and whose uncle, Donald Jackson, wrote the book on Pike’s letters and journals. “Pike said, essentially, that no one could have climbed it then, because of snow and cold. He and his men were in summer uniforms and ill-equipped for such a task.” Pike did climb a nearby mountain, and historians disagree on which one it was. The National Park Service site, with an extensive biography of Pike online, suggests he climbed 9.000-foot Cheyenne Peak. But a retired lawyer and history buff, John Murphy of Colorado Springs, believes from his dozen years of research that Pike actually climbed the 11,000-foot Mount Rosa.

After his visit to the Grand Peak, as he called it, Pike continued to explore southern Colorado for the next few months, despite horrible winter conditions; his men suffered frostbite and nearly starved.Murphy, who is presenting a one-man show on Pike for the bicentennial commemoration of his exploration of the area, says Pike has long been misunderstood and wrongly characterized. Pike looked like an aristocrat, but was the son of a military man and had less education than he would have liked. He traveled with books, which he read at every opportunity.

He was slight and not particularly tall – about 5 feet, 8 inches – but carried himself proudly. And was a lot stronger than he looked. “He was tough,” Murphy says. “His men would have starved if he had not been able to shoot enough buffalo to feed them. When others would have turned back, he kept on. Once, he stared down a whole hunting party of Pawnee  and made them turn away.” He’s been described by some as pompous, though Murphy disagrees. “He was certainly ambitious, but I don’t think pompous accurately characterizes him,” he says. Murphy says he believes Pike was something of a paradox. “He was fiercely ambitious, but also a quiet and introspective man,” Murphy says. “He was a little bit of a prig.” By all accounts, Pike was a teetotaler, refraining from the use of liquor, but Murphy has found evidence to suggest he occasionally got drunk with the Spanish priests he met while in captivity in New Spain – priests he claimed to despise because they took advantage of the indigenous people, Murphy says.“He kept his cool under pressure (the Pawnee incident), but was almost reckless in his determination to complete his mission and protect his men.”

In many ways, Pike still is a man of mystery. He got close enough to the Spanish in New Mexico that they captured him and took him to Chihuahua, where he was detained for some months. They kept all his papers, which weren’t retrieved until a century later and now lie in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Once released and returned to U.S. soil, Pike carried with him an enormous amount of knowledge about New Spain and the territory abutting the Louisiana Purchase. If he indeed was on an espionage mission, it was a successful one.

“There is no real evidence that Pike had any knowledge of any of this,” however, says Mayberry, who believes Wilkinson may have orchestrated Pike’s capture. “I think he (Pike) just hitched his wagon to a very bad star. He worked for a real scoundrel. “It’s been said that he was more ambitious than prudent, more trusting than cautious, and I think that’s probably the case,” Mayberry says. The NPS online biography of Pike also suggests that even if his journals don’t reflect it, Pike’s actions were those of someone who wanted to be captured. Still, he was traveling with little information, inadequate maps and claimed he was lost when he was captured.

Another misconception about Pike is that he named the mountain after himself, That’s totally untrue,” Mayberry says. In 1818, five years after Pike died, it was first referred to as Pike’s Peak by Dr. John Robinson, who produced a map of the area and labeled it as such. It was so called by explorers Stephen Long and John C. Fremont, who popularized it. (The possessive form was later dropped on all peaks.) As far as Mayberry and Murphy are concerned, Pike is underappreciated and given too little credit for his accomplishments. Pike published his observations about the West well before anyone else, and excited the American imagination. He called it ‘the great American desert,’ which had a long-term impact on its settlement – and that may have been a good thing, slowing westward expansion at a manageable rate. The mountain named for him may be one of the most famous in the world.

“Pikes Peak became a symbol not only of the region, but of the whole state, of the entire West,” Mayberry says. Everyone knew the slogan “Pikes Peak or Bust” – which was popular during the gold rush, not because there was gold on the peak, but because it was a landmark that told prospectors they were nearing their goal.

It so dominated the landscape, almost every American Indian tribe had a nickname for it: The Utes called it Sun Mountain Sitting Big.

Pike died a hero in the War of 1812, at the young age of 34. He died with no son to carry on his name. His only daughter later married the son of President William Henry Harrison. Hundreds of Pike family descendents will gather at the foot of the mountain named for Zebulon Pike in July 2006 to commemorate their ancestor’s journey, an unsung note in American history appreciated by too few.

Fast forward …

Zeb Pike might marvel at how Pikes Peak evolved into a tourist attraction that anyone can ascend.

The 14,110-foot peak, a beacon for gold prospectors in the 1850s, soon drew those seeking not gold but respite. The healing waters of Manitou Springs, at its base, drew health-seekers in the late 1800s.

In 1871, Gen. William J. Palmer decided the plains at the foot of the peak were the perfect setting for his new settlement, Colorado Springs – bringing a permanent population to the area.  In 1873, the U.S. Army Signal Corps built a weather station on the summit and in 1886, a carriage road to the summit was completed. Sunday excursions up the peak, made possible by mule-back and mule-drawn wagons, drew gentlemen in jackets and ladies in their lavish hats, parasols and ruffled skirts.

On a visit, Zalmon Simmons (of Beautyrest mattress fame) found the mule ride to the top so uncomfortable, he underwrote a new and more civilized way to ascend the peak: by cog railway. The Manitou & Pike’s Peak Railway hauled its first group of passengers from the base to the summit of Pikes Peak on June 30, 1891. It still runs today.

In 1893, a Wellesley College professor, Katharine Lee Bates, ascended the peak on a trip west. She was so moved by the view, she scribbled four stanzas of poetry which two years later were published and became America’s second national anthem, “America the Beautiful.”

By 1914, a hiking trail to the summit was created by Fred Barr and is named for him. A year later, Spencer Penrose (who established The Broadmoor hotel) and friends made improvements in the highway to accommodate motor cars. A year after that, the first Pikes Peak Hill Climb was held, making 2006 the 90th anniversary of the Race to the Clouds, as it’s nicknamed.

That same year, 1916, the highway began to charge a $2 toll, which lasted 20 years. Toll fees and private donors could not keep the highway maintained, however, and it was turned back to the U.S. Forest Service in 1936. Access was again free.

In 1948, the badly deteriorated road demanded repair or closure, so a fee was again instituted to help maintain the highway, and its operation was turned over to the City of Colorado Springs, which still manages “America’s Mountain.”

Thousands of visitors flock to the Pikes Peak region each year to see the magnificent peak. Some ascend it by car, some by cog railway, some on foot. Some even bicycle down its winding highway.

Zeb would be stunned, but perhaps pleased.

In 2006 communities in Pikes Peak region will join other Colorado towns along Zebulon Pike’s trail in a bicentennial celebration honoring his exploration of the Pikes Peak region.  The Pike Bicentennial will include various historical and cultural exhibitions, public events and lectures, and numerous co-operative activities sponsored jointly among cultural and historical agencies. To recognize this bicentennial hallmark the Pioneers Museum has comprised one thematic exhibition consisting of three distinct components: history of the expedition, ephemera and memorabilia relating to Pikes Peak, and fine art inspired by America's mountain.

Information about the Pikes Peak region and Pike Bicentennial commemoration events is available from experiencecoloradosprings.com, the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum and from the Official Bicentennial Site.

Pikes Peak Country Attractions is an association of natural and man-made attractions located in the Pikes Peak Region.  Pikes Peak Country Attractions promotes the unique features and proximity of these attractions to the media, consumers, travel trade and on-line services.