The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1906-09-28

Summit Of the
Denver.-During the last week IN
September there was celebrated at
Colorado Springs, COL, the discovery
of Pixies Peak by Capt Zebulon Mont
gomery Pike, the gallant young Amer
lean soldier, the intrepid explorer.
Ten years ago, on the occasion Of the
ninetieth. anniversary of the dis
covery of the great mountain, the Pike
Monument association held a ban
quet and decided that the centennial
anniversary should be celebrated by
fitting ceremonies and the unwilling
of monument to the soldier-explorer
who blazed the first trail from the
Mississippi to the Rockies. AS the
time approached the interest in the
event spread so rapidly that, in
stead of the celebration being the To-
cal affair first planned, it took on
national scope. The government Of
fcially participated and sent 10000
regular troops. Congress authorized
the coming of 100000 souvenir medal
lions of bronze and silver, and the ma
ton at large did much to make mem
orable the anniversary ceremonies.
In some unaccountable manner the
life of the discoverer of Pixies Peak
has escaped the attention of the care
full biographer. In the archives OF
the war department in Washington,
however, there is carefully preserved
q diary kept by Pike during his west
ern explorations, and there are no
government records, which form a
more thrilling chapter than these
kept by one of it's bravest and most
devoted soldiers.
When the Louisiana purchase was
made the United States realized that
to a certain extent it had bought a
pig in a poke, and man was sought
who could be trusted to explore and
report on parts of the Louisiana ter
ritory. Lieut. Pike, son of dis
tinguished soldier who had been a
captain in the revolutionary war, was
chosen for. the work. He left st.
Louis in August, 1905, and spent nine
months tracing the Mississippi to it's
source, enduring the most severe
hardships and showing the most ster-
ling bravery. Then he turned his
course westward in geographical sur.
veys for the government. The Rocky
mountains, then known as the Mex
lean mountains, were his objective
point.
Meet Many Hardships.
f-CA
expedition July Is, 1906, with small
party composed of squad Of pri-
vate soldiers, physician, guides, In
dams and with what was believed to
be complete equipment. Pike was
a lieutenant when he started, but
was promoted to a captaincy the next
month without his knowledge. The
course of the exploring party carried
it through what is now Missouri and
Kansas. The Arkansas river was
followed to it's headwaters near the
present site of Leadville, and it was
on November Is, 1906, that the Pike
party sighted the Mexican Noun
tains" from it's camp in western Kan
sas
The trail of the explorers had been
strewn with hardships from the first,
but the sufferings the party was
called upon to endure the winter of
1SO6-O7 were among the most severe
in the history of American explora-
ton. Pike was compelled to force
his way through the granite gorges,
$500 feet deep, of the Grand canyon
or Royal gorge of the Arkansas
river near the present site of Canon
City. His greatest hardships be-
gan, however, in making the passage
of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. It
was then midwinter, the snow was
three feet deep, and he and his men
were compelled to 60 as long as four
days at a time without food. Nine
of his men had their feet frozen, and
two Of them had to be abandoned tenn.
porarily.
The grandeur of the sight of the
"great white peak" was sufficient to
evoke three cheers from even q
party of half-starved and frozen men,
and Pike determined to press on. The
nearest the party came to the peak,
however, was on November ~, 1906,
when Pike and two of his followers
climbed to the top of a mountain is
miles away. Pike wrote in his diary
that the great white mountain seemed
to be as high again as the mountain
he had climbed, and that it would be
impossible for human being to reach
the summit. y T.
The snow on the mountain Pike had
climbed was middle deep" and the
-. AN. i. ........ III.