A competitive art review board chose Ken Williams’ proposal to design a plaza dedicated to the exploration of Zebulon Pike, which would be located near the area in Pueblo where Pike camped at in 1806.

Williams developed the idea to feature a plaza with a bronze medallion featuring the image of Zebulon Pike peering through a spyglass, supported by pillars interpreting the stockade Pike and his men erected at the site and the Arkansas River. The piece is crowned with the Pike’s Peak Mountain Range. The floor of the plaza outlines Pike’s expedition through Southern Colorado in ceramic relief featuring quotes from Pike’s journal. “I tried to use excerpts from the journal that were unusual facts about the expedition that the public might not have been aware of – like the magpies attacking the wounds on the horses,” said Williams, “I find those small facts fascinating.”

Mr. Williams began his professional career as brick sculptor in 1969. The bronze medallion of Zebulon Pike was his first foray in bronze work. The medallion is constructed of two separate medallions fabricated to a piece of steel that allows the piece to appear free-floating within the orb of the ceramic surround. The piece is unique and the only one like it in the world. However, Ken is working with the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo to make similar medallions available to communities who might wish to honor Pike in a unique way.

Pike Plaza is located at the Boettcher Outdoor Education Center on the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo. HARP is a 26-acre recreational, urban, water-based, multigenerational, environmental education riverwalk amenity that is publicly owned and free of charge to all populations within the region.

The Riverwalk will be the site for a community-wide Pike Commemoration event on July 15, 2006, as Pueblo commemorates the journey and rediscovers the man – Zebulon Montgomery Pike. For events in Pueblo and elsewhere, click here.