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The Grand Peak, by James Disney |
Captain Zebulon Montgomery Pike, Dr. John Hamilton Robinson, and Privates Theodore Miller and John Brown started recorded mountaineering history west of the Mississippi River. The climb and retreat took a full five and a half days, involved a hike of near 100 miles, and an elevation gain of almost a mile and a half. Most mountaineering mysteries involve a known mountain, with the question being who ascended it first. Did George Mallory and Andrew Irving make it to the summit of Everest before Sir Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay? There have been controversies in the United States concerning who first climbed Denali, Fremont Peak, Grand Teton, Mount Whitney, and a host of others. Pike’s controversy is different. We know they were first to record a climb, but which mountain was it?
Over the decades, Pike has been moved about like an undeliverable package from summit to summit in the mountains to the southeast of Pikes Peak. Because of the general disagreement among historians, the significance of his accomplishment has waned. He has been treated harshly by uninformed historians who thought Pike claimed that the great mountain named for him would never be climbed. He was, however, only stating that under the conditions that existed during his ascent, no one could have done it and survived.
As a retired trial lawyer, I looked at the matter as if it were a criminal case. Pike and his men could have been killed by the attempt, had they not been favored with fine weather, and Pike’s decision to take a different descent route and a valley and canyon retreat—rather than retracing his ascent route, which was a face and ridge climb. To my mind, the various mountains advocated by the earlier historians were in a “criminal lineup,” as if they were possible defendants answering to the charge of crime for attempting to kill Pike, Robinson, Miller and Brown. Pike was the one only one who left a victim statement that gave a description of the mountain that could have killed them. If his description was clear enough to rule out all but one, then the oldest American mountaineering mystery could be solved. Here we have an advantage over a normal criminal case, in that the real perpetrator could possibly not be in the lineup, and everyone could be innocent. Not so with Pike’s mountain, because the real culprit had to remain at the “scene of the crime.”
The Climbers
Zebulon Montgomery Pike was 27 years old when he entered what was to be the State of Colorado on November 11, 1806. He was ambitious, thoughtful, and tolerant. He was selected to lead two expeditions into the newly acquired Louisiana Territory by the commanding general of the United States Army, General James Wilkinson. In 1805, he was sent to find the headwaters of the Mississippi River, and based upon his success, he was again selected in 1806 by Wilkinson to proceed to the Southwest to find the source of the Arkansas River. In addition, he was to find the headwaters of the Red River (the last tributary to the Mississippi River on its west bank) and return home by following and mapping it back to the Mississippi. This latter order was impossible, as he would be nowhere near its source which is in the panhandle of Texas. His side trip toward Pikes Peak was not in his orders, but as General Wilkinson noted, “Pike likes to stretch his orders” and accomplish more than he was ordered to do.
Instead of following the Arkansas River upstream as he passed the mouth of Fountain Creek, Pike decided to climb what he called Grand Peak. He left twelve men on the south side of the river in a small breastwork they erected and took three men with him to climb the great mountain. They left at 1 P.M. Monday, November 24, 1806, thinking they would climb the peak and return Wednesday evening.
Pike would continue after his climb to explore Colorado from today’s Canon City, north to intersect Four Mile Creek, travel between Cripple Creek and Guffy, then over Ranger Station Gulch to Eleven Mile Reservoir, visit the Garo area, Antero Junction, down Trout Creek Pass, to Buena Vista, upstream to Twin Lakes, then downstream to Salida, Parkdale, Westcliffe, over Medano Pass to Great Sand Dunes and on to the Conejos River where he and his men were taken on a forced tour of northern Mexico and back through Texas to the United States. This last journey would change the history of our country and the world, but that is not the focus of this article. He would eventually become a general and die a hero’s death leading his men in the first victory of our War of 1812 at York (today’s Toronto), the capitol of Upper Canada. At the time of his death, he was described as the most popular officer in the United States Army.
Dr. John Hamilton Robinson, a young physician, volunteered to join the expedition. He was an idealistic adventurer who wanted to help liberate the people of Mexico from the yoke of Spain. Pike called him a “liberal man” with a “genius eye.” He was from Virginia, and left his wife in St. Louis with their young son. Years later, he would attempt to raise an army of filibusters to liberate Mexico. He left Pike at the stockade that was erected on the Conejos River, and attempted to deceive the Spanish government as to his purpose for being in their territory.
Little is known about Private John Brown, other than that he was a private—even though he was in his 50s during this expedition. He died in St. Louis aged 86. Later in the expedition, while the men were suffering terribly in the Wet Mountain Valley in late January 1807, he would openly grumble, and say what most of the rest only thought. Pike threatened him with “instant death” if he heard any more complaining.
Theodore Miller was Pike’s favorite soldier. He called him “agreeable in the woods.” He, like Brown, was on both of Pike’s expeditions, and had accompanied Pike to the headwaters of the Mississippi while most of the men were at the stockade near Little Falls, Minnesota. He was also with Pike when they separated from the rest of the group to head upstream from today’s Buena Vista to find the headwaters of the Arkansas River. Brown was even chosen by Pike to go all the way to Canon City to try retrieving the horses left there and return with the two infirm men who were left near Horn Creek west of today’s Westcliffe, Colorado. He would also be the only member to the expedition to die, He was killed by Sergeant Meek during a drunken scuffle at Carazzal, near Chihuahua, Mexico, while they were prisoners of the government of New Spain.
The Mountains
With the exception of Cheyenne Mountain, most of today’s area residents are not familiar with the mountains to the west of Colorado state highway 115, which winds its way southwest to Penrose from Colorado Springs. Cheyenne has three summits: the south summit, which is studded with an antenna farm above NORAD, and the north summit, where Spencer Penrose built a road in 1926 to the beautiful Cheyenne Mountain Lodge (razed in the 60s). The highest of the three at 9,565 ft. is the west summit, which is above the Broadmoor Stables about 5 miles up the Old Stage Road.
As one proceeds south on Highway 115, the next mountain is Gray Back Peak, another mountain with three summits.
It is separated from Cheyenne Mountain by Rock Creek. The road then descends into Deadmans Canon, which is part of the Little Fountain Creek drainage, with Blue Mountain (9,766 ft.) now appearing on the west.
As one climbs out of Deadman Canon, the waters of Little Fountain Creek are left behind. Click for Map The road starts a mild downhill, crosses Little Turkey Creek (at the Hitch Rack Ranch), and now Black Mountain (10,132 ft.) appears with Turkey Creek on its south side.
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Black Mountain at Sunrise |
Much higher and farther to the northwest lies Mt. Rosa (11,499 ft.). Between Rosa and the front range of Cheyenne, Gray Backs, Blue, and Black, lies (from east to west) a barrier composed of Sugarloaf, Vigil, San Luis, McKinley, and newly named (2003) Knights Peak (10,490 ft.), which rises southeast of Rosemont Reservoir. Above this barrier of mountains lies the St. Peters Dome-Devils Slide ridge, which connects to the south ridge of Mt. Ross. Click for Map Mt. Rosa is twice the climb of any of the others, ascending into the Alpine Zone with its summit at 11,499 feet above sea level.
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Mt. Rosa from Palmer Park.
Photo courtesy of Bill Everett. |
It was named for Englishwoman Rose Kingsley, of England who was an early visitor to Colorado Springs and a close friend of General Palmer and Helen Hunt Jackson. General Palmer named Mt. Rosa after her. As one looks to the south of Pikes Peak on the skyline from Colorado Springs, first the rolling summits of Mount Almagre are first seen, and then a huge pyramidal peak appears with a long, flat north ridge. That is Mt. Rosa, one of the finest climbing peaks in the area. It can be seen from Monument Hill on the north, to the Pueblo Reservoir on the south. The best trail to the top starts at Frostys Park on its west side. While not Pike’s route, but it will get you a climber to his the summit in two hours or less. Click for Map
The Historians
In 1820, the Long Expedition entered El Paso County from the north, leaving the waters of the Missouri (South Platte River) and entering into the Arkansas River drainage at the Palmer Divide above today’s Monument, Colorado. Edwin James convinced Long to allow him and two companions to attempt to climb what became known as Pikes Peak. All three made the summit, and James recorded the country below him on a fine July day. He wrote, “On the south the mountain is continued, having another summit (probably that ascended by Captain Pike,) at the distance of eight or ten miles. This, however, falls much below the High Peak in point of elevation, being wooded quite to its top. Between the two lies a small lake, about a mile long, and half a mile wide, discharging eastward into Boiling-spring creek.”
It is clear that he was looking at Mount Almagre (12,367 ft.), and the lake between him and the mountain that was “wooded quite to its top” was Lake Moraine draining into Ruxton Creek, an affluent of Fountain Creek. Thus Edwin James started the controversy as to which mountain Captain Pike and his men climbed. Click for Map
The next reference after James’ is historian and former secretary of the Colorado Territorial Legislature, Frank Hall. He moved Pike from Almagre, and placed him on Cheyenne Mountain in his four-volume work, The History of Colorado (1889).
Elliot Coues (pronounced “Cows”) followed the track of Lewis and Clark (1893) and Zebulon Pike (1895), and agreed with Frank Hall, asserting that Pike climbed Cheyenne Mountain. Many notable historians, including Irving Howbert (1914), Milo Quaife (1925), Le Roy Hafen (1927), Manley Ormes, (1933), and Eugene Hollon (1949), agreed and pronounced Cheyenne Mountain as the one Pike climbed. They would be joined by Spencer Penrose, always a consummate promoter, who erected a sign at his beautiful Cheyenne Mountain Lodge on top of the north summit that proclaimed Pike stood right there (with a great view of Pikes Peak). Now the historic structure is just a concrete foundation with the rubble of his dream crassly scattered and shoved down the east side of Cheyenne Mountain.
However, Colorado College professor Donald DeWitt studied the matter a hundred years ago and rejected Cheyenne Mountain, arguing it was so far to the east of the line from Pueblo to Pikes Peak that it made no sense. It had to be a mountain other than Cheyenne. He noted that Pike wrote that he was at the “summit of this chain,” and knew that Almagre, from the summit of Mt. Rosa, looks as if it is just a high point on southeast ridge of Pikes Peak, and not a separate mountain, which left only Mt. Rosa as the “summit of this chain.” He proclaimed that they climbed Mount Rosa. Unfortunately, he went on and opined that his ascent route to Rosa took him over Black Mountain. Had he just stated that Pike climbed Rosa, and not added that his route took him over Black Mountain, the mystery probably would have been solved years ago. DeWitt had the proper summit—but the wrong route. I believe his theory was discounted by one of his students.
Lloyd Shaw (Colorado College 1908) was interested in all matters pertaining to the West, and tramped the local mountains on solitary treks, sometimes for weeks on end. He realized that Professor DeWitt was right—Cheyenne Mountain made no sense, but neither did Mt. Rosa via Black Mountain. In the first half to of the 20th Century, probably no one knew the mountains to the southeast of Pikes Peak better than Lloyd Shaw.
Shaw rejected Mt. Rosa because he knew it would take Pike much longer than ten hours to climb Black Mountain, lose considerable elevation to the Duffields Meadows, and then negotiate the Green Mountain and Knights Peak terrain, before he could start up Rosa. It would take far too long to match Pike’s climbing time from a base camp below Black Mountain on Turkey Creek. Pike historian James McChristal did field work years ago, and came to the same conclusion as Shaw. Mt. Rosa would be forgotten for seventy years. Click for Map
It was just too far and too high, and it would take too long to climb Rosa via Black Mountain and still match Pike’s journal entries as to the time it took to make the climb.
James McChristal was a delightful man, who I first met when I was a pupil at the Cheyenne Mountain kindergarten in 1950. I was also his paperboy a few years later. He had Pike plays and reenactments as a matter of course at Cheyenne Mountain School, where he served as superintendent of District 12. Shaw proclaimed that it was on the northwest ridge of Blue Mountain that Pike gave up his attempt. He built a cairn on the 9,982 ft. summit (Shaw recorded the elevation as 9,970), and named it Mt. Miller after Pike’s climbing partner, Theodore Miller. He actually thought Pike spoke to him on this mountaintop, and informed him that this was where the historic climb occurred. Shaw convinced such eminent historians as Le Roy Hafen, Steven Harding Hart (1933), Professors Robert Ormes (1952), and Harvey Carter (1956) of The Colorado College, who agreed that it seemed the most eligible peak.
The greatest of the Pike historians, Donald Jackson, who someday may be found to have erred in his historical writing, but so far I don’t think it has happened, would not give an opinion, other than stating that it could not be Blue Mountain because he confirmed by personal observation that the summit of Pikes Peak could not be seen from the summit of Blue.
[i] James, Edwin. From Pittsburg to the Rocky Mountains, p. 224.
Here the matter stood for a decade until 1975, when Glenn R. Scott of the USGS produced his “Historic Trails of the Pueblo Quadrangle” maps, which placed Pike on Mt. Rosa via Gray Back Peak. Scott moved Pike two mountains north, having him climb Gray Back Peak on his way to climb Rosa. Scott made the discovery serendipitously. In addition to being a master cartographer interested in Pike’s route for his historic trails map, he was a rock hound who climbed St. Peters Dome ridge looking for precious gems, not investigating Pike. He looked to the southeast and saw that Pike could have climbed Gray Back Peak from Deadman Canyon, circled Sugarloaf, and ascended to the ridge where he stood. This ridge intersected the south ridge of Mt. Rosa at about 10,000 ft. A climb of another 1,500 ft. would get them to the summit of the “highest of this chain.” He placed two question marks on his Historic Trails map showing that the route was probable, although still conjectural. After my investigation was well on, I called him in Denver to say there was no longer a need for the question marks, as the matter was now not only probable, but confirmed by research. His map had Pike on the wrong approach march, as he thought Pike ascended Turkey Creek, and it placed the cave far too low, but it set forth the route from Deadman Canyon correctly. He was the very first to publish the right mountain and the right route from base camp to the summit.
The Victim’s Statement
Monday, November 24, 1806: The climbing party left twelve men behind them at the breastwork in Pueblo they erected that morning, and left at 1 P.M. “With an idea of arriving at the foot of the mountain, but obliged ourselves to take up our lodging this night under a single cedar…” “Distance advanced, twelve miles.”
Tuesday, November 25, 1806: “Marched early, with the expectation of ascending the mountain, but was only able to encamp at its, after passing over many small hills…” “Our encampment was on a creek; we found no water for several miles from the mountain, but near its base found springs sufficient. Took a meridial observation of the mountain, and the altitude of the mountain.” “Distance advanced, twenty-two miles.”
Wednesday, November 26, 1806: “Expecting to return to our camp that evening, we left all our blankets and provision at the foot of the mountain. Killed a deer and hung his skin on a tree with some meat. We commenced ascending; found the way very difficult, being obliged to climb up rocks sometimes almost perpendicular:; and after marching all day we encamped in a cave without blankets, victuals, or water. We had a fine clear sky, whilst it was snowing at the bottom…some distance up we saw buffalo.” Click for Map
Thursday, November 27, 1806: “Arose hungry, thirsty, and extremely sore, from the unevenness of the rocks on which we had lain all night; but were amply compensated for our toil by the sublimity of the prospects below. The unbounded prairie was overhung with clouds, which appeared like the ocean in a storm, wave piled on wave, and foaming, whilst the sky over our heads was perfectly clear. Commenced our march up the mountain, and in about one hour arrived at the summit of this chain; here we found the snow middle deep, and discovered no sign of beast or bird in habiting this region. The thermometer which stood at 9 degrees above 0 at the foot of the mountain, here fell to four below 0. The summit of the Grand Peak, which was entirely bare of vegetation, and covered with snow now appeared at the distance of fifteen or sixteen miles from us and as high again as that we had ascended; it would have taken a whole day’s march to arrive at its base, while I believe no human being could have ascended to its summit. This with the condition of my soldiers, who had only light overalls on, and no stockings…determined us to return.” “We descended by a long deep ravine with much less difficulty than we had contemplated.” Found all are baggage safe, but the provisions all destroyed. It began to snow, and we found shelter under the side of a projecting rock.” Click for Map
Friday, November 28, 1806: “Marched at nine o’clock. Kept straight down the creek to avoid the hills. At half past one o’clock shot two buffaloes, when we made the first full meal we had eaten for three days. Encamped in a valley under a shelving rock. The land here was very rich, and covered with old Ietan [Comanche] camps.”
Saturday, November 29, 1806: “Marched after a short repast, and arrived at our camp before night. Found all well.”
The Maps
The Investigation
My investigation began about 1985, when I first heard of Glenn Scott’s map of all the historic trails in this area, and, in the beginning, consisted of climbing Mt. Rosa by various routes to see if I could find a “cave” about an hour from the summit. A cave would be found and excavated by Professor Michael Nowak of Colorado College on June 4, 2001. It was clear that some of the historians had actually been in the field and climbed Blue Mountain (Hart and Jackson), but none of the historians had done extensive field work by test climbing all of the possible Pike mountains to see if the climbing time matched Pike’s time and terrain description.
With the help of Armando Lee and Cody Kreamer, all of the mountains were test climbed and compared to Pike’s journal entries dated November 24 to November 29, 1806. In each case the climbers started “at the foot of the mountain on a stream.” The climbs were made in winter to try to replicate as close as possible the conditions on Pike’s climb, which was in mid-fall of 1806. Mt. Rosa was the only mountain to match his journal entries. The mountains climbed were: Cheyenne Mountain, (author) Gray Back Peak (south summit), Black Mountain, Blue Mountain, Mt. Miller (author), and Mt. Rosa. Click for Map
Testing the Evidence
1) Can base camp be reached “at the base” of the mountain “on a creek” with a march of 34 miles from the then confluence of Fountain Creek and the Arkansas River?
A) Pike was very accurate in his estimates of mileage when the terrain was open and not too difficult. Coues noted that Pike was extremely accurate in judging the distance from the Great Bend of the Arkansas River near Learned, Kansas, all the way to near Lamar, Colorado. Pike gave no estimate of mileage for the entire days of Wednesday (from base camp to the “cave” bivouac) and Thursday, the day of the ascent and return to base camp. In reviewing both the Nau map, published in Pike’s book, and Pike’s field map (the one that was hidden in Mexico for over 100 years and discovered by historian H.E. Bolton), there is only a loop to show that his return was down Turkey Creek and his approach march was in the Fountain Creek watershed (a fact that is overlooked by the historian who place his approach march on Turkey Creek). See Map. Two full days of climbing are only represented by the loop.
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By measuring the distance from the breastwork at Pueblo, and realizing that the confluence of Fountain Creek and the Arkansas River was in Pike’s day about a mile farther to the northwest that it is today, one can draw a line of 34 miles and find his base camp at Little Fountain Creek at the “foot of the mountain.” If a base camp is established at the foot of Blue Mountain it becomes less than 34 miles, and for Turkey Creek it becomes much less. Furthermore, it is clear that once Pike was on the Gray Back ridge, in the fine weather he had on Wednesday, November 26, he could see that it would be much easier to climb the hill up Deadmans Canon and return via Little Turkey Creek. He noted on Friday, after his climb, that they “Kept straight down the creek to avoid the hills.” Click for Map
The hills he was referring to were the minor drainages coming from the front range of hills to the downrange of today’s Ft. Carson. Had he trekked up Turkey Creek on the approach march as many had claimed, it would have been a valley walk with no hills to ascend and descend. Moreover, the two maps he produced would not have shown his approach march to the east of his retreat march, as it clearly shows.
The mistake made by historians when they read “the creek,” was thinking that it was the same creek as his retreat from the climb.Moreover, if Pike had ascended Turkey Creek, it would have been a continuous uphill grind, and he would not have been complaining about the hills they had to pass over on Tuesday.
In addition, Pike had a fine view of the mountains before him as he marched across today’s Ft. Carson. There is only one obvious ridge system that leads from the plains toward Pikes Peak: the Gray Back Peak ridge leading to Mt. Rosa towards Pikes Peak. Click for Map
A ruler placed on a map will show almost a straight line touching all three summits. The skyline stops at 10,000 ft., however, as one looks at Black Mountain or Blue Mountain. Cheyenne Mountain is far off to the east. The most direct climbing line leads directly to Mt. Rosa. He really didn’t want to climb it, but it was in the way to get to “Grand Peak.”
2) Is there a rock shelter (cave) area about an hour from the summit?
A) Pike’s bivouac was in a rock shelter that he called a cave. On January 1, 1999, I climbed to the 11,000 ft. south ridge of Mt. Rosa with Gary Betchan and his dog Darwin to search for a cave that would hold four men where they could share body warmth and build a fire. After about an hour, I saw Darwin’s rear end, but not his head. He had found a perfect shelter that was “on line and on time.” That is to say it was about an hour from Rosa’s summit (in knee deep snow conditions), and it was on the line of travel that Pike had to have taken if he had climbed Mt. Rosa. It was at 10, 700 ft., overlooking the east side of the south ridge. I received permission from the Supervisor of the Pike National Forest, Mr. Al Kane, to excavate the cave. I was hoping to find any artifact of the first quarter of the 19th century that was non-Native, ideally a .54 caliber ball or a penny dated 1806 or earlier.
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Professor Frank Tucker at Pike’s Cave |
Colorado College professor of archeology Dr. Michael Nowak, was in charge, and on June 4, 2001, historian James McChristal, Anna Skorut, Ranger Jeff Hovermale, and I, joined him to excavated the floor of the shelter. We found only charcoal that could have been from a Pike fire, a native fire, or from lightening. The problem was that normally only 3 or 4 inches of soil would have to be examined to go back two centuries, but there was a skylight to the cave in its uphill side (the one Darwin had his head in), which allowed much more gravel to rush into the cave during cloudbursts. We took out well over a cubic yard and screened it. After several hours, Dr. Nowak explained that the floor of the rock shelter could have been many feet lower in Pike’s day, due to the amount of material that had entered over the years. It is possible that it is or is not the cave. During the uranium mining that occurred in the 1940s and 50s, a huge quarry was dug a few hundred feet below the cave, and the real cave could have been there and destroyed in the process. The quarry below the south ridge scars the mountain today and it also is “on line and on time.”
3) Is the summit of Pikes Peak obscured by intervening terrain during the entire climb?
A) The last time Pike saw the summit of Pikes Peak was on Tuesday afternoon, when he took a meridional observation and measurement. He makes no mention of seeing his goal on Wednesday, the day that was devoted to climbing (as opposed to marching) toward his goal. Before the summit of Rosa is reached from its south ridge, Almage is very clearly seen, but Almage, to Pike’s mind, is part of Pikes Peak, but not the summit. As one gains the summit of Rosa from the south ridge the summit of Pikes Peak “now appears” at the same time that the summit of Rosa is reached. Not so with the rest of the mountains.
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Mt. Rosa from Palmer Park.
Photo courtesy of Bill Everett. |
4) Does the summit of Pikes Peak appear only when the summit is reached?
A) Only as he arrives at the summit does he say, “The summit of the Grand Peak…now appeared…” I had Armando and his fellow climbers aware of this fact. They could see nothing from the summit of Black Mountain as they climbed into the greatest storm of the winter of 2002. I climbed Black Mountain’s four summits, and Pikes Peak can be seen before the summits are reached. Cheyenne Mountain allows a few views of Pikes Peak from the south summit ridge. Pikes Peak cannot be seen at all from the summits of Black, Miller, Gray Back, and Blue.
5) Can the summit of Pikes Peak be seen from the summit of the mountain Pike climbed?
A) This fact alone rules out Gray Back Peak, Blue Mountain, and Mt. Miller, for the summit of Pikes Peak cannot be seen from them. Some authors think that the fact that a small part of Almagre can be seen from the summits would still allow them to be considered. I disagree, as Pike saw and described the face and summit of Pikes Peak from the mountain he climbed. Black Mountain presents a beautiful and rarely seen perspective of Pikes Peak from each of its four summits, as does Cheyenne Mountain.
6) Will it take about ten hours to complete the climb from base camp to the summit?
A) To my mind, this is one of the main criteria. Pike climbed for about nine hours on Wednesday (there is 9 hours and 47 minutes of daylight on November 26, the first day of the climb) and “about an hour” on Thursday, making a total climbing time from base camp to summit about ten hours. I have subtracted 47 minutes for the time it took for occasional rests, and the time it took to kill and field dress the deer they shot shortly after the climb started on Wednesday morning. On each climb, the very fit climbers I asked to help in this investigation did not rest at all. Their total climbing time was 8 hours and 10 minutes from the LSU Geology Camp to the summit of Mt. Rosa. They could not start from Agony Hill and Little Fountain Creek, which accounts for about an hour that should be added to their time and another half hour for the rest periods they did not take. Their time then comports very well with Pike’s time, being about twenty minutes less than Pike’s time.
The climbers reached the summit of Blue Mountain from the Hitch Rack Ranch in less than four hours. To match Pike’s journal, they should have been an hour from the summit at the end of the day. Yet with a sunrise start they arrived before 11 A.M. It took them about half an hour to find the summit, as it is so covered with trees that it is hard to find.
Black Mountain, from the Hitch Rack Ranch to its summit took less than six hours. Gray Back Peak was reached before noon on the same day that they climbed Mt. Rosa.
I had originally thought the “foot of the mountain” was right in Deadmans Canon, near the LSU Geology Camp. Only after flying over Ft. Carson in a Channel 7 helicopter in January 2005, did I realize that the foot of the mountain really belonged on the Ft. Carson Reservation on Little Fountain Creek, where Agony Hill starts. When I realized this, the extra hour that it took Pike over the timed hikers disappeared. Mt. Rosa was the only mountain that matched this, the most important test criteria. The rest fell far short. All three of Cheyenne Mountain's summits can be reached from Rock Creek in less than five hours.
Mt. Miller can be reached via Blue Mountain in less than five hours. Black Mountain is no easy climb, forcing the climbers to lose and regain elevation time and time again between 8,500 ft. and 9,000ft. Still, its summit was reached by 1:30 P.M. for a six hour climb.
7) Is there an area where Pike could see buffalo below him?
A) This is a judgment call. There are two types of bison, mountain and plains. Pike would have seen the darker, smaller species of mountain bison on his climb when he looked below and saw them. Where Rosemont Reservoir is today, stood a mountain park in Pike’s day, and I believe that is where he saw them.
Perhaps they could congregate below Blue, Miller, and Black Mountain in Duffields Meadows, so they were given the benefit of the doubt with a positive mark in this regard. while Cheyenne Mountain and Gray Back Peak seem devoid of an open park area where buffalo could be seen while they were still plentiful.
8) Is there an easy descent route by following a stream back to base camp that can be described as a “long deep ravine?”
A) Anyone who has descended the canyons carved by Turkey and Little Turkey Creeks would not describe them as easy, and Rock Creek is horrible below the Broadmoor Stables down to where is finally widens. Little Fountain Creek has a branch that starts near the Wye Campground at the foot of Mt. Rosa’s south ridge. Base camp can be reached by following it down to today’s Bear Trap Ranch and on down the Emerald Valley to the Emerald Valley Ranch, and on down to Deadmans Canyon and then down to the foot of Agony Hill on Ft. Carson. While not an easy hike due to numerous creek crossings where one side or the other, cliffs, and forces a crossing, one can see how Pike could describe it as “easier than contemplated,” especially when it is compared to his ascent route.
9) Is there a shelving rock on the east side of Turkey Creek that is about 4 1⁄2 hours hiking time from the base camp?
A) All historians agree that Pike’s retreat route back to the breastwork at today’s Pueblo was along Turkey Creek for several miles before they left the valleys and headed overland directly toward the twelve men they left there Monday afternoon. After the climb on Thursday the men were tired and got a late start. They only hiked for 4 1⁄2 hours that day before they shot two buffalo and made camp in an area that showed signs of Comanche Indians. I had asked the archeological contractors at Ft. Carson if there was a “shelving rock” where four men could camp along the east side of Turkey Creek. I suggested that it might be the rocky feature that Guy Parker found a hundred years ago, near the former village of Lytle. Sure enough, they knew of it, and historians Frank Tucker and Jack Cooper and I were allowed on base to visit it together with The Gazette reporter Dave Phillipps. We were told that it was the only shelving rock they had ever found large enough to shelter four men.
While there, we noticed people on the west side of Turkey Creek wearing white coveralls. We were told that they were taking rubbings of Comanche pictographs and we all smiled to ourselves, and then one another, realizing that this had to be Pike’s camp of Friday night, November 28, 1806. While I have found many of Pike’s campsites, most were the size of a small parking lot—but here we had a campsite of about 120 square feet, perhaps the best documented of all. I hope in the future it also will be examined by archeologists, and we will finally have an artifact of Pike’s expedition.
The shelving rock camp is about ten miles from base camp on Little Fountain Creek, which is about a 4 1/2 hour hike.
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Left: Frank Tucker, then the author, John Patrick Michael Murphy, with Jack Cooper at Shelving Rock. |
If his base camp happened to be on Little Turkey Creek or Turkey Creek “at the foot of the mountain,” they would have arrived much sooner, perhaps less than two hours for Little Turkey Creek, and a half hour more for a Turkey Creek base camp. All geographic features that he referred to must appear “on line and on time,” and the Shelving Rock camp is right where Pike said it would be. If one knows the base camp location, the line of the climb can usually be determined. Here, the Shelving Rock camp proves the location of the base camp, because only the Little Fountain Creek base camp location is a 4 1/2 hour hike from it.
10) Is the environmental lapse rate (ELR) consistent with the height gained from base camp to the summit?
A) Meteorologists use the term “lapse rate” to describe temperature decrease as elevation increases. Pike’s thermometer was a Reaumur instrument that only had 80 degrees between the freezing and boiling of water. When Pike wrote that the temperature at the foot of the mountain was 9 degrees above 0, at the foot of the mountain it meant that it was 52 degrees Fahrenheit (32+2.25 x 9). When he wrote it was 4 below 0 on the summit, it meant it was 23 degrees above 0 Fahrenheit (32- 2.25 x 4). Many historians did not realize that he had wonderful weather, and attributed his failure to the freezing temperature. Mt. Rosa is the only mountain that has an elevation gain consistent with the average lapse rate of 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit for each 1000 feet gained, or 6.5 C/1000m. Base camp was at about 6,300 ft., and the summit of Rosa at 11,499 ft., with a difference of a mile or 28 degrees lower, compared to Pike’s 29 degrees lower. The base temperature was taken on Wednesday morning, and the summit temperature taken Thursday morning. It is clear, however, that there was a temperature inversion at this time, and it was warmer at higher elevations than below, because he described cloud cover below him, while it was clear and bright at his location.
11) While on the summit can one reasonably describe it as the highest one in the area excepting Pikes Peak?
A) This clue that they were on the “summit of this chain” is one of the most important hints as to which mountain they were on. If one climbs any of the mountains other than Rosa, there are many mountains above besides Pikes Peak. Knights Peak is 10,490 ft., and Mt. Rosa is a thousand feet higher than Knights Peak. Both can be seen looking down on Black, Blue, Miller, Gray Back, and Cheyenne Mountains. Only on Rosa does it appear that there are no mountains higher except Pikes Peak. As noted from the summit of Rosa, Mt. Almagre appears to be a part of Pikes Peak, as the drop to Lake Moraine from Almagre cannot be seen. The fact that Rosa was chosen by Professor DeWitt was a result of Pike’s description that he was on the “summit of this chain.” James, like Pike, also treated Mt. Almagre as nothing but a ridge that was part of Pikes Peak, as he states, “On the south the mountain [Pikes Peak] is continued…” and goes on to describe Almagre.
12) Is the summit about fifteen to sixteen miles from the summit of Pikes Peak?
A) It must be noted that all of the mountains fail to meet Pike’s estimate that the mountain he climbed was “fifteen or sixteen miles” from the summit of Grand Peak. Mt. Rosa’s summit is 7.8 miles in a direct line from Pikes Peak. If Pike was estimating the ground distance, it would be more but still not “fifteen or sixteen miles.” Colorado Springs city center is less than that from the summit of Pikes Peak. All of the potential summits are closer to Pikes Peak than 15 or 16 miles. Pike had been fooled by the distance from his location to Pikes Peak at least three times. One, he left today’s Pueblo on a Monday at 1 P.M., and thought he would climb the peak and be back by Wednesday evening, thinking he would climb the peak on Tuesday. He left his blankets and gear at base camp on Wednesday morning, thinking he would be back that night after ascending Pikes Peak. It was much farther than he estimated, and from the summit of the mountain he climbed he now overestimated the distance by doubling it after underestimating it three days in a row. James made the same error in thinking that it was eight or nine miles from the summit of Pikes Peak to the summit of Almagre, when in reality, there are only four miles distance between the summits. This one item of description by Pike is a neutral for all the summits, for it does not add or detract from any of them. Pike’s estimate of mileage was only accurate so long as he could use his cased pocket watch over terrain that allowed his men to “march,” as he termed it. Over broken, but basically open country, he and his men usually averaged a bit above two miles each hour. Once climbing, this method was useless, and he had to rely on visual estimates. He gave no estimate as to mileage covered, only the time it took, for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Click here for a chart that takes Pike’s description and compares it to what is found by climbing each mountain!
“The Law”
In civil and criminal law, the jury is the sole decider of what happened. The jury is in charge of the facts. The judge is in charge of the law, having received it from the legislature. Among historians it is different. There are historical researchers who posit opinions and their ideas are read and reviewed by their peers. Among mountaineering historians, William R. Bueler has been recognized as one of the deans of the art. He examined the Grand Teton controversy and set forth a fair standard to follow. He wrote, “The only reasonable position for a mountaineering historian to take is that, when honorable men claim to have reached a summit and when they can reasonably be assumed to have had the time and skill to do so, then it becomes incumbent upon any challenger to provide convincing contrary evidence...” [i]
The Argument
I used to argue to juries that truth is like a well-founded bell. A fine bell will sound the same no matter where it is struck. Truth will not only be consistent with itself, but will all other provable facts. Robert Ingersoll described this as, “Every molecule in the universe is in a conspiracy against a lie or a mistake.” Only one mountain, and no other, meets the test. Mount Rosa is no longer conjectural, or even probable, as it has been proven to be the only mountain that they could have climbed.
The Verdict
Pike climbed Mt. Rosa to its summit by establishing a base camp near the foot of Agony Hill on Little Fountain Creek at Ft. Carson, and ascended Goat Mountain; then the south summit of Gray Back Peak; then north along its ridge line to Sugarloaf mountain which was skirted on its east side to the St. Peters Dome ridge; and then on to the south ridge of Mt. Rosa to near the ridge top, where the four men bivouacked the night of November 26. Click for Map
The next morning, on Thanksgiving Day, they achieved the summit of Rosa and retreated down to today’s Wye Campground area, where they met the north fork of Little Fountain Creek. They followed it through today’s Bear Trap Ranch, Cather Springs, Emerald Valley Ranch, and back to base camp. The next morning, they ascended to the south side of Deadman Canon and started their retreat march down Little Turkey Creek to its confluence with Turkey Creek, where they camped at the Shelving Rock. Click for Map
On Saturday, November 29, they continued down Turkey Creek until it ran too far to the south, so they left it and went cross country back to where they had left twelve men at the confluence of Fountain Creek with the Arkansas River. It was the first recorded ascent of any peak in the American West, and it was the first climb recorded to the Alpine Zone in the United States. The highest point east of the Mississippi River is Mount Mitchell in North Carolina at 6,684 ft. —about the elevation of Pike’s base camp.
In all, Pike climbed at least eight summits in Colorado as he started western American mountaineering history. In order, they are: Lookout Hill (November 18, 1806) southwest of Rocky Ford; Gray Back Peak (November 26, 1806); Mt. Rosa (November 27, 1806; Spinney Mountain in South Park (December 16, 1806); the hill north of Twin Lakes, Colorado (December 22, 1806); Cactus Mountain (formerly Spikebuck Mountain) near Parkdale (January 1, 1807); Fremont Peak on the north side of the Royal Gorge, (January 5, 1807, his 28th birthday); and Sierro Del Ojito, the lookout hill above his stockade on the Conejos River (February ?, 1807).
Today it is actually impossible to retrace his entire route, because part of it lies in the artillery impact zone of downrange Ft. Carson, where no person can enter. The only other obstacle is the Louisiana State University Geology Camp. This property lies to the west of Highway 115 on Little Fountain Creek. I have been told by caretaker Dennis Porter, that they require six months advance notice of any planned hikes, and require a signed agreement that their rules will be followed.
It is easier to climb Gray Back Peak from the north trailhead (Emerald Valley Road highpoint) and climb down Pike’s route to the third summit of Goat Mountain and then come back. It is all within Pike National Forest, as is the rest of his climb. From the same trailhead, one can traverse Sugarloaf Mountain to the north (on its east side), and once the north saddle is reached, cross the Gold Camp road, ascend the low point of the St. Peters Dome-Devils Slide ridge, and follow it west to its connection with the south ridge of Mt. Rosa at about 10,000 ft. The south ridge of Rosa has the quarry scar, and by staying on its right side and ascending steep terrain, the cave will be found just below the ridge and very close to where the ridge drops precipitously at 10,700 ft.
Pike’s Forgotten Legacy
This endeavor, like most of Pike’s great achievements, has in great measure been unnoticed. While Lewis and Clark surely helped the United States in acquiring the three states in the Oregon Territory, Pike just as surely helped us acquire the northern portions of North Dakota and Minnesota (Britain claimed all lands above the Missouri River), due to the hegemony he displayed on behalf of his country. Pike made British traders agree to pay taxes to the United States, take down their foreign flags, and stop giving medals and alcohol to the natives.
Moreover, by publishing his humble book in 1810, he told the world what Spain had been doing in their northern territories. Pike told how the peoples’ lives were regulated by the rattle of the drum and the peal of the bell—the military and church that controlled their lives. He put the lie to the idea that New Spain had banished slavery and described the encomienda system as nothing but servility. Essentially Spain set up a system that “commended” the Indians who live on the lands to the landholder, to look after the spiritual and physical welfare, and in return, all their work and products were owned by the landholder who had to tithe 10 % to the church.
The greatest landowner of all was the Catholic Church, whose hierarchy vied with the military for ultimate control. Pike noted that the minor clergy were at opposition to the hierarchy, and when independence came, they would lead the way. About the same time Pike published in 1810, Padre Hidalgo was ringing the bell of freedom in northern New Spain, starting eleven years of revolutions that resulted in the country of Mexico becoming independent of Spain.
After Pike published his book, Spain realized that her borderlands in Mexico and Texas were too vast to be protected and, as a result, allowed impresarios such as Moses and Steven Austin to claim vast landholdings in Texas so long as they remained loyal, taxpaying, militia-joining, Catholic citizens of New Spain. Mexico would follow Spain’s example, allowing Americans to colonize, only to find they did not remain loyal. Once Texas became a republic and, a decade later, a state in the union, it brought on the War with Mexico, giving the United States California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, southeastern and western Colorado, and even parts of Wyoming. Pike, more than any other, was the one who helped spur Anglo settlement in Texas. In addition, he was the grandfather of the Santa Fe Trail, telling the world that the people of northern New Spain yearned to trade with the United States, and had the silver mines to provide the purchasing power to do it.
[i] Bueler, William M. The Teton Controversy: Who First Climbed the Grand? p. 20.
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