Zebulon Montgomery Pike

Zebulon Montgomery Pike (1779-1813), American explorer and soldier. He was born in Lamberton, New Jersey, and entered the United States Army about 1793. Pike was a lieutenant when in 1805 he was chosen by General James Wilkinson to find the headwaters of the Mississippi River. In the winter of 1805 and 1806 he reached Red Cedar Lake (now Cass Lake) and Leech Lake in Minnesota, erroneously believing them to be the Mississippi’s source. The actual source, Lake Itasca, was determined in 1832. He also bought land from the Sioux people for the future site of Fort Snelling, which grew into the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In July 1806 Wilkinson sent Pike to explore the headwaters of the Arkansas and Red rivers. Pike traveled up the Arkansas River into South Park, a tableland in the Southern Rocky Mountains in Colorado. He also explored the region south of what is now Leadville, Colorado, and sighted and attempted to climb Pikes Peak. From the Arkansas River he turned south, crossing the Sangre de Cristo Mountains into the Spanish territory of New Mexico. The Spanish arrested Pike and imprisoned him at Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Chihuahua, Mexico. He was released in 1807 and returned to the United States with valuable information about the geography of the Southwest. His report stimulated great interest in the settlement and trade of that region.

Pike was commissioned a brigadier general at the beginning of the War of 1812. He was killed by the explosion of a powder magazine, April 27, 1813, while leading American forces in an assault on the capital of Upper Canada, York (now Toronto, Ontario).