find evidence that the party was exceedingly temperate as to its supply of
fire-water, as but one quart for each man was taken :

' ' Our outfit comprised the following articles, of provisions, Indian goods, &e. ;
viz. 1501b. of pork, 5001b. of biscuit, 3 bushels of parched corn meal, 5 gallons of
whiskey, 251b. coffee, 301b. sugar, and a small quantity of salt, 51b. vermillion, 21b.
beads, 2 gross of knives, 1 gross of combs, 3 doz. fire steels, 300 flints, 1 doz. gun
worms, 2 gross of hawk 's bells, 2 doz. moekasin awls, 1 doz. scissors, 6 doz. looking
glasses, 301b. tobacco, and a few trinkets, 2 axes, several hatchets, forage bags, can-
teens, bullet-pouches, powder horns, tin canisters, skin canoes, packing skins, pack
cords, and some small p.acking boxes for insects, &e.

' ' The gentlemen of the party were supplied with such instruments as were
deemed indispensably requisite in their several pursuits. The Instruments for topo-
graphical purposes were, three travelling, and several pocket compasses; one sex-
tant, with radius of five inches; one snuff box sextant; one portable horizon with
glass frame and mercurial trough; one and a half pounds mercury, in a ease of box-
wood; two small thermometers; several blank books, port folios, &c.

"The hunters, interpreters, and attendants were furnished with ritles or mus-
kets; the soldiers were armed exclusively with rifles, and suitably equipped. Our
stock of ammunition amounted in all to about 30 pounds of powder, 20 of balls, and
forty of lead, with a plentiful supply of flints and some small shot. ' '

Some of the Indians who were gathered at Engineer Cantonment, "to
whom our proposed route had been explained, and who had witnessed our
preparations, affected to laugh at our temeritjf, in attempting what they
said we should never be able to accomplish. They represented some parts
of the country, through which we intended to travel, as so entirely destitute
of water and grass, that neither ourselves nor our horses could be subsisted
while passing it". Our old acquaintance, "Baroney" Vasquez, Pike's in-
terpreter, now a trader among the Indians along the Missouri Eiver, and
who happened to be at the cantonment at that time, assured Major Long
that there was no probability that he could avoid the attacks of hostile
Indians, who "infested every part of the country" through which the pro-
posed route ^\ould lead him.

Leaving Engineer Cantonment on the 6th of June (1820), Long
marched westward, through Nebraska, and on the 11th reached the "Pawnee
Tillages", which the western map accompanying Dr. James' Account places
on the Loup Fork (the present Loup Eiver) of the Platte, in a locality some
twenty-five miles to the north of the Platte Eiver Grand Island. Here the
party was Joined by a young Spaniard, "a refugee from some of the settle-
ments of New Mexico, intending to accompany us as far as his fear of his
own countrymen would permit" ; and by two hired Frenchmen, Joseph
Bijeau and Abraam Le Doux, the one to serve as guide and interpreter and
the other as a himter and farrier. Again the Americans were warned of
the dangers ahead of them. The great chief of the Pawnees declared that
they "must have long hearts, to undertake such a journey with so weak a
force — hearts that would reach from the earth to the heavens".

After a stay of two days at the Pawnee villages. Long crossed the Loup
and moved southward to the Platte Eiver. Thence his course westward was



HISTORY OF COLORADO 95

along the north bank of that stream to its great forks, the North Phitte
and the South Platte rivers, where he arrived on June 22d, tlie length of
his daily marches having ranged between twenty and thirty miles. The
party had had no trouble with Indians, nor from any other cause; but the
young Spaniard, probably anticipating trouble for himself should he go
nearer the border of Xew ilexico, had deserted and returned to the Pawnees.
Xear the camping place on the 18th the ground was strewn with the bones
of men and of buffalos. The presence of so many human bones gave rise to
the supposition "that at no very distant period a battle had been fought,
or a massacre committed, on this spot"'.

Having forded the Xorth Platte at its mouth before making camp on
the 22d, on the next day the party crossed the South Platte, which the
historian of the expedition calls "Padouca or South Fork". "Riviere des
Padoucas" was, as we have seen in a preceding chapter, a name given by
the French to the Platte River in the early part of the previous century.
Moving along the southward bank of the South Platte, the explorers, ac-
cording to Dr. James' map, passed over the intersection of the 41st parallel
and the 10"M meridian — the northeastern corner of Colorado — on the 26th;
but, allowing for his errors of longitude, it would seem that they entered the
land of our State on the 2Tth. While the map's latitudes are not greatly
out of agreement with modern determinations, its longitudes in the vicinity
of the mountains are almost half a degree too far east. "Large herds of
bisons were seen in every direction", and besides these the country through
which the party now was marching was "enlivened by great numbers of
deer, badgers, hares, prairie wolves, eagles, buzzards, ravens, and owls". It
was the opinion of Dr. James that

"this barren and ungenial district appeared, at that time, to be tilled with greater
numbers of animals than its meager productions are sufficient to support. It was,
however, manifest that the bisons, then thronging in such numbers, were moving
towards the south. Experience may have taught them to repair at certain seasons to
the more luxurious plains of Arkansa and Red river. What should ever prompt them
to return to the inhospitable deserts of the Platte, it is not, perhaps, easy to con-
jecture. ' '

The explorers ended their march of the 26th near a military structure
which had been occupied lately by a war-party of Indians, and of whicli
Dr. James tells the following :

"At a few rods distant on our right hand, was a fortified Indian camp, which
appeared to have been recently occupied. It was consti-ucted of such broken half-
decayed logs of wood as the place afforded, intermixed with some skeletons of bisons
recently killed. It is of a circular form, enclosing space enough for about thirty
men to lie down upon. The wall is about five feet high, with an opening towards
the east, and the top uncovered.

"At a little distance in front of the entrance of this breastwork, was a semi-
circular row of sixteen bison skulls, with their noses pointing down the river. Xear
the center of the circle which this row would describe, if continued, was another
skull marked with a number of red lines.

"Our interpreter informed us that this arrangement of skulls and other marks
here discovered were designed to communicate the following information, namely,
that the camp had been occupied by a war party of the Skeeree or Pawnee Loup
Indians, who had lately come from an excursion against the Cumancias [Comanches],
letans, or some of the western tribes. The number of red lines traced on the painted
skull indicated the number of the party to have been thirty-six; the position in which
the skulls were placed, that they were on their return to their own country. Two



96 HISTOEY OF COLOEADO

small rods stuck in the gTound, \Yith a few hairs tied in two parcels to the end of
each, signified that four scalps had been taken. A record of facts which may be
important and interesting to others, is thus left for the benefit of all who may
follow. ' '

■ The party "rode on through the same uninteresting and dreary country
as before", and on the 28th passed opposite the mouths of "three small
creeks discharging into the Platte from the northeast. One of these,
called by the Indians Bat-so-ah, or Cherry creek, heads in the Eocky
Mountains." This "Cherry creek" evidently was our Pawnee Creek which
unites with the South Platte a few miles southwest of the town of Sterling,
the county seat of Logan County. It does not head in the mountains,
but has its sources in the northeastern part of Weld County. Long's party
did not explore any of the affluents of the South Platte excepting Willow
Creek and a part of Plum Creek, which join the river near the lower end
of the Platte Canon. On the 30th, the adventurers forded, at its mouth, a
small stream to which they gave the name "Bijeau's Creek"', apparently in
honor of their French guide and intei-preter. It still retains this name in
the slightly modified form of- Bijou Creek. Early in the morning of that
day, the explorers came within sight of the tops of the mountains; but, as
in the case of Pike, were not certain whether they were mountain-tops or
clouds, as Dr. James states in the following extract from his account:

' ' On the 30th we left our encampment at our accustomed early hour, and at 8
o 'clock were cheered by a distant view of the Eocky Mountains. For some time we
were unable to decide whether what we saw were mountains, or banks of cumulous
clouds skirting the horizon, and glittering in the reflected rays of the sun. It was
only by watching the bright parts, and obserxing that their form and position re-
mained unaltered, that we were able to satisfy ourselves they were indeed mountains.
. . . Our first views of the mountains were indistinct, on account of some smokiness
of the atmosphere, but from our encampment at noon we had a very distinct and
satisfactory prospect of them. . . . Snow could be seen from every part of them
which was visible above our horizon. ' '

The point at which the mountains first appeared to the party probably
was not far from the site of our town of Fort Morgan, the county seat of
Morgan County. "We soon remarked'', says Dr. James, "a particular part
of the range divided into three conic summits, each apparently of equal alti-
tude. This we concluded to he the point designated by Pike as the 'Highest
Peak'." But it was, as the Colorado reader will recognize immediately, the
majestic mountain, the name of which now, as it has for many years, com-
memorates Major Long. Viewed from the East, its upper masses are seen
to be split into two peaks ; and in the line of sight on their northward side a
third, but lower, cone rises. Because of the pair of higher peaks, the early
French trappers and fur traders called the great elevation "Les Deux
Oreilles"' (the Two Ears).

It has been rather a common understanding that ]\Iajor Long's name
was bestowed upon his mountain-monument by the other members of his
party, at the time they came into full view of it: but this was not the ease.
Dr. James does not attach the Major's name to it in the text of his Account,
while upon his map he designates it as the "Highest Peak'', although no at-
tempt was made by any member of the expedition to measure its altitude.
Long's name was given it by American traders and trappers within ten years
afterward, and by which it had become familiarly known more than a




GOVERNOR JOHN EVANS



HISTORY OF COLOEADO 97

decade before the time of Fremont. The mountain appears as "Long's Peak"
upon maps made in the middle '30s of that century. Its elevation is 14,271
feet — 164 feet higher than Pike's Peak. The error in concluding at first
sio'ht that Long's was Pike's "Highest Peak" was not discovered until ten
days later, when the party was near the crest of the divide between the South
Platte and Arkansas rivers. It is difficult to account for the mistake,
as Pike, in his narrative as well as upon his map, plainly locates his
"Highest Peak" near the Arkansas. L'pon James" map the summit of Long's
Peak is placed in latitude 40 degrees 26 minutes, and in longitude 29 de-
grees (106 west from Greenwich) 10 minutes west from Washington. The
modern figures are respectively, 40, 16: 28 (105), 40.

According to the map, camp was made in the evening of July 1st upon
the right bank of the South Platte, a short distance below the mouth of
the Cache a la Poudre Elver, to which Dr. James gives no name. Its singu-
lar appellation, by which it has for long loeen known, was given it a few
years later by some French hunters and trappers who cached (concealed by
burial) a part of their supply of powder near its mouth. The explorers
had marched early on the 1st, and traveled "over a tract differing in no
i-espect but its greater barrenness from that passed on the preceding day.
. . . Many acres of this plain had not vegetation enough to communicate
to the surface the least shade of green; a few dwarfish sunflowers and
grasses, with had growTi here in the early part of' the summer, being now
entirely withered and brown". Since entering. , the land -of Colorado the
party had seen mirages almost daily, the appearance of which was "so per-
fect and beautiful"' as to deceive nearly every man of the company.

Two days were spent in the camp near the mouth of the Poudre; the
2d of July, being Sunday, "was devoted to rest"'. The m"ouhtains, in plain
view, "stretched from north to south, like an immense wall, occupying all
that portion of the horizon lying to the northwest, west and southwest".

Starting early on the 3d, the party passed in the course of the day
"the mouths of three large creeks, heading in the mountains". Of the
third Dr. James tells the following:

"One of these, nearly opposite to which we encamped, is called Potera's creek,
from a Frenchman of that name, who is said to have been bewUdered upon it, wan-
dering about for twenty days, almost without food. He was then found by a band
of Kiawas, who frequent this part of the country, and restored to his companions, a
party of hunters, at that time encamped on the Arkansa. "

At this juncture there is some confusion between the narrative and the
map. According to the latter, the mouths of three more creeks on the west
side of the South Platte were passed on the 4th, the second of which is
labeled "Potera's Cr.", and the third "Elk Or."; names which long since
dropped out of use. The first stream passed on the 3d would have been the
Poudre, which comes from the northwest and discharges into the river,
about four miles east of the city of Greeley; the second would have been
Big Thompson Creek, which is unnamed on the map; and the third St.
Vrain Creek, also unnamed by James. Beginning with the Poudre and
ending with Clear Creek, the map has eight streams entering the river from
the westward— two more than the facts call for, unless mere rivulets be
counted. It seems the more probable that the confusion as to Potera's
Creek is due to an error in the map, and therefore that that stream should

Vol. 1—7



98 HISTORY OF COLORADO

be identified witli St. Vrain Creek. Tlie party did not attempt to go to
Long's Peak, the nearest approach to it having been made on the 3d, when
the summit of the mountain still was some forty miles distant.

The camping place in the evening of the 4th is shown on the map as
being upon the right bank of the river, where the 4:0th parallel crosses
it : or, allowing for errors of latitude, at no great distance below the site
of the present town of Brighton, the county seat of the lately-formed Adams
County. Of what was done there on "Independence Day" Dr. James says:

""We had hoped to celebrate our great national festival on the Eoeky Moun-
tains; but the day had arrived, and they were still at a distance. Being extremely
impatient of any unnecessary delay, which prevented us from entering upon the
examination of the mountains, we did not devote the day to rest, as had been our
intention. It was not, however, forgotten to celebrate the Anniversary of our Na-
tional Independence, according to our circumstances. An extra pint of maize was
issued to each mess, and a small portion of whiskey distributed. . . . The party
remained in camp during the afternoon, when the extra allowance of corn was cooked
and eaten, and the whiskey drank in honor of the day."

So our Brightonians may claim for the vicinity of their town the dis-
tinction of having been the scene of what most probably was the first
celebration of the Fourth of July in all the Rocky Mountain region.

On the 5th, the party "ascended the Platte about ten miles", and then
"encamj)ed for the dav." Here we find again some confusion between the
story and the map, the fault evidently being with the former, which, at
this" juncture, is very loosely written. The map places the camp of the
5th upon the site of Denver, a little east of where the Union Railway Station
stands. From this camp, according to the text,

"Dr. James and Mr. Peale, with two riflemen, Verplank and Bernard, went out for
an excursion on foot, intending to ascend the Cannon-ball creek to the mountains,
which appeared to be about five miles distant. This creek is rapid and clear, flowing
over a bed paved with rounded masses of granite and gneiss. It is from a supposed
resemblance of these masses to cannon balls that the creek has received its name from
the French hunters. The channel is sunk from fifty to one hundred feet below the
common level of the plain. . . .The detached party extended their walk about
eight miles without finding the apparent distance to the base of the mountains had
very considerably diminished. They had unluckily forgotten to make any provision
for dinner, and now found themselves fatigued and hungry at the distance of eight
miles from the encampment of the main body, and so far from the mountains that
it was evidently impossible to reach them and return on the same day. They there-
fore determined to reUnquish the attempt, . . . and arrived at camp after sunset. ' '

It would seem that "Cannon-ball creek", a name which does not appear
upon the map, could have been none other than our Clear Creek, although
it is hard to account for the gorge through which it is here said to flow

in its course near the river.

At the Denver camp. Major Long and Lieutenant Swift took "a com-
plete set of observations for latitude, longitude, &c.", "having preceded the
party in the morning, and arrived before seven o'clock, for that pur-
pose."

In the morning of the 6th, "soon after leaving the encampment, we
crossed Vermillion creek, a considerable tributary from the south". This
stream, which also appears upon the map by that name, was Denver's Cherry
Creek. Dr. James explains the origin of the name by which he knew it by
saying that "in some part of its course, its valley is bounded by precipitous



HISTORY OF COLORADO 99

cliffs of a red sand-rock, whence tlie name of the creek". The French
guide, Bijeau, informed the party that a few years before, a band of
Indian hnnters destroyed every individual of a large herd of buffalos by
driving the animals over the brink of one of these precipices.

The historian of the expedition now goes on to say, adding a little
more to the confusion of his narrative:

"Opposite the moutli of Vermillion creek, is a much larger stream, from the
northwest, which is called Medicine-lodge creek, from an old Indian medicine lodge,
which formerly stood near its mouth. A few miles further, on the same side, is
Grand-camp creek, heading also in the mountains. About four years previous to the
time of our visit, there had been a large encampment of Indians and hunters on this
creek. On that occasion three nations of Indians, namely, the Kiawas, Arrapahoes,
and Kaskaias or Bad-hearts, had been assembled together, with forty-five French
hunters in the employ of Mr. Choteau and Mr. Demun of St. Louis. They had been
assembled for the purpose of holding a trading council with a band of Shiennes.
These last had been recently supplied with goods by the British traders on the
Missouri, and had come to exchange them with the former for horses. The Kiawas,
Arrapahoes, &c., who wander in the extensive plains of the Arkansa and Bed river,
have always a great number of horses, which they rear with much less difficulty than
the Shiennes, whose country is cold and barren. . . . Two miles beyond Grand Camp
creek is the mouth of Grape creek, and a little above on the opposite side [the easterly
side of the river], that of Defile creek, a tributary to the Platte, from the south,
which has its course in a narrow defile, lying along the base of the mountains. ' '

It is not easy to identify '"Medicine Lodge", ''"Grand Camp", and
'"Grape" creeks certainly. The first appears to be mythical, as there is no
stream opposite the mouth of the Vermillion (wluch must have been Den-
ver's Cherry Creek), nor in that neighborhood, larger than a trifling brook.
"Grand Camp" probably was the modern Bear Creek, which flows from the
mountains back of Fort Logan; and ""Gi"ape" the present "Deer Creek".
"Defile Creek" plainly is our Plum Creek, which comes down from Douglas
County.

"At eleven o'clock [on the lith] we arrived at the boundary of that vast
plain", say Dr. James, '"across which we had journeyed for a distance
of nearly one thousand miles"" [it was about 6'^5] ; . . . The woodless
plain is terminated by a range of naked and almost perpendicular rocks,
visible at a distance of several miles, and resembling a vast wall, parallel
to the base of the mountains. . . . Passing within this first range
[the foot-hills], we found a narrow valley separating it from a second
ridge of sandstone, of nearly equal elevation, and apparently against the
base of a high primitive hill beyond. At the foot of the first range, the
party encamped at noon, and were soon scattered in various directions, be-
ing eager to commence the examination of that interesting region".

The party remained at the entrance to Platte Caiion until the second
day after. In the morning of the 7th, Dr. James and Assistant Naturalist
Peak, accompanied by two of the soldiers, "were sent out to examine the
mountains'", which ""appeared most accessible on the north side of the river,
which was opposite the encampment. The river was here about four feet
deep, and the strength of the current such as to render it impossible for a
man to keep on his feet in the deepest part of the stream"'. Of their cross-
ing Dr. James says:

' ' As some of the party destined for the mountains could not swim, it was I

thought hazardous for them to attempt to cross by fording. To obviate this dif- -I 'lA t)^'^ '



100 HrSTOKY OF COLUltADO

ficulty, two men were sent with a long rope, which they were directed to stretch
across the river, making the ends fast on either shore. This was readily accomplished,
one of the men swimming across with the end of the rope in his teeth. By the aid
of this the detachment were enabled to keep their feet in crossing, though with ex-
treme ditficulty, as the bed of the river was uneven and rocky. They all, however,
arived in safety on the left bank about sunrise. ' '

Thev ••expected to he able to ascend the most distant summits then iu
sight and return the same evening", but again they were deceived by the
eiiects of the rarefied atmosphere of the mountain cotmtry. It was their
intention, however, "to cross the first range of the mountains and gain
the valley of the Platte beyond", but "after climbing successively to the
summit of several ridges, which we bad supposed to he the top of the
mountains, we still found others beyond higher and more rugged''. So the
undertaking was abandoned, and the mountain-examiners turned their faces
toward the camp, where they arrived "at a late hour of the night". It ap-
pears tliat they did reach a height from which they saw the two forks of
the Platte, as James says "we could distinguish" from a point "much ele-
vated above the river", two principal branches of the Platte, one coming
from the northwest, the other from the south. A little below the conflu-
ence of these branches the river turns abruptly to S. E., bursting through
a chasm in a vast mural precipice of naked columnar rocks".

The narrative says the explorers left the camp at Platte Caiion on the
morning of the 9th of July, and ascended a small south-side tributary of
the South Platte (the modern Willow Creek), along a narrow valley, to its
source, where they crossed an inconsiderable ridge which separated it from
the valley of "Defile Creek", which they now followed "to a place where
its principal branch descends from the mountains", and there went into
camp. Here we have another instance of careless recording, as no account
of July 8th is made. The map has the party encamp at this place — on or
near the site of our town of Sedalia — on the 8th, and remain there until
the morning of the 10th ; but it seems that the stay was for but one night.
In this vicinity. Defile (Plum) Creek was obstructed by so many beaver-