The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980, July 08, 1956, Image 3

The Oregon statesman., July 08, 1956, Page 3, Image 3

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Newspaper Page TextPike Exploration 150 Years Ago Paralleled Lewis and Clark Trip Led First American Party to Upper Mississippi Area Editor's Natei Tfcli year marks Me 150U aanlrersary of the first major eiolerallei of the Upper Mississippi area aa espedlUaa that eoeaeo' ap a great regie that w iaeladea Missovrl, lewa, H- liaali, Mlaaeeota, Wlaeeasla and tha Dakota. Hera's the story af thai elght-meath trek oad the maa wae let It, Zebaloa Mentgemery Pike. ' By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS One hundred and fifty years ago a young Army lieutenant whose name was later lo commemorate a mountain poled hit keelboat into St. Louis and thus became the first white man to successfully ascend and come down what ia known today as the . "upper stretch" of tha Mississippi River. Zebuloo Montgomery Pike, Just 26 years old, had returned to t. Louis after an eight-month trek into the Upper Mississippi area. Our nation had purchased the Louisiana Territory in 1R03, and Pike's upriver exploration was , one of two important missions be ' ing conducted in the young repub lic In 1805. The other, of course ' was the Lewis and Clark expedi tion which broke trail up another great river, the Missouri. Pike's Mississippi trip Is one that history seems to have over looked. Perhaps It Is because his second great .river trek up the Arkansas in late 1806 brought him to the -mountain now named "Pike's Peak." Whatever the ex planation, his Mississipypi River explorations deserve notice too. Plarate Indians Pike and his party of M men left St. Louis on Aug. 9. IMS. Ac cording to orders given him by j lien. James wiwinson, rue was to explore and report on the Mis sissippi River from St. Louis to its source: recommend sites for military posts: consult with Indi ans along tha way: make peace (if possible) between the Sioux and Ojibways. and check on Brit ish traders who had remained in the newly acquired American ter ritory. He did manage to placate some of the Indians he encountered. But he never achieved his goal of find ing the actual source of the Mis sissippi. He thougM he located it when, on Jan. SO. 1S06, he reached the Junction of Leech Lake and the main stream of the river. But there wera several other sources of the great stream to the north, and these he did not find. Well Worth Trip This understandable shortcom ing aside. Pike's accomplishments on the 1.130-mlle stretch of upper river were worth the difficult trip. tla mnffH tn secure 100.000 acres of land from the swux wno were camped at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers where Ft. Snelling now ctsruti The wire for this tract Pit. rannrliut lht he ot it after he had presented the Sioux with Sinn wortn OI fins ana nmo "cleared tha Indians' throats' with some 60 gallons of well wa tered whiskey. Pike also visited the fabulous Julien Dubuque wfiose lead mines at what is now Dubuque, lowa. were the richest in the area. The etnertition wintered in what ' now Little Falls. Minn. In the 'ierce winter weather Pike 'made . uv north hv ranoe. dne-sled nd snow-shoes until he reached ".corn Lake. He must naveeen a "ippy and weary man Indeed, v hen he got back to St. Louis on Anril 30. 1806. Military Pts Pike's report on the Vpper Mis sissippi country, besides provid iH intelligence for our young na tion with a brand new territory n Its hands, also led to the e ihlishment of four important mil :'iry posts in the I'pper River rrmntry, Forts Madison. Edwards. Armstrong and Crawford. : Pike got no special reward for his upriver accomplishments, and had luck seemed to follow him from this point on. Sent out on the. exploration of the Arkansas River three months Bier he returned from his Missis--.inpl trip, he was captured by Mexican and taken on an en 'nrced tour of their country before he was released in 1607. He finally was killed in the battle of York during the War of ISIS. Pike's military career wss short and fascinating. He negan as a lieutenant in lWtt, and when he was killed in 1813, he was a brig adier general. Rorkles Area Although Pike's name is known now, for the most part, In associ ation with the mountain Colorado he discovered, in the 19th Century he was a heroic fiure. The first BEFORE . .- f You buy a Spinal M Organ ... ffi Have You . Heard Ana steamboat to reach St. Louis was named after him; President James Madison eulogized him in an address to Congress; and a new warship in Scaketts Harbor was christened . the "general Pike" in MM. Today, his nsme marks a Mis sissippi River dam, a state park. 10 counties, II towns and several bays, rivers and lakes in addition to the famous mountain. Most interesting of all, perhaps, when one thinks of Pike and hia expedition into tha Upper Missis sippi country ISO years ago, is what happened to that country. I During the "golden age of the steamboat," hundreds of the stern and paddle wheelers made their way upriver, transporting passen gers and cargo destined for the booming upper Midwest country. This was the great period of set tlement in the area which encloses the states Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Da- Paralyzed Vet Pleads Against Vandal Attack PASSAIC. N.J. toK paraplegic veteran Saturday pleaded with vandals to stop wrecking his spe cial house being constructed on city-donated land., Richard J. O'Brien Jr., who was paralyzed from the waist down in the Korean War, asked police for special guards for his house. O'Brien noted that the city's gift of some unused park property for his house was resented by some people who said "There will be no park property left soon." The house is being equipped with special devices to aid the para lyzed veteran. In recent weeks, O'Brien said, vandals ripped down every piece of insulation installed by the contractor, broke windows, ripped valuable electrical equip ment, and stole building materials. kotas, The steamboat played vital part in the influx. Limited Navigation But after the Civil War the ex panding railroads built bridges and rails across the Mississippi. From then until the mid-30s, nav igation on the Upper Mississippi was a very limited business. In the 30s, the U. S. Army En gineers launched their biggest "taming project" on the upper river with the construction of 26 locks and dams. The project transformed the upper river's pro file so that now it resembles a flight of steps, with locks and dams constituting the risers, and the pools the treads to a giant stairway 660 miles long. Today, the river is as busy as highway. In 1955. another all-time record was set for tonnage shipped on the Mississippi. Stub by, but , powerful towboata, equipped with diesel and radar, do the job. Coal, oil, metals, farm machinery, grain and chemicals are hauled by the millions of tons But the upper river still has the beauty and grandeur that Pike witnessed. The" bluffs, wooded is lands and countless inlets that Pike saw, art, still there. And though the river Itself has seen great changes in people, commerce, industry and naviga tion, it is the same great stream the Indians called "The Father of Waters." 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