South End of the Riverwalk

Just off Grand Avenue

On July 15, 1806 a young Army Lieutenant, Zebulon Montgomery Pike, left Fort Bellefontaine, Missouri to begin an expedition with 23 men through the southwest region of the Louisiana Purchase - his arrest by the Spanish and eventual incarceration in Chihuahua, Mexico riveted a nation. Pike's journals, published ten years prior to Lewis and Clark's journals, gave American's their first glimpse of the wide expanse of the western United States. In November, 1906, Pike and his men stayed in this spot along the river while planning to climb the Blue Mountain to the north. Poorly clad for winter and underestimating the terrain, they were not successful. The mountain that bears Pike's name, but not his footprint, enticed a nation to "Go West" with slogans like "Pike's Peak or Bust." Today, Pikes Peak inspires visitors to seek the expansive visions detailed in Pike's journals - visions of majestic mountains reigning over vast prairies, inhabited by abundant wildlife fed by beckoning waterways.

Copyright © 2011 The Media Center, Inc. All rights reserved.