Overview

In late October 1806, Zebulon Montgomery Pike (1779-1813) led an expedition that professed its main goal as mapping the Arkansas and Red Rivers. In reality Pike's explorations may have been designed to gauge the military strength of a potential enemy, Spain, and possibly even provoke an international incident which would lead to war. Nonetheless his journey, although fraught with error and controversy, proved to be influential on the development and conquest of the region and had an impact on settlement patterns throughout the western United States in the eighteenth century.

Background

The United States in 1806 was a growing country. Just three years previous in 1803 the country had secured the Louisiana Purchase, one of the largest land deals in western history, from France. That same year President Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether...