Cobweb Express
Our Earliest Days
by Mel McFarland
 Many of you are fairly new to this area and unless you have children in our schools, may not have heard much of our history. I occasionally like to tell the stories of our earliest settlers, and this might be a good time to do it again.
Much of Colorado was in an area known as the Louisiana Purchase. France sold this land at the Missouri, looking for a northwest passage in the early 1800ís. Another explorer was exploring the Mississippi north from where it left the Missouri, this was Lt. Zebulon Montgomery Pike. In 1806 Lt. Pike was sent for scouting the Arkansas River from its junction with the Mississippi River to find the head waters. Pike, Near what is now Lamar first spotted the blue cloud that would later turn out to be a mountain. He followed a stream northward from what is now Pueblo toward it. That stream is our own Fountain Creek. Near present day Fountain he headed toward the peak. From reading his journals he may have cut west to the mountains up a broad valley either near where the Nixon plant is. He camped near the base of Cheyenne Mountain.
It was Mid-November, we all know November can have any kind of weather. In 1806 it was not good. It had stormed recently and the mountains were heavy with snow. There are reports of the loss of one of his men as they camped, the fact is we do not know where Pike traveled. The tale says a man was buried in the mouth of the canyon, known as Dead Manís Canyon. The group made a few short trips up into the hills, then decided to return to their main goal. Pike decided the mountain was 18,000 feet tall, and would never be climbed in the winter.
After scouting the river to near where Leadville is today, they headed south. Working south from where Leadville, he looked at streams that were adding to the Arkansas. He saw the Taos Trail, and followed it to Santa Fe. The whole group was arrested near Santa Fe as spies. Eventually they were released, making their way back east. In fact in some New Mexico schoolís history classes Pike is called a spy for the US government still today. He died near Toronto on Lake Champlain in the War of 1812.
Next week a little more.
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