The New Empire of the Rockies: A History of Northeast Colorado BLM Cultural Resources Series (Colorado: No. 16)

The mountains and plains of northeastern Colorado held a special fascination for European traders and explorers from the early 1500s until late in the nineteenth century. Spaniards, Frenchmen, Britishers and Americans travelled through the region, recording their findings for use by others. These journals did little but add to the mystery of the area over the centuries. The first known expedition to reach the Great Plains took place in the 1540s. Spanish religious and military leaders led this effort to find Cibola, the "seven cities of gold." In 1536 Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and a small band of settlers returned to Mexico City, the seat of New Spain, with stories gleaned from natives. These tales told of "Cibola", a kingdom to the north where cities were built of gold. This led Fray Marcos de Niza to take a party into the American Southwest during 1539. He did not find legendary cities but he did return with stories of even greater wealth to be found in Cibola. Persistent rumors caused the Spanish government to take serious note of the north. In February, 1540 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado heading another expedition, moved northward to find the "seven cities of gold". Throughout the remainder of 1540 and into 1541 Coronado and his party moved to the Rio Grande having found Cibola to be the mud huts of Acoma. The Spaniards' wanderings led them into southeastern Colorado and onto the Plains. While Coronado never reached the South Platte Valley, his voyage of discovery became the basis for Spain's claim to the entire Great Plains including most of northeastern Colorado. The expedition did not find any "cities of gold" and its survivors returned to Mexico in 1541 on the verge of starvation. [1] Coronado's failure effectively ended Spanish involvement on the Colorado plains for over a century. During the late 1590s Euro-Americans hesitatingly expanded settlement north into New Mexico and from here explorers again ventured into Colorado. As early as 1659 an expedition from New Mexico was reported to have reached the South Platte River. The men named it Rio de Chato (River of the Flat Bed). For the remainder of the seventeenth century Spain consolidated her holdings in New Mexico and did little new exploration. [2] This situation changed quickly during the early 1700s. Spain, after a revolt in 1680, regained control of her New Mexican province. Reports were received about other Europeans, trading with natives on the Great Plains and violating Spanish claims to the area. The French, who became Spain's primary rival, felt they had a legitimate right to the area because of a 1682 claim to the Mississippi River Valley and all lands drained by it. [3]

To discourage French adventurers, Interim Governor Antonio de Valverde led a military expedition to the Arkansas River in 1717. Two years later Pedro de Villasur went north from Santa Fe, New Mexico with orders to proceed up the Rio de Chato looking for Frenchmen. In 1720 Villasur reached the area where the two Platte Rivers join. At that point he and his party were killed by Pawnees, possibly at the instigation of Frenchmen who were trading partners with the natives. [4] Villasur's defeat led to increased French activity in northeastern Colorado; indeed throughout the northern plains. In 1739 and 1740 the Mallet brothers, Pierre and Paul, led a trading expedition up the Platte from the Missouri River. They traded guns and other European wares along the way. At the confluence of the Plattes the party used the South Platte and traversed northern Colorado. Once they reached the foothills their route became uncertain. Most likely it was south to the Arkansas River and then back toward Santa Fe. Not only did the Mallet trip bring new goods to area tribes it also gave the name Platte, meaning flat, to the river. Other Frenchmen followed the Mallet trail until 1763. [5] Over the next sixty years Spaniards occasionally ventured as far from New Mexico as northeastern Colorado. In 1766 a trader named Ulibarri headed north with the South Platte as his goal but only reached the Arkansas. Twenty seven years later Pedro Vial explored the Smoky Hill River while on a reconnaissance. As late as 1817 Spanish troops were patrolling an area around the future site of Denver. By then they were feeling new pressures on their empire, this time from the newest power in North America, the United States. [5]

In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson completed one of the largest real estate transactions of all time when he purchased Louisiana from Napoleon of France. The French previously reacquired the land from Spain. This new addition to the United States contained nearly all lands between the Mississippi River and the Continental Divide, north of the Red River to the Forty-ninth parallel. [6] Not only did this purchase nearly double the size of the United States, but it also brought our new nation into direct conflict with Spain and Great Britain. Most of the questions arose due to faulty knowledge of western geography. While the Louisiana Purchase gave northeastern Colorado to the United States, Spain questioned the actual location of the border. Not until 1819, and the Adams-Onis Treaty, was the southern border of the United States finally set at the Arkansas River. [7]

As these border disputes were being settled by diplomats, Jefferson sent out explorers to inventory his purchase. Most famous of these efforts was the Lewis and Clark expedition up the Missouri River, into the Pacific Northwest. Second only to that party in fame was Lt. Zebulon M. Pike and his explorations of the Arkansas and Red Rivers. In the summer of 1806 Pike and his men left Fort Belle Fontaine near St. Louis and headed west. Pike made his way across the plains to the Arkansas River and then into northeastern Colorado. During the trip the Americans were warned by Pawnee natives that Spanish troops were patrolling the area in an effort to keep out Americans. Pike did not heed the warning and pushed on. He divided the party, sending half in search of the Red River, while he looked for the headwaters of both the South Platte and the Arkansas. It was during his efforts to find the South Platte's headwaters that Pike discovered the peak that today bears his name. He did not climb the mountain but did ascend another in the Colorado Springs area, possibly Cheyenne Mountain. Pike named "his" peak Grand Mountain and wrongly estimated the elevation at more than 18,000 feet. From here Pike and his men made their way into the San Luis Valley. After building a stockade for winter shelter, the band was captured by Spanish troops and taken into New Mexico. Pike and his men were held for a time and then released, but only after most notes and observations had been confiscated. In 1810, having returned to the United States, Pike published a journal of his adventures. In it he described the Great Plains as a desert and labelled the region "The Great American Desert," a name and concept that stuck well into the late nineteenth century. The idea of "desert" had considerable impact to the settlement of northeastern Colorado. [8]

The next official government exploration in northeastern Colorado came ten years after Pike made his findings public. This effort was commanded by Major Stephen H. Long of the United States Army. Long was originally sent west in 1819 to explore the Yellowstone River but when he reached the Council Bluffs, along the Missouri River, orders came to cancel the expedition. Instead, the party was directed to wait at Fort Atkinson, Kansas until 1820 and then explore the Platte River basin. On June 6, 1820 Long and his men pushed off to the Platte. The river was known to Americans since 1800 but until Long's trip nothing had officially been recorded. Long was to catalog the flora and fauna as well as to make climatic and astronomical observations. To do this Edwin James, a naturalist, accompanied the expedition. After crossing what later became Nebraska, the party reached well into Eastern Colorado where the Rockies were seen on June 30. Proceeding down the South Platte Valley they came to foothills near the future site of Denver. Long modestly named Long's Peak after himself. From these hills, the expedition moved southward along the front range until Pike's Peak was reached. Edwin James climbed the mountain, being the first person ever so recorded. After making observations in the Pike's Peak region the party moved onto the Arkansas. At that point Long divided his forces, sending one group east along the Canadian River and the other down the Arkansas. After their arrival in the east, both Long and James published journals of the trip. While Dr. James' account became more popular, both stressed the arid climate of the plains, saying that the best use of this land would be for pasture. [9]

Long's expedition added much new information to the body of knowledge for northeastern Colorado, but it is doubtful that the first Anglo-Americans to use the area's resources ever read Long's pronouncements. These were the fur trappers and traders who roamed throughout the West during the first forty-five years of the nineteenth century. The mountain men came to hunt beaver and other fur bearing animals required by the East and Europe. Fashion trends of that era said that gentlemen wore beaver felt hats and it was all American trappers could do to satisfy this demand. Many mountain men went West with the idea of making their fortune and then returning East to settle down. Most were young, single men who sought adventure as well as riches. Little did they know that their activities proved the cutting edge of American settlement in northeastern Colorado. [10] The earliest recorded trapper to venture into this region was Baptiste La Lande who arrived in 1804. He followed the Platte and then the South Platte west into the Rockies, trapping along the way. Eventually he made his way south to Santa Fe, New Mexico where Spanish authorities awaited. The next year James Purcell set out for the South Platte and Rockies. Purcell, travelling with a small mobile group, followed the South Platte into the mountains where they trapped. During their stay members of the group reportedly panned for gold, with some success. Purcell and his men were later captured by Spanish troops and detained at Santa Fe as had been La Lande. Spanish military activity in the area discouraged other fur men from going into the mountains of northeastern Colorado. [11]

This situation changed by 1820. Clarification of the U.S.-Spanish boundary in the Adams-Onis Treaty and the withdrawal of Spanish troops, as well as encouraging reports from other trappers, led to a "boom" in northeastern Colorado's fur trade during the 1820s. By 1818 or 1819 trappers were working the South Platte's mountain tributaries like Bear Creek. These men were based in St. Louis, Missouri and worked for one of many fur companies. As if to symbolize faith the American Fur Company had in the South Platte Valley as a potential source of furs, the organization built a short-lived post near the site of what later became Fort Lupton. By 1820 both the Platte and South Platte were well established routes for mountain men heading into and out of the high country. The Forks of the Platte in Nebraska was a standard landmark for these travellers. Most of these men came from St. Louis and other Missouri River towns, but over the years this changed, as they made their way north from Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico. [12]

This reconstruction of Fort Vasquez near Platteville, Colorado reminds us of the fur trade of the 1840s. Photo by J. Perry.

One of the foremost St. Louis traders to impact the fur business in northeastern Colorado was General William Ashley. With years of experience in the west by 1824, he set out late in that same year hoping to make it west before winter set in. Accompanying Ashley were Jim Beckwourth and Thomas Fitzpatrick, men who later became famous for their exploits in the Rockies. The small group made its way across what was later Nebraska, making slow progress because of snow storms and cold weather. Just before the party starved to death it reached a Pawnee village at the Forks of the Platte where the fur men received help from the natives. After regaining their strength, the trappers moved down the South Platte and into today's Colorado. During their time on the plains the Americans learned that with proper preparation and equipment one could survive during winter. The trappers also discovered that even though the native grasses appeared worthless, they were actually high in food value for livestock. However, this important knowledge was not spread. [13]

During the 1820s fur lured many mountain men to northeastern Colorado. Among them were Andrew Sublette, Louis Vasquez and James Ohio Pattie. They found the mountain streams rich in beaver and the plains full of buffalo whose skins and tongues were valuable trade commodities. Sublette and Vasquez, particularly, were important to northeastern Colorado's fur trade because they stayed in the area and worked streams year after year. That allowed them to develop an intimate knowledge of the region. It also led them to experiment with using the South Platte as a waterway for flat-bottomed boats to float hides downstream to St. Louis. They tried in 1826, without success, and the idea was abandoned for some twenty years. [14] While this activity was taking place in the northern part of the region, other mountain men were at work further south, along Fountain Creek and other tributary streams near present day Colorado Springs. Ezekiel Williams and Jacob Fowler found Fountain Creek a profitable hunting ground. Many of those who trapped the southern regions of northeastern Colorado were based in Taos, New Mexico and did most of their trading at Bent's Fort on the Arkansas River. [15]

The success of that post led others to copy it in Colorado, particularly along the South Platte during the 1830s. The first of these fur forts was Fort Lupton, founded in 1836 by Lancaster Lupton, near the site of an old abandoned American Fur Company post. The new "general store" on the plains was an overnight success and soon competition developed. Before Fort Lupton was a year old, Louis Vasquez and Andrew Sublette built Fort George (later called Ft. Vasquez) at what is now Platteville, Colorado. In the next year two more fur posts were built along the South Platte. Fort Jackson, six miles down stream from Fort Lupton, was opened in 1837 but closed the next year. In 1837 the Bent family entered the northeastern Colorado fur market when Bent's partner, Ceran St. Vrain, established Fort St. Vrain. Later a town of that same name was also founded. One last post, outside the area, yet important to northeast Colorado's fur business, was Fort Laramie on the North Platte in modern-day Wyoming. With a line of posts from Laramie on the north to Bent's Fort on the south, the Colorado front range became an active center of fur trading. The exchanges around the area operated in much the same way. Supplies such as guns, knives, lead, gunpowder, traps, tobacco and liquor were bartered to the trappers for their beaver pelts. Natives of the region also participated in the exchange, trading away their animal furs and buffalo robes for metal goods, guns and liquor. Because of the posts, many Native Americans became alcoholics and suffered diseases such as smallpox to which they had no natural immunity. At times, to faciliate trade or insure peaceful coexistence some traders would marry a member of a local tribe. [16] Unfortunately for these entrepreneurs the fur market entered into a steep decline only a few years after they opened for business. By 1840 European fashions were changing and silk hats replaced the fur hat. To further exacerbate the situation, beaver became scarce along northeastern Colorado streams at about the same time. Intense trapping nearly exhausted supplies. Owners of the forts tried to attract new trappers while encouraging Native hunting. Some trappers like Rufus Sage and "Kit" Carson did try the area's creeks with some success, but their efforts could not bring back the prosperity of previous decades. [17]

In an effort to cut costs Ceran St. Vrain tried again, as Vasquez and Sublette had, to use the South Platte to float furs to market. St. Vrain's assistant Baptiste Charbonneau was put in charge of the effort. Attempts in both 1840 and 1842 failed to float barges or to even get out of what is now Colorado. As their plight worsened, fort owners, one at a time, closed their posts. By the late 1840s South Platte forts were abandoned as the fur trade in northeastern Colorado halted. However, not all trappers left northeastern Colorado. Antonine Janis, whose father named the Cache la Poudre River, settled on that stream with a few other French-Canadians. Elbridge Gerry, new to the area in 1840, built a home on the South Platte at the mouth of Crow Creek. Oliver Perry Wiggins did likewise and then later opened a store that became the town of Wiggins. Other retired mountain men built farms for themselves in the area. For those who chose not to stay, there were two alternatives. The first was to go back east and settle down. The second was to use their knowledge of the West to get jobs as scouts for the Army or other exploration parties. [18]

During the 1830s American explorers and U.S. Army officers continued investigating northeastern Colorado. In 1832 Captain Benjamin Bonneville followed the Platte River trail westward on his journey to the Pacific Northwest. Part of his detachment drifted into northeastern Colorado before rejoining the main force. Some of the men later returned to the area to settle. [19] Three years after Bonneville went west, Colonel Henry Dodge, in command of the First U.S. Dragoons, led his troopers west along Major Long's route into Colorado. Along the way, Dodge made some observations about the majesty of the plains. His primary purpose was to show the flag and awe local natives with United States power. It is questionable whether that goal was obtained. [20]

The next decade witnessed more exploration in northeastern Colorado, mostly by the newly formed U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers. By the 1840s America, as a nation, firmly set its eyes on the West as the land of the future. A spirit of "Manifest Destiny" prevailed which, in essence, was the feeling that it was "preordained" for the United States to take possession of and to settle areas from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Physical manifestations of this ethic were, among other things, the great migrations to Oregon during the 1840s. [21] To help facilitate such movement, the government sent out explorers to find routes westward for her settlers. Foremost among these was John C. Fremont, nicknamed "the Pathfinder". He was a Captain in the Corps of Topographical Engineers but, more importantly, his father-in-law was Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. Benton, one of the West's biggest boosters in Congress was always looking for ways to further the cause of Manifest Destiny. [22] In 1842 Fremont was sent west with orders to find, if possible, an easier route through the Rockies for Oregon immigrants. The year before, a trail of sorts, was laid out by Thomas "Broken Hand" Fitzpatrick, ex-mountain man and trader. This, the Oregon Trail, dipped into northeastern Colorado between Old Julesburg and Lodgepole Creek. Fremont decided that travel would be easier if the trail followed the South Platte rather than the North Platte and accordingly he spent a good deal of the 1842 season in northeastern Colorado. Fremont hired Lucien Maxwell and "Kit" Carson as guides. The party left Chouteau's Landing on the Missouri River (near present day Kansas City) in June, 1842 and marched across the plains. Fremont continued west, along the Platte, until he reached northeastern Colorado. He spent most of the summer exploring the South Platte, and the front range from Fort St. Vrain to Fort Laramie seeking a route that followed the South Platte into Colorado and then northwest into Wyoming. At the end of fall the party returned to Missouri with much information but no new trail. A member of expedition was Charles Pruess, a German-born cartographer, whose maps of the West were the best to that date. [23]

Next year 1843, "the Pathfinder" returned to northeastern Colorado, still searching for a suitable route to Oregon. This time he used "Kit" Carson and Thomas Fitzpatrick as guides. Also, William Gilpin a publicist of the West accompanied the party gathering material for his future writings. The expedition followed the Kansas and Republican Rivers instead of the Platte. They reached Fort St. Vrain on July 4, 1843 and celebrated the holiday at this post. Using a site referred to as "Fremont's Orchard," along the South Platte, as a base of operations the group spent part of the summer exploring the front range between the future sites of Denver and Pueblo before turning westward and following the Arkansas River onto the Western Slope. Having made it to the Pacific, the party returned to Colorado on its way east the next year. Some evidence suggests that members of Fremont's group tried to cross Rollins Pass from Middle Park. While "the Pathfinder" failed to find a replacement for the Oregon Trail, his travels did add greatly to the body of knowledge extant about Colorado. Fremont found the plains of northeastern Colorado best suited for grazing when he made recommendations for future uses of lands he recorded. Also, because his journals were widely published public interest in the West was increased. [24]

During the summer of 1845, a new American group visited northeast Colorado. Colonel Stephen Watts Kearny and five companies of the First U.S. Dragoons followed the Platte west to South Pass. From there this group turned south and followed the front range to the Arkansas River, turning east along that water course to return to the Missouri River. This patrol was carried out as a show of force to the area's native population. [25] In 1846 Francis Parkman travelled through this region on his way to the Arkansas River. He reported abandonment of Fort Lupton and a generally lethargic state of the fur trade throughout northeastern Colorado. [26] The last expedition of the 1840s to touch northeast Colorado was that of Captain Howard Stansbury of the Corps of Topographical Engineers. In 1849 he performed a reconnaissance of the Oregon/Platte River trail in hopes of locating a railroad route to Salt Lake City. [27]

The next decade saw more exploration and military penetration in the region. The end of the Mexican War, in 1848, led to new interest and activity in the Southwest, including Colorado. In 1851 General John M. Pope, later famous in the Civil War, was sent west to lay out a road for the Army to supply Bent's Fort and other Southwestern posts. Pope followed the Republican and then Smoky Hill Rivers into mid-central Colorado and laid out a pathway to Bent's Old Fort. Part of this road was used later by settlers on their way to Colorado and it became the Smoky Hill Trail. [28] Five years later Lieutenant F. T. Bryan was sent into the area to look for a way to reroute the Oregon Trail. He explored the Cache La Poudre and located Bryan's Pass but his route was not a practical alternative to existing pathways. [29]

The natives of northeastern Colorado found themselves under increasing pressure during the 1840s and 1850s. By the 1840s the Cheyenne were firmly established in the region but they found the Pawnee and Kiowa stubborn rivals. In 1840 an agreement, of sorts, was reached between Cheyenne and Kiowa thus ending their disputes. At the same time, the fur trade was at its peak, with the line of forts along the South Platte in full operation. As this decreased, the natives found their lands, especially just north of present day Colorado, being used as a "national highway" for immigrants headed to Oregon. The Federal Government was aware of these pressures from continuing problems along the trail. In 1846 the government decided to establish an Indian Agency on Colorado's eastern plains. Thomas Fitzpatrick, mountain man, guide and long-time friend of the Arapaho and Cheyenne was appointed as Indian Agent. [30] Fitzpatrick did what he could to reduce tension between the races but he was unsuccessful. Within a year of appointment, his charges were again raiding and harassing wagon trains on the Oregon Trail. This continued until 1851, when a pact was negotiated with most of plains tribes. The Treaty of Ft. Laramie, guaranteed right of safe passage for immigrants on the Oregon Trail and effectively divided the plains natives into northern and southern groupings. The document set aside northeastern Colorado for the Cheyenne and Arapaho. The Americans hoped such an arrangement would secure peace on the trail, but this failed. Fitzpatrick remained Indian Agent until his death in 1854. He hoped to establish an agency on the South Platte but this never came to pass. [31]

Problems with the Cheyenne led to an Army expedition into the South Platte Valley during 1857. A cavalry detachment commanded by Colonel Edwin V. Sumner was sent on a twofold mission, first to punish Native Americans and then to survey the southern border of Kansas. Upon reaching western Kansas, Sumner divided his command sending one detachment north to the South Platte and then down that river to the Solomon before they returned east. The second party stayed south patrolling southwestern Kansas. [32] In 1858 Captain Randolph B. Marcy was the last army officer to travel through northeastern Colorado prior to the gold rush. A year before, he had covered the Western Slope from Fort Bridger, Wyoming to Fort Union, New Mexico trying to obtain supplies for his troops at Bridger. Rather than risk the perils of a return trip over the same route, he chose to travel up the front range to the Oregon Trail and then west. On the trip to Wyoming, Marcy recorded the existence of Manitou Springs. Some of his troops successfully panned gold from the South Platte near the mouth of Cherry Creek. [33] Soon after Marcy's departure from northeastern Colorado, gold seekers decended in considerable numbers. Their presence radically changed exploration and fur trade after 1860. The first official expedition undertaken after the gold rush was conducted by E. L. Berthoud and Jim Bridger. They were hired by Denver business leaders to blaze a new trail west from that place to Salt Lake City. In 1861 the explorers headed into the mountains, along Clear Creek, having heard of a pass across the Continental Divide. They discovered a pathway over the mountains that was named Berthoud Pass in honor of its locator. [34]

The Civil War interrupted exploration in northeastern Colorado until 1867. That year John Wesley Powell, later to be famous for his theories on western water needs, visited Central City and studied the mining district's geology. He also travelled to Bergen Park. [35] Two years later Ferdinard V. Hayden, in charge of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey arrived in Denver and from there explored the front range north to Wyoming and south into New Mexico. He observed and recorded numerous coal beds in northeastern Colorado while predicting that the plains would make fine lands for stock raising. Hayden's reports were published and they did much to advertise the region's potential. Hayden's efforts marked the last great cataloging of northeast Colorado's resources. [36]

Hayden Survey Part in 1871. W.H. Jackson Photo, Courtesy USGS.

Ferdinand V. Hayden's Party along Clear Creek, 1873. W. S. Jackson Photo, Courtesy USGS.

From 1870 most of the exploration done in the region was highly scientific in nature, starting with Othniel C. Marsh's paleontological expedition of that year. The Yale University professor explored the Republican River. In extreme western Kansas he found fossilized remains of two dinosaurs, mosasaurs, (a large serpent), and the pterodactyl a flying dinosaur with twenty five foot wing span. [37] Marsh's discoveries led to searches for other clues to prehistoric times in northeastern Colorado. During the 1880s ancient remains were unearthed near Morrison by Professor Arthur Lakes. His finds included many small dinosaur skeletons. Years later, between 1934 and 1938, archaeologists from the Smithsonian Institution excavated a site on the Lindenmeier Ranch near Fort Collins and discovered artifacts of pre-historic human inhabitants in the region. Archaeological investigations in northeast Colorado continue to this day. [38]

The fur frontier also enjoyed a revival during the fifteen years after the Civil War. This time markets were for buffalo robes. During the 1840s demand developed but only after 1870 was it great enough for professional buffalo hunting. Huge herds, numbering in the millions, offered easy prey for robe seekers. Year after year, hunters with their heavy rifles went out to kill as many of the wooly creatures as possible. A proficient rifleman could keep ten skinners busy removing hides. Following were those who collected the skeletons. Buffalo bones were pulverized for use as fertilizer by farmers during the 1870s. By 1874 bison were becoming scarce on the northeastern plains and by 1880 so few were left as to make robe hunting no longer profitable. [39] The disappearance of the buffalo not only ended fur trading, but also removed one of the natives most utilized food sources. [40]

Chapter II: Notes

¹Nell Brown Propst, Forgotten People, A History of the South Platte Trail, (Boulder: Pruett Publishing Co., 1979), p. 2, hereafter cited: Propst, Forgotten, and George P. Hammond, "Coronado's Seven Cities," in A Colorado Reader, edited by Carl Ubbelohde, (Boulder: Pruett, 1962).

²Propst, Forgotten, p. 2, and John Francis Bannon, The Spanish Borderlands Frontier 1513-1821, (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1974).

³Propst, Forgotten, p. 2, and J. Donald Hughes, American Indians in Colorado, (Boulder: Pruett Press, 1976), p. 46, hereafter cited: Hughes, American Indian.

⁴Hughes, American Indian, p. 45, and Margaret Long, The Smoky Hill Trail, (Denver, W. H. Kistler Stationery Co., 1943), pp. 117-118, hereafter cited: Long, Smoky.

⁵Hughes, American Indian, p. 46, and Long, Smoky, p. 118.

⁶Long, Smoky, pp. 118-119.

⁷William H. Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and Scientist in the Winning of the American West, (New York: Knopf, 1966), pp. 55-57, hereafter cited: Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire.

⁸Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire, pp. 4-5, 41, 49-56 and 62, and William H. Goetzmann, Army Exploration in the American West, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959), pp. 36-38, hereafter cited: Goetzmann, Army, and Amanda May Ellis, The Colorado Springs Story, (Colorado Springs: House of San Juan, 1975) pp. 2-3, hereafter cited: Ellis, Springs Story.

⁹Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire, pp. 58-64, and Goetzmann, Army, pp. 40-46.

¹⁰Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire, pp. 107-109, and Goetzmann, Army, p. 23.

¹¹Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire, p. 40, and Propst, Forgotten, p. 3.

¹²T. L. Monson, "Early Days in Ft. Lupton," The Trail 6 (February 1914): 6, hereafter cited: Monson, "Ft. Lupton", and Long, Smoky, pp. 117-119 and 137.

¹³Jay Monaghan, The Overland Trail, (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1947), pp. 124-127, hereafter cited: Monaghan, Overland, Propst, Forgotten, p. 10, and "Pioneer Figures Who Helped Build Golden" interview, vol. 354, CWA, CSHS.

¹⁴Propst, Forgotten, pp. 10-13.

¹⁵Richard M. Pearl, America's Mountain; Pike's Peak and the Pike's Peak Region, (Denver: Sage Books, 1964), p. 6, hereafter cited: Pearl, Pike's Peak, and Long, Smoky, p. 137.

¹⁶Monaghan, Overland p. 175, and Propst, Forgotten, pp. 10-13, 19, and Monson, "Ft. Lupton," pp. 5-10, and Letter from W. G. Binneweis to L. R. Hafen, Vol 343, CWA, CSHS.

¹⁷LeRoy Hafen, "Thomas Fitzpatrick—Indian Agent," in A Colorado Reader, edited by Carl Ubbelohde, (Boulder: Pruett Press, 1962), p. 83, hereafter cited: Hafen, "Fitzpatrick,", and Rufus Rockwell Wilson, "The Mountain Men," in A Colorado Reader, edited by Carl Ubbelohde, (Boulder: Pruett, 1962), p. 60, hereafter cited: Wilson, "Mountain Men.", and Propst, Forgotten, p. 13.

¹⁸Guy Peterson, Fort Collins: The Post, The Town, (Ft. Collins: The Old Army Press, 1972), p. 12, hereafter cited: Peterson, Ft Collins, and Long, Smoky, p. 121, and Propst, Forgotten, pp. 11-14, and Goetzmann, Army, p. 89, and Elbridge Gerry Chronology, vol. 343, CWA, CSHS.

¹⁹Goetzmann, Army, p. 150, and Monaghan, Overland p. 224.

²⁰Propst, Forgotten, p. 12, and Long, Smoky, p. 126.

²¹Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire, pp. 156 and 199.

²²Goetzmann, Army, pp. 4-18 and 69-70.

²³Ibid., pp. 68-77.

²⁴Nore V. Winter, James S. Kane, Ellen Beasley, Kathy London and Liston P. Leyendecker, "Level I, Historic Cultural Resource Survey of the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland," (Lakewood, CO.: United States Forest Service, n.d.), n.p., hereafter cited: USFS, "Level I," and Propst, Forgotten, pp. 14-17, and Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire, pp. 242-248.

²⁵Propst, Forgotten, pp. 14-17, and Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire, p. 250.

²⁶Long, Smoky, p. 121.

²⁷Goetzmann Exploration and Empire, pp. 277.

²⁸Ibid., p. 247, and Long, Smoky, p. 39.

²⁹Goetzmann, Army, pp. 369-370.

³⁰Hafen, "Fitzpatrick," pp. 75-78, and Propst, Forgotten, pp. 20-21.

³¹Hafen, "Fitzpatrick," pp. 78-81, and Propst, Forgotten, pp. 21-22, and Hughes, American Indian, pp. 53-56.

³²Long, Smoky, pp. 122-124.

³³Ibid., and USFS, "Level I," n.p.

³⁴USFS, "Level I," n.p., and Cornelius W. Hauck, Narrow Gauge to Central and Silver Plume, (Golden: Colorado Railroad Museum, 1972), p. 11, and Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire, p. 299.

³⁵Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire, pp. 535-536.

³⁶Ibid., pp. 496-500 and 517.

³⁷Ibid., pp. 425-428.

³⁸Peterson, Ft. Collins, p. 8, and Charles Pike interview, vol. 354, CWA, CSHS.

³⁹Glen Bolander interview, vol. 352, CWA, CSHS, Jonathan L. Lengel interview, vol. 359, CWA, CSHS, Manasses Litch interview, vol. 341, CWA, CSHS, Asa McLeod interview, vol 343, CWA, CSHS, and S.S. Worley interview, vol. 341, CWA, CSHS.

⁴⁰Propst, Forgotten, pp. 136-137.