Note 114 — [70] CHAPTER XI [V]

Bell's party mistook the Nennescah (Nenescah, Nenesquaw, an Indian word meaning "good river") for the Negracka, which on the map is given the alternate name of Red Fork. Lieutenant Wilkinson's detachment of Pike's expedition made the same mistake in 1806; their report may have misled Bell's party. The Negracka is much farther south, but the members of the party were confused relative to their whereabouts from this time until shortly before they arrived at the Verdigris. The Nennescah drains most of the area inclosed by the Great Bend; Whitman, Sumner County, is at its mouth. The Negracka is now often called Salt Fork; the name Red Fork applies more properly to the Cimarron. The names, locations, and relative sizes of the western tributaries of the Arkansas between Great Bend and the Canadian made up a cartographical puzzle which resisted solution for another generation.—Ed.