Note 114 — Chapter III · Concluding the Route to the Great Salt Lake City. (continued 2)
Reading edition
The principal explorers under the United States government of the regions lying west of the Mississippi, and who have published works upon the subject, are the following:
1. Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, in 1804-6, first explored the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River.
2. Major Z. M. Pike, in 1805-7, visited the upper waters of the Mississippi and the western regions of Louisiana.
3. Major, afterward Colonel S. H. Long, of the United States Topographical Engineers, made two expeditions, one in 1819-20 to the Rocky Mountains, another in 1823 to the Sources of the St. Peter and the Lake of the Woods, whereby four volumes octavo were filled.
4. Governor Cass and Mr. Schoolcraft in 1820 explored the Sources of the Mississippi and the regions west and south of Lake Superior.
5. Colonel H. Dodge, U. S. Army, in 1835 traveled 1600 miles from Fort Leavenworth, and visited the regions between the Arkansas and the Platte Rivers.
6. Captain Canfield, United States Topographical Engineers, in 1838 explored the country between Forts Leavenworth and Snelling.
7. Mr. M‘Cox, of Missouri, surveyed the boundaries of the Indian reservations: his work was in part revised by the late Captain Hood, United States Topographical Engineers.
8. Mr. Nicollet (French) in 1833-38 mapped the country west of the Upper Mississippi: he was employed in 1838-9 to make a similar scientific reconnoissance between the Mississippi and the Missouri, on which occasion he was accompanied by Mr. Frémont. He died in 1842.
The explorations of Colonel Frémont, Captain Howard Stansbury, Lieutenant Gunnison, and Lieutenant Warren have been frequently alluded to in these pages.
9. Lieutenant, afterward Captain Charles Wilkes, U. S. Navy, set out in 1838, and, after a long voyage of discovery in South America, Oceanica, and the Antarctic continent, made San Francisco on August 11, 1841. It is remarkable that this officer’s party were actually pitched upon the spot (New Helvetia, afterward called Sacramento City) where Californian gold was dug by the Mormons.
10. Captain R. B. Marcy, U. S. Army, “discovered and explored, located and marked out the wagon-road from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Santa Fé, New Mexico.” The road explorers, however, are too numerous to specify.
11. Governor I. I. Stevens, of Washington Territory, surveyed in 1853 the northern land proposed for a Pacific railway near the 47°-49° parallels, from St. Paul to Puget Sound. No portion of that line had been visited since the days of Lewis and Clarke, except a small portion toward the Pacific Ocean.
12. Captain Raynolds, United States Topographical Engineers, accompanied by Colonel Bridger as guide and interpreter, is still (1860) exploring the head-waters of the Yellow Stone River.