Editorial note — FOOTNOTES

"My Dear Sir:

"... As to the disputed stockade on the Conejos: I am entirely familiar with that country, and had fixed it as having been situated in the prairie on the N. bank of the stream due across from what is known as the Ojo Caliente. Before writing the preface to the Denver reprint of Pike, I had made up my mind to that, although it was contended in the neighborhood that the stockade had been situated some 14 or 15 m. from the mouth of the stream. This supposition was due to the fact that Lafayette Head, the oldest American settler on the Conejos, who came there early in the fifties, was lieutenant-governor of this state, and a man of high standing and much authority, had asserted that the fort had been built much further up the stream than the site I had accepted. In 1890 I saw Mr. Head upon the subject, and he told me that when he first came to the country there still existed on the Conejos the remains of a structure of cottonwood logs laid horizontally, which he had seen, and which was so old that the logs would scarcely bear the weight of one's foot. Upon this evidence, with or without suggestion from some source, he concluded it was Pike's fort, and so gave out; whence the prevalent impression. That Mr. Head saw this structure there is no question. I have no idea what it was, or when or by whom built; but it would be useless to pursue this matter, because Mr. Head is positive that the location was on the south side, and therefore the structure cannot have been Pike's. The Ojo Caliente above mentioned is on the property of Mr. A. W. McIntire, as is also the prairie opposite, on the north bank of the river. Mr. McIntire is a Pike enthusiast, very much interested in the case. When in Denver recently he startled me by stating that we had been in error as to the exact location, as he had become convinced it was about half a mile below the Ojo Caliente. This half-mile bears a remarkable relation to the statement in your letter to me: 'I have it probably within half a mile.' Mr. McIntire says that the depression caused by digging the moat is still visible. The place is on the north bank of the Conejos, opposite some warm or mineral springs flowing out of the hill on the south side; and Mr. McIntire informs me that the spot is a little north of the center of Sect. 7, T. 35, R. 11.