Note I-41 — Chapter I · ITINERARY: UP THE MISSOURI AND OSAGE RIVERS, AND THROUGH KANSAS TO THE PAWNEE VILLAGE ON THE REPUBLICAN RIVER, JULY 15TH-SEPT. 30TH, 1806.

Legended "Chouteau's" on the map, where the cross × also does duty for to-night's camp, two miles higher up. The spot can be identified by the coal bank and shoal mentioned, though the "41½" m. assigned for the day's journey take us beyond the confluence of the Little Osage, and we see by tomorrow's itinerary that we are still half a day's sail short of that point. Pierre Chouteau's place was known in Spanish records as Fort Carondelet, and was built about 1790 at what is now called Halley's Bluff named for Col. Anselm Halley. It was an actual fortification with mounted swivels, which Lieut. Wilkinson speaks of in his Report (given beyond); but it was only maintained for a few years. The post is twice noticed in the Hist. of Vernon Co., 1887, by R. I. Holcombe, who informs me that he went over the ground, including Blue Mound, Timbered Hill, and other places in the vicinity, and that some old caches in the sandstone may still be seen. 1. In the course of to-day's voyage the map shows a large stream, unnamed, falling in from the N., on the right-hand or left bank. This is evidently intended for Big Monegan or Monegaw cr.; place called Dollie at its mouth. 2. Higher up, on the other side, another nameless cr. is charted, from the S. This is Beshaw, better called Clear, cr.; quite large, coming from Barton, through Vernon, past the N. W. corner of Cedar, into St. Clair Co. 3. Above this, Pike has two traces, both from the N., unnamed. One of these doubtless represents Panther or Painter cr., in Bates Co. Here the Mo., Kan. and Tex. R. R., a branch of the Mo. Pac. R. R., crosses the Osage between Rockville on the N. and Schell City on the S. of that river. These places are 4 m. apart. A mile or two below this crossing the Osage now forms a circle circumscribing a large round island, nearly a mile in diameter, which may have been a bend in Pike's time. Several smaller streams than those just named fall into the Osage on either side, in the course of a few miles, as Miller, McKenzie, Shaw, Willow, and Lady's. The "10 French houses" Pike speaks of were opp. the mouth of Lady's cr. (named for one Wm. Lady). Camp was on the N. W. side of the Osage, near Lady's cr., and thus in the vicinity of Papinsville (old Harmony Mission).