Note I-55 — 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.

The Neosho, Neozho, or Neocho r. "A grand fork of the White river" is ambiguous; but becomes intelligible if we remember that he has just spoken of the "Arkansaw, alias White river." Pike's ideas of what he calls "White" and "Grand" r. were not clear. There is no stream in his present vicinity large enough to be dignified as the "grand fork" of the Neosho itself; we must understand him to mean the Neosho, as being itself a grand fork of whatever he meant by "White" r. The Neosho was long and often called Grand r.; "Neosho or Grand R." is lettered on Gregg's map. Pike never says where he crossed the Neosho, nor in fact does he inform us that he ever crossed it—unless it was when he swam his horses. But that was on the 7th. However these uncertainties be regarded, two facts are certain: Pike was across the Neosho on the 8th, and he crossed it between Iola and the town of Neosho Falls, Woodson Co. I think the crossing was a little above the mouth of Deer cr.