Note I-59 — 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.

Pike has headed Verdigris r., and recrossed the brim of its basin into the Neosho basin again. In cutting off this small segment of the Verdigris basin he passed from Lyon into Chase Co., "over high hilly prairies," i. e., the divide, and continued westward till he struck "a large branch of Grand r." We discover later that Pike takes Cottonwood r. to be the main Grand, i. e., Neosho r., which I do not see that it is not, though the other one retains the name of Neosho above their confluence. The stream he strikes is the S. fork of Cottonwood r. This heads in the same hilly country, by tributaries known as Little Cedar, Thurman, and Mercer creeks, in relation or opposition to the uttermost sources of Verdigris r., and flows N. to fall into the main Cottonwood 4 m. below Cottonwood Falls, county seat of Chase. Pike probably came on this stream somewhere in the vicinity of Baker or Crocker cr., between places called Matfield Green and Bazar.

Cottonwood "creek" was originally so named at the point where it was struck on the old Santa Fé caravan road, and because it showed the first trees of that kind to be found in traveling westward on that route. The crossing was at or near present town of Durham, Marion Co. It was some time before the true connection of the Cottonwood with the Neosho was made out. At Council Grove the traders knew they were on a head of the Neosho or Grand r., though they called it Council Grove cr. They kept on W. to "Diamond springs" (on a head of Six Mile or present Diamond cr.), and thence to "Lost spring" on their "Willow" cr. (a head of present Clear cr., which falls into the Cottonwood at Marion); the next stream they struck being this Cottonwood cr., at or near Durham: see a note beyond, where I undertake, perhaps rashly, to recover the old caravan road in terms of modern geography.