Note II-11 — Chapter II · ITINERARY, CONTINUED: FROM THE PAWNEE VILLAGE THROUGH KANSAS AND COLORADO TO PIKE'S PEAK, OCT. 1ST-NOV. 30TH, 1806.

Walnut (Big or Wet Walnut) cr. is that large northern affluent of the Arkansaw which runs E. from Lane through Ness and Rush into Barton Co., and falls into the river 4 m. below Great Bend, county seat of Barton. A branch of this, called Little or Dry Walnut cr., runs E. from Rush into Barton, and falls into Walnut cr. about 4 m. from the mouth of the latter. Great Bend is on the N. bank of the Arkansaw, and thus between that river and Little Walnut cr. The way in which, and the precise point at which, the Expedition struck the Arkansaw could hardly be discovered from the text of the 15th-18th; we are not even told till the 18th that we are on the Arkansaw, as the 15th mostly, and the 16th and 17th entirely, are taken up with the wanderings of the lieutenant and doctor, who got lost. The key to the situation is not found till the 23d, when it is luckily recited that a trip was made from the camp on the Arkansaw "about 20 miles to a large branch [or fork] on the right." This is the well-known Pawnee fork of the Arkansaw, where was old Fort Larned, a noted place, and where is now Larned, seat of Pawnee Co. So the Expedition struck the Arkansaw 20 m. below Larned, in the very suburbs of the present city of Great Bend. This locality about the mouth of Walnut cr. became early noted, not only as the place of northernmost deflection of the Arkansaw, but also as the first objective point on that river, where the old Santa Fé caravan road struck that river. It also became the site of Fort Zara, or Zarah—to be found on some maps as Fort Sarah—which was built in 1853 on the high ground between Walnut and Cow creeks, about 5 m. N. of the road. On July 12th of that year, Capt. Gunnison reached the great bend by the Smoky Hill route from Fort Riley, having been preceded in arriving there three days by his companion, who came over the regular Santa Fé route; Lieut.-Col. E. V. Sumner, 1st Dragoons, and other officers, arrived from Mexico the same night; and on the spot was camped Captain and Bvt.-Major Edward Johnson, 6th Infantry, about to build the fort, as that 100 m. further up the Arkansaw (Fort Atkinson) was to be abandoned. Col. John Garland of the 8th Infantry passed by in July of that year. Pike's approach was: Being in camp of the 14th on some head of Cow cr., the Expedition started on the 15th at noon, and marched five hours, about 15 m., on a W. S. W. course, thus crossing the Cheyenne Bottoms above said, and coming to Walnut cr. just above the mouth of the Little Walnut above described. Pike pointed out a wood and told Wilkinson to go there to camp, while he and the doctor would go up Walnut cr. a piece to hunt for the Spanish trail. Either mistaking the wood intended, or finding himself so near the Arkansaw, Wilkinson went on to that river and camped the party on its north bank, a mile or two above where Great Bend now stands. Pike and the doctor went shooting buffalo, and it got pretty late; they returned to where Pike had told Wilkinson to camp, and found nobody there; so they bivouacked on the spot. In the morning they went up Little Walnut cr. to search, but did not go far from those two buffalo they had killed; in fact they got rattled at finding no camp, turned about and went down Little Walnut cr. to its mouth (which is what text of the 16th means by "their junction"—confluence of the two creeks). On the morning of the 17th, being thoroughly alarmed, and imagining that the party must be higher up the Little Walnut, they started up again, but probably went a very little way in the rain; for they were overtaken early on the 18th by two men whom Wilkinson had sent in search of them, and then they were only "about three" miles from the camp on the Arkansaw. It is not likely they were at any moment 10 m. from the spot where they had left the party.

Pike's map shows nothing but the trail of the party, no camp being marked after that of the 12th, on the other side of the Smoky Hill r. The trail makes a sharp elbow at the point where, having come down Cow cr. on the 14th, they turned from that stream on the 15th. Besides Cow cr., three others appear in succession to the W. The first is Walnut cr.; the second is Little Walnut, a branch of the first, run separately into the Arkansaw; while the third is Ash cr., which falls in above camp. Cow cr. is brought in too near the next one. On the south side of the Arkansaw is marked the station of the 19th-27th, with the legend: "Here we struck the Arkansaw from whence L^t. Wilkinson descended the river in skin canoes and Capt. Pike went up by land with his party." This ends map I. of the Arkansaw, etc., and map II. of the same connects at this point, the first stream laid down being Pawnee fork, and the first camp that of the 29th. Camp of the 28th falls between the two maps, and is not shown. The Spanish trail, which Pike lost on Smoky Hill r., was all the while a little to the W. or right of the party, and is recovered on the S. side of the Arkansaw, on the 30th.

Pike elsewhere says of his journey from the Pawnees to the Arkansaw that it was on a general course S. 10° W. 150 m., but might have been made in 120. His deviation from the most direct route was in bearing a little too far W. to cross the Saline and Smoky Hill, and then some needless meandering across the divide to the Arkansaw. But he struck the latter exactly at the right point; for Great Bend is where the old Smoky Hill and Cimarron route from Leavenworth to Santa Fé reached the Arkansaw. There was of course nothing on the spot in Pike's time—nor was there even in 1864, when I first passed the place, excepting a miserable shack the stage company had built. The nearest settlement at that time was Fort Larned. My journal of May 31st, 1864, refreshes my memory: "At 2 p. m. we brought up at Fort Larned—mean place, built of adobe and logs, with a drunken officer in command; everybody half drunk already; and all were whole drunk by bed-time."