Note II-13 — Chapter II · ITINERARY, CONTINUED: FROM THE PAWNEE VILLAGE THROUGH KANSAS AND COLORADO TO PIKE'S PEAK, OCT. 1ST-NOV. 30TH, 1806.

Pawnee fork is larger than Walnut cr. It runs through several counties on a general E. course, and falls in at Larned, seat of Pawnee Co. When I was in the country, 30 years ago, the three principal branches were called Heth's, Buckner's, and Shaff's. A branch now rejoices in the name of Guzzler's Gulch. Saw-mill cr. is a long but slight tributary which falls in close to the mouth of the main stream. Pike crosses the mouth of Pawnee fork on the 29th; the Spaniards had crossed it higher up. He lays it down as a short, forked stream. Larned is now a city of some importance, and a rival of Great Bend; it is the natural development of which old Fort Larned was the germ; it is built mainly on the N. or left bank of Pawnee fork, but has lately crossed that stream, and also extended in the adjoining Arkansaw bottom. The locality became noted with the establishment of the Santa Fé trade in the '20's, and later on was a point of strategic importance in our relations with hostile or unruly Indians. The main road passed here en route for Santa Fé, in continuation both of the earliest caravan road and of the later Smoky Hill stage route; it offered a good camping place, which traders, troops, and other travelers generally occupied. Another reason for stopping was that the river was not easy to cross when full. Thus, when Emory and Abert were here, July 13th, 1846, one of Kearny's expressmen, A. E. Hughes, was drowned in it (J. T. Hughes, Doniphan's Exp., 1887, p. 21). But it varied much; July 13th, 1853, Gunnison and Beckwith found it 20 feet wide, with a fair current, and a depth of only a foot or two.