Note II-35 — Chapter II · ITINERARY, CONTINUED: FROM THE PAWNEE VILLAGE THROUGH KANSAS AND COLORADO TO PIKE'S PEAK, OCT. 1ST-NOV. 30TH, 1806.

This statement conflicts with Pike's map, which lays down only one stream between the two camp-marks that stand for the 14th and 15th. But the text is right, and both these camp-marks are misplaced. One belongs just below Mud cr., and the other at Purgatory r., where there is no sign of one, though this is the most exactly locatable station since we left Great Bend. Pike's "two deep creeks" are Mud and Caddoa; his "many points of rocks" appear on any good topographical map. There is a series of such between Prowers and Mud cr., on the S., opposite which Graveyard cr. falls in, N. Two very notable points of rocks, a mile apart, are separated by Caddoa cr.; and Limestone cr. falls in from the N., 2 or 3 m. below these. These bluffs extend to the village of Caddoa, 2 m. up, in a bottom left by their recession from the river, before they again close in on the river in two bold headlands, 1 or 2 m. above Caddoa. The country on the N., across the river, is also bluffy for several miles along here. The elevations close to the river are 3,800 to 3,900 feet, and higher further back on both sides. Above the Caddoan bluffs a creek which Pike charts falls on the S. This is lettered Blue cr. on late G. L. O. maps, and Rule cr. on those of Hayden and Powell. Caddoa cr. heads about the N. W. corner of Baca Co., and takes a northerly course to the Arkansaw; Blue or Rule cr. is the larger one of the two; some of its affluents are near those of Caddoa and upper reaches of Two Butte cr., about Shell Rock cañon in Baca Co., but its real source is further south in Las Animas Co., where Johnny cr. and others head. Its course is northerly, but with an eastward trend, about parallel with Purgatory r. About an hour before Pike reached this large river he passed opposite the place where Fort Lyon was later built, on the bluff around which the Arkansaw there sweeps closely. In 1864 Lyon was the first inhabited place on the Arkansaw west of Larned, though there had been trading-posts or certain other temporary dwellings at various points, especially at the upper end of the Big Timbers, say 12 m. E. of Fort Lyon. These were a large body of cottonwoods extending thence several miles down the river on its N. side, and formed a noted resort of various Indian tribes. Hence the woods became well known to travelers along the Arkansaw, whose itineraries almost always speak of the "Big Timbers" as they approach the Purgatory on their way to Bent's fort. Pike's text of the 13th is no doubt the earliest indication of these woods.

Gregg's map lays down three large creeks from the S. between his Big Sand cr. and Purgatory r. The first of these is called Mulberry; the other two are nameless. The three appear to correspond to the Mud, Caddoa, and Blue creeks just described.