Note II-48 — Chapter II · ITINERARY, CONTINUED: FROM THE PAWNEE VILLAGE THROUGH KANSAS AND COLORADO TO PIKE'S PEAK, OCT. 1ST-NOV. 30TH, 1806.

Pike's expectation of climbing his peak and getting back to his camp on Turkey cr. in one day may serve to console some who have thought they would like to take a stroll before breakfast to the same peak from the Antlers Hotel in Colorado Springs. Though Pike's actual footsteps in these mountains be not recoverable with exactitude, there is no uncertainty as to about where he was on the 26th and 27th, when he climbed S. of Mts. Cheyenne and Rosa to an altitude of about 9,000 feet, and then returned. Mt. Cheyenne is the foremost of the group of peaks in this part of the Front range; it stands out in such bold relief that uninformed visitors to Colorado Springs often mistake it for Pike's Peak. But its altitude is only 9,407 or 9,948 feet, as estimated by different authorities, and thus considerably less than that of various other peaks in the vicinity. Some of these are: Cameron Cone, 10,685 or 11,560 feet; Mt. Rosa, 11,427 or 11,572 feet; Mt. Pisgah, given as 10,487 feet; Pilate Peak, given as 12,420 feet. The two last named are further W. and S.; Cheyenne, Cameron, and Rosa form angles of a triangle, E. of Pike's Peak, that "grim sentinel of the Rockies," as it is styled by some, or the "Grand Peak," as Pike calls it, which towers over all the rest to the generally accepted altitude of 14,147 feet. These figures can easily be recalled to mind if one remembers that twice seven is 14. This peak is due W. of Colorado Springs, at an air-line distance of 12 m. Visitors are driven to the summit by way of the Cascade carriage road, running up Cascade cañon from a point in the Ute Pass 11 m. from Colorado Springs. This stage route is a trifle over 17 m. from Cascade, or a total of about 28 m. from the Antlers Hotel, Colorado Springs. During the season when the crop of pink-toed tender-foots is harvested, wagons make the round trip in one day, 9 a. m.-6 p. m., spending an hour at the Halfway House and another at the Peak. This is said to be the highest stage-line in the United States. There is also a road up Bear Creek cañon to the Seven Lakes, but not to the Peak, and no line of stages is regularly run on it. The Cheyenne Mountain road also goes to these lakes, and has been run through to the mining camp on Cripple cr., which lately made such a noise in Colorado. This is S. W. of the peak, about 18 air-line miles from Colorado Springs. The Pike's Peak Cog Railway takes a much shorter, steeper, and straighter course than the stage road, by way of Ingleman cañon and Ruxton cr. The cog line starts from Manitou, 6¼ m. from Colorado Springs, and is 8¾ m. long. The round trip is made in about five hours, two hours each way, with one hour between, on the summit. This is ample time; for tourists find Pike's Peak a convenient place to leave as soon as they have paid twenty-five cents for a cup of the worst coffee in the world, and tried in vain to stand up against a wind of 50 or 60 m. an hour. Those who may be more interested in Pike's Peak at a distance are referred to a dainty booklet entitled Legends of the Pike's Peak Region, 8vo, Denver, 1892; it is full of quaint local lore, especially of the traditions of the only mountain Pike climbed part way up. Among all the myths that cling to the Peak, obscuring the facts in the case like the clouds that mantle the mountain, the very basic one—that one on which the mountain rests, so to speak—is the universal tradition that the brave young officer discovered and ascended the Peak which upholds his name. One wishes that such laurels as he earned and well deserved had been plucked from an eminence unknown and unattained before. But Pike's Peak had been long and well known to the Spaniards; it was the Ultima Thule of their possessions; and for that matter, was not Pike at the very time in pursuit of the Spanish troops under Malgares, who had gone along just before him? It is true that Pike, Robinson, Brown, and Miller—the four whose names are thus linked should be upheld together—are the first white men known to have come within "the distance of 15 or 16 miles" of the peak, as it seemed to them, when the "Grand Peak" appeared "as high again as what we ascended and would have taken a whole day's march to arrive at its base." This is the testimony of the hero of the occasion; his evidence is alike incisive and decisive. So far as we are informed by authentic history, Pike's Peak was first surmounted by Dr. Edwin James, Mr. Wilson, and two other men, July 13th and 14th, 1820, during Major S. H. Long's expedition to the Rocky mts., when it was named James' Peak. When, where, and by whom the mountain was first called Pike's Peak is unknown, to me at least; but its earliest appearance in print should be discoverable. The date is probably somewhere in the '40's, or still earlier. The name was certainly in verbal use in the '30's. Mr. Oliver P. Wiggins, now of Denver, who was on the plains in 1838, heard only "Pike's Peak," as a phrase already in common speech. Gregg's map of 1844 legends "Pikes Peak (or James')." Beckwith's Report of 1853, pub. 1855, p. 30, has only "James'." The alternative names ran parallel for some years. G. K. Warren states, Pac. R. R. Rep. XI., 1855, p. 24: "Captain Frémont, in his report and map of explorations in 1843 and 1844, calls it Pike's Peak, probably because it was so called by the white people in the country at the time": see also George Frederick Ruxton's Adventures, etc., London, Murray, 1861, but written much earlier. Governor Alva Adams, in the address already cited, p. 13, discusses the point as "one of the historical mysteries," and adds: "The name of Pike's Peak begins to appear in the literature of the prairies and mountains about the middle of the century, but it was not irrevocably christened until the Pike's Peak gold excitement, when the name was fixed to remain as long as men love to listen to stories of valor." Whether it originated spontaneously or was formally introduced, it will probably never die; the alliteration of the words would be enough to keep the phrase in the mouths of the people, let alone its justice and propriety. As for any Spanish claim which may hereafter be established respecting prior discovery or ascent of the peak, the following extract from the Legends already cited is pertinent: "From Pike's Peak to Popocatepetl the land is a palimpsest, dotted with ruins of remotest antiquity, the relics of a people whose records are replete with poetry and strange romance. Their manuscripts enrich the archives of Mexico and Madrid, and yet we learn but little of them. They moulder in the missions of the suspicious Spanish priests, or among the mystic treasures of the Pueblos, and are decaying unread."