Note III-28 — Chapter III · ITINERARY, CONCLUDED: IN THE MOUNTAINS OF COLORADO ON HEADWATERS OF THE ARKANSAW AND RIO GRANDE, DECEMBER 1ST, 1806-FEBRUARY 26TH, 1807.

Marked "□ Block house" on Pike's map. Lewis and Clark's map of 1814 letters "□ Block House U. S. Factory in 1806" on the same spot on the "Rio de Nanesi," i. e., the Arkansaw. The building stood on the N. bank of the Arkansaw, doubtless within present limits of Cañon City. All trace of the structure seems to be gone, and I doubt that the precise spot will ever be recovered. My correspondence with several persons in Cañon City and vicinity has availed nothing. But the location at Cañon City is unquestionable.

The terrible trip Pike now ventures to make should not have been attempted in the dead of winter, with his miserable outfit. Pike was brave to excess, as we know; that and the mysterious crux of the orders he had from Wilkinson about the Spanish business must excuse this particular piece of foolhardihood. A more experienced mountaineer, with any concern for his own life, to say nothing of the lives of his men, would not have bucked up against those mountains under such circumstances. If he had had to hunt for the unknown sources of a river which came eastward from there, he would have backed out of the mountains, gone down the Arkansaw a piece, struck south at his convenience till he found his river, and then considered the chances of being able to follow it up to its source. That Red r. of which Pike is supposed to have gone in search was never found, for the simple reason that there is no such river in that part of the world—as probably Pike himself knew. He had a chip on each shoulder for some Spaniard to please knock off; his coat-tails were dragging all over the R. mts. for some Spaniard to please step on; and he would rather have broken some Spanish heads than have discovered the head of any river.