Iowa History Project
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OUR IOWA: ITS BEGINNINGS AND GROWTH
PART 9
LIEUTENANT PIKE ON THE MISSISSIPPI
After the United States bought Louisiana they had to take care of it. Forts had to be built and a government of some kind had to be started. This became the work of the United States Army. In the spring of 1805, Gen. James Wilkinson at St. Louis, who was in command of the United States Army in the West, decided to send someone up the Mississippi. He chose Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike, a young man, for the task.
PIKE'S TASK
On July 30, 1805, Lieutenant Pike received orders to follow the Mississippi River to its beginning. He was to make a record of the rivers, prairies, islands, mines, quarries, timber. Indian villages, and settlements along the way. He was also ordered to keep a journal, to select new sites for forts, and to find ways of making peace with the Indians.
Pike, with twenty men, left St. Louis on August 9, 1805. He and his party had one large boat and provisions for four months. It would seem tat he did not realize how big a task he had before him. He and his men had a hard time on their trip. Their greatest trouble came from rainy weather and from not knowing the channel of the river. They had great difficulty in getting their big boat up the stream.
Another mistake made by pike was that he did not take with him and Indian interpreter. Because of this, he could not hold councils with that Indians and therefore had trouble in getting help from them.
PIKE GETS HELP
Pike and his party got to the mouth of the Des Moines River, which is now the southeast corner of Iowa, on August 20. Just above the mouth of the river are eleven miles of rapids. This is where the famous Keokuk Dam is now located. The young lieutenant and his party probably would not have been able to get over these rapids if they had not received help. A Government Indian agent, William Ewing, who had been sent to the Sac tribe, came and helped them up the river. Ewing had four Sac chiefs and fifteen braves with him. Pike called this place "The Des Moines River Rapids."
After crossing the rapids Pike and his party spent the night at Ewing's camp on the east of the Mississippi. The next day they visited a large Sac village that was located on the west side of the river. It was on the present site of the town of Montrose, Iowa. There Pike held a council with the Indians at the Sac village. He gave them presents of tobacco, knives, and Whiskey. In his journal he wrote that this would be a good place for a trading post.
FORT MADISON AND BURLINGTON
The night after the council with the Indians at Montrose, Pike and his men camped six months farther up the river, on the present site of fort Madison. The first fort to be built on Iowa land was later put on this site. Pike, however, did not himself mention the place or recommend it as a place for a fort.
The next day Pike reached the present site of Burlington. He told about a place that is now Crapo Park in that city and described it as "a very handsome situation for a garrison." He said it was a good place for a fort or a garrison because all travel on the river could be watched from there.
A few days after leaving the Burlington site the Party lost two of its hunting dogs. Two of the men said they would go out and find the dogs. The two men were lost for two days but finally came to an Indian village. The chief of the Indian village gave them food and guides so that they could get back to Pike.
Pike and his men again had trouble in getting over some rapids in the river. This time it was at the mouth of the Rock River, which flows into the Mississippi River from the Illinois side. It was near this place that Lieutenant Pike met Chief Black Hawk.
Black Hawk was given some presents and an American flag. Pike asked the chief to take down a British flag which he had. Black Hawk refused to do that because he wanted to be friends with both the British and the Americans. Black Hawk himself said, "He presented us an American flag which was hoisted. He then requested us to pull down our British flags and give him our British medals promising to send us others on his return to St. Louis. This we declined as we wished to have two 'fathers.'"
PIKE AND DUBUQUE
On Sunday, September 1, the Pike party arrived at Dubuque's settlement. Pike said they were "saluted with a field piece (small cannon) and received every mark of attention."
Pike wanted to learn all about the lead mines. Dubuque, however, was very careful as to what he did. He did not know whether the Americans would let him keep the land which the Spaniards had given him. Dubuque was polite but he would not answer questions or take him to the mines. Pike called him "the evasive Mr. Dubuque" and learned very little from him.
At Dubuque Pike got an interpreter, a Frenchman by the name of Blondie. This interpreter helped Pike greatly on the rest of his trip. The young lieutenant now learned that the Indians lived in great fear of the White men. One chief told him that "the women and children were frightened at the very name of an American boat."
PRAIRIE DU CHIEN
Pike reached Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, on September 4. He recommended that the bluff in Iowa, across the river from Prairie Du Chien, be used for a fort. He said it was best place on the upper Mississippi for that purpose. The bluff is now called "Pike's Hill."
At Prairie du Chien Oike left his big boat and got two smaller boats. He then went on and soon passed beyond what is now Iowa. Before leaving Iowa he held several important councils with different Indian Chiefs. Near the mouth of the Upper Iowa River, the Sioux Chief, Wabashaw, put on a great medicine dance for the Pike.
PIKE'S WORK
Pike and his men spent the winter in Minnesota. They had a hard time because their provisions ran low and they had much sickness. On April 16 of the following year, Pike and his party again reached Iowa on their way home. They arrived at St. Louis on April 30, 1806. This trip did not end Pike's explorations. He later led a famous party to the West and "Pike's Peak," in Colorado, is named in his honor. He was killed in the War of 1812.
Lieutenant Pike made a very accurate report of his trip. It was the first good account that had been written of the upper Mississippi region. If the recommendations which he made for the location of forts and trading posts had been followed, much later trouble could have been avoided.
We can learn many things about early eastern Iowa from the reports of Lewis and Clark.
OTHER EARLY EXPLORERS AND SETTLERS
EARLY FRENCHMEN
It is thought that unknown French trappers reached the Mississippi River before Marquette and Joliet. Other Frenchmen said they had reached the head of the Mississippi before Pike did. We know about the trip of Marquette and Joliet, and of Pike, because they left us a record of what they saw.
Nicolas Perrot, another Frenchman, as early as 1685, built training posts on the east side of the Mississippi. He built one post at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, across the river from the present site of Mc Gregor, Iowa, and another across the river from where Dubuque is now located. Perrot never lived on Iowa land but made many trips into it and traded with the Indians who lived there.
In 1735, a Frenchman, Capt. Nicholas Joseph des Noyelles, marched into Iowa at the head of a small army. A Sac warrior had killed a French official in the East. The Indians then became frightened and fled westward into Iowa. The French sent Capt. de Noyelles with 80 French soldiers and about 200 Indian warrior to punish the Sacs but most of the red men left the French. The sacs and foxes fled to Des Moines River. De Noyelles tried to get the Fox Indians to leave the sac tribe, after which he intended to punish the sacs. He failed to do either.
A SPANIARD
When Lewis and Clark returned to St. Louis from their trip to the Pacific Ocean, they told many interesting things about what they had seen. A young Spaniard by the name of Manual Lisa heard some of the stories and decided that he would go up the Mississippi River to trade with the Indians. He made his first trip in 1807. It was so successful that he made twelve or thirteen more. On one of his trips he had three hundred and fifty men and thirteen boats.
LATER FRENCHMEN
Soon after Dubuque built his settlement, other Frenchmen also came and started small settlements. One of these, Basil Giard, moved in 1795 to a farm in what is now Clayton County. He farmed and traded with the Indians. His name is also spelled Gaillard and Gayard. He received a grant for more than 5,800 acres of land from the Spanish Governor. Giard made several trips to St. Louis as a trader.
One Frenchman received from the Spanish governor, in 1799, a grant for more than 6,000 acres of land. This land was located in what is now Lee County and the town of Montrose is located in part of it. The Frenchman is known by several names. They are Louis Honori, Louis Honori Fresson, and Louis Honore Tresson. He started an orchard on his land and brought the trees on pack mules from Missouri. The land where the trees were planted for this first Iowa orchard is now, because of Keokuk Dam, under water.
Tesson was living on his farm when Pike came up the Mississippi. He offered to go with Pike as an interpreter to the Indians. Since Pike said he had no money to pay him Tesson did not go.
Another Frenchman , Maurice Blondeau, lived farther up the river from Tesson. He is the man who later became an interpreter for lieut. Pike. His chief business was to trade with the Indians.
LE CLAIRE AND DAVENPORT
Two of the most interesting men in early Iowa history are Antoine Le Claire and Colonel George Davenport. A town and a city, both located in Scott County, are named in honor of these men. Le Claire, who was part Indian, was one of the most important men on the upper Mississippi. He was born in Michigan in 1797 and went to school in St. Louis. In 1818 he became an interpreter at Fort Armstrong on Rock Island. He could speak fourteen Indian languages besides French and English. He acted as interpreter at nearly all the treaty making councils with the Indians after 1818.
A house that Le Claire built for himself in Davenport became Iowa's first railroad depot in 1854. He had built the home in 1813. When the work of grading for the first railroad in Iowa began at Davenport in 1853, Mr. Le Claire was given the honor of "removing the first ground."
KEARNY AND LEA
Lieutenant Colonel Stephen W. Kearny made two important trips across Iowa land. In the summer of 1820 he started from near the present site of Omaha, Nebraska, for Fort Snelling, which is near St. Paul, Minnesota. This trip took him across the prairies of western Iowa. Kearny was not very well impressed with that part of our state. He thought it was too hilly and too dry for farming. Besides, there were no trees for fuel or for building. Kearny and his men saw a herd of about 4,000 buffaloes.
Kearny's second trip was made in 1835. This time he started at the mouth of the Des Moines River and went up to near where the city of Des Moines is now located. From there he went northeast until he reached a Sioux Indian village which was located near the present site of Winona, Minnesota. After a rest of about two weeks, he and his party returned to the Racoon Forks, from which place they continued their trip back down the Des Moines River to its mouth.
One of the men with Kearny was Lieutenant Albert M. Lea. He kept a journal of the trip. After their return, Kearny sent Lea on another trip to study the Des Moines River. He had one soldier and an Indian for companions. Soon after Lea returned from this trip, he resigned from the army and wrote a small book about what he had seen. In this book the name "Iowa" was used for this country for the first time.
A FAMOUS PAINTER
George Catlin, a painter and student of Indians, visited Iowa in its early days. He painted pictures of Black Hawk, Keokuk, and other important Indians. His paintings of Dubuque's settlement, of Floyd's grave, and of other important early scenes, are the only pictures that we now have of those places as they were in those days.
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