Who is it that has neither seen nor read of…
source date: 1891
availability: public-domain

or the reason that the “gringos” were becoming too numerous, monopolizing the fur trade, killing the buffa- loes for their skins, and making merchandise of buffalo tongues, a luxury in the states, and even then in the frontier village of St. Louis they commanded a dollar each. Who is it that has neither seen nor read of Pike’s Peak? If he has not, he has neither traveled nor read the newspapers, and is there- fore ignorant of the fact that, that prominent bump (14,147 feet high) upon the earth’s sur- face derived its name from that of Major Zebulon M. Pike, an explorer, by authority of the United States. He was in Santa Fe in 1807. His condition on the route, via the Conejos, across to the Chama, and down that stream past Ojo Caliente and San Juan to Santa Fe, may be inferred from inquiries concerning him and his party; whether those men ragged ap- parel consisting of overalls, breech cloths, leather coats, and without covering for the head, were a tribe living in houses. Pike was promoted to brigadier-general and lost his life in 1813, at the taking of Toronto.