The Franklin Mint History Of The United States, 1776-1973
Manufacturer
The Franklin Mint
DateNo Date
MediumSilver
DimensionsOverall: 1 3/4 in. (45 mm.)
ClassificationsDecorative arts
Credit LineGift of Dr. Eugene F. Poutasse
Object number76.81.31
On View
Not on viewThe 1806 medal: Zebulon Pike Sights Pike's Peak
Following an exploration of the Mississippi River in 1805, 27-year old Lt. Zebulon M. Pike was sent to explore the sources of the Arkansas and Red Rivers. The Southwestern Expedition left St. Louis on July 15, 1806 with 22 men, ascending the Osage and Arkansas Rivers until present-day Pueblo, Colorado, was reached.
While exploring there in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, Pike wrote in his journal on November 15, 1806, "At two o'clock in the afternoon I thought I could distinguish a mountain to our right, which appeared like a small blue cloud...in half an hour, they appeared in full view before us."
On November 24 he determined to reach and climb the peak in order to map the branches of the rivers. The going was difficult in the near zero weather but on November 27 they reached and climbed a mountain near Pike's Peak. From here Pike wrote that "The summit of the Grand Peak (Pike's name for the peak later named for him), which was entirely bare of vegetation and covered with snow, now appeared at the distance of fifteen or sixteen miles from us, and as high again as what we had ascended, and would have taken a whole day's march to have arrived at its base, when I believe no human being could have ascended to its pinnacle. This, with the condition of my soldiers, who had only light overalls on and no stockings and every way ill provided to endure the inclemency of the region, the bad prospect of killing anything to subsist on, with the further detention of two or three days which it must occasion, determined us to return."
(In 1820, men from Stephen Long's expedition to the West ascended the 14,110 ft. peak, the first men known to have done so.)
