The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, Volume 2 (of 3): To Headwaters of the Mississippi River Through Louisiana Territory, and in New Spain, During the Years 1805-6-7.Coues, Elliott
History
The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, Volume 2 (of 3): To Headwaters of the Mississippi River Through Louisiana Territory, and in New Spain, During the Years 1805-6-7.
Coues, Elliott
Mississippi River -- Description and travel; New Mexico -- Description and travel; Pike, Zebulon Montgomery, 1779-1813 -- Travel -- West (U.S.); West (U.S.) -- Description and travel; West (U.S.) -- Discovery and exploration; West (U.S.) -- History -- To 1848
[I-34] The lacuna of the orig. text can be supplied from the map,
which marks camp of the 12th as above said. On decamping this morning
Pike passed what he charts as Cave cr. This is the middle one of three
insignificant runs which make in on the right. "Vermillion" r. of
to-day is a mistake. This is the stream Pike charts as Deep cr., on
the right, immediately below Grand r., and is that now called Little
Tebo, Teabo, Tabo, Tebeau, etc. These are commonly supposed to be
forms of a personal name; but I am informed by R. I. Holcombe they are
perversions of Terre Beau, old name of the prairie in Lafayette Co.
where the "Tebo" r. that flows into the Missouri rises. The Osage
tributary called Tebo, etc., falls in a mile below Grand r.; its E.
fork is meandered for some miles by the Sedalia, Warsaw and Southern
branch of the Mo. Pac. R. R., which then leaves the creek and strikes
the Osage 2½ m. below Warsaw. This is the county seat of Benton, on
the N. bank of the Osage, 2 m. below Little Tabeau cr. and three below
Grand r., opposite the very large island also called Warsaw. Grand r.
of the text and present maps is the largest branch of the Osage passed
since the Niangua was left. It falls in on the N., a mile below
Wright's isl. Some of its affluents head not far from Independence (on
the Mo. r.), and others in Kansas. Its largest branch is Big cr.;
others are Deep Water and Big Tabeau. Camp is in the bight of the bend
that receives Grand r., between Wright's and Holloway isls.
Pike has mapped the river unmistakably along here, rendering
identifications easy; but the text is not so correct, and requires the
interpretation I have given. The mileages of the 10th-12th seem
excessive. Here, as in various other places, he seems to have supplied
the loss of orig. notes from memory.
[I-35] In making the circuit Pike passed two rivers which he charts by
name as "Hallico R." and "Potatoe R.," both from the S., or on his
left as he ascends. Potatoe is clearly the same name as Pomme de
Terre, by which latter title is now mapped the large stream which
heads in Webster Co., cuts the N. E. corner of Green, perhaps also the
S. W. corner of Dallas, then traverses Polk and Hickory, and in Benton
falls into the bight of the bend of the Osage herein mentioned. The
natives call this river "Pumly Tar." Two miles above its mouth it
receives the Little Pomme de Terre, from the W., in the vicinity of
Fairfield. A much smaller stream, next above on the same hand, which
is received in the same bend of the Osage, is Hogle's cr. The relative
situations of these would make Pike's Hallico correspond to Pomme de
Terre, and his Potato to Hogle's. But I have no doubt he _meant_ by
Potato the river now called Pomme de Terre, and we need not insist
upon the reversal of names, especially as there may be some small
stream below to answer to Hallico, and it would be nothing for Pike to
pass over so small a creek as Hogle's, both in the text and on the
map.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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