The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 39, July 1935 - April, 1936 Page: 136
346 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
cember 10, 1832."2 Marshall quoted Pike's daughter in this mat-
ter of the alleged return to the Spanish settlements in New Mex-
ico and perhaps his error may be overlooked.3 A reading of the
narrative convinces one who is familiar with Texas geography and
geology that Pike actually made the trip across Texas, and that
his knowledge of West Texas and eastern New Mexico was re-
markable for the time. His most serious errors are in stating
that the Canadian River and the Arkansas head in the same gen-
eral locality; and that the Pecos enters the Rio Grande near San
Antonio. However, he knew that the North Canadian rose near
the Rabbit Ears Mountains just north of Clayton, New Mexico,
and he had a fair idea as to the location of the head of the Red
River, a problem which was not settled until Marcy's explora-
tions of 1852. Of greatest interest is that to Pike belongs the
honor of naming the Salt Fork of the Brazos.
George Wilkins Kendall credits Pike with making the journey
and Kendall's map shows in a general way Pike's route.4
Pike left Picuris (in southern Taos County, New Mexico) on
September 6, 1832, and passed through Mora, Bernal and San
Miguel on his way to the Bosque Redondo on the Rio Pecos
(later the site of Fort Sumner, a few miles below the present
town of the same name in De Baca County, New Mexico).
On September 21, 1832, Pike started from Bosque Redondo
for the Llano Estacado and on September 28, after passing
through some sand hills, came to "a break in the prairie which
opened into a long hollow," the Cafion del Resgate. There are
several points that identify the Cafion del Resgate as that branch
of the Brazos known locally as Blackwater Draw, heading near
Muleshoe in Bailey County, and uniting with Yellow House
Creek at Lubbock. The general course and distance from Bosque
'Marshall, T. M., "Commercial Aspects of the Texan Santa F6 Expedi-
tion." THE QUARTERLY, XX, 244.
'See also Allsop, F. W., Albert Pike, A Biography, Little Rock, Arkan-
sas, 1928. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 are devoted to an account of Pike's jour-
ney from Massachusetts to St. Louis, Santa Fe, and Taos, down the Rio
Pecos to Bosque Redondo, across the Llano Estacado and Western Texas
into Oklahoma and to Fort Smith, Arkansas. The statement is made that
"Pike was so greatly discouraged that he decided to retrace his steps,
after concluding that he was not on the best road to fame and fortune"
(page 34).
'Kendall, G. W., Narrative of the Texan Santa Fe EJpedition, 2 vol-
umes, New York, 1844. Volume 1, pages 218, 219.136
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 39, July 1935 - April, 1936, periodical, 1936; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101095/m1/150/?rotate=270: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.