Early Flint Hills visitors

Happy Zebulon Pike Month!

What? You mean you didn’t know September is Zebulon Pike Month?

Zebulon Pike

Well, that’s because it isn’t, at least not in an official, nationally-sanctioned-by-the-government sort of way. This special designation happens only here at Flint Hills, Tall Grass. We recognize the importance of the early explorers and government agents who left a record of their journeys through the Kansas Flint Hills. We also honor Zeb Pike above the rest since he was the first to use the phrase “flint hills” when referring to the region — although he didn’t mean it like a title, but more like a description. We also chose September as Zeb Pike month because that’s the month Zeb and his party passed through what’s now Chase County, exactly 202 years ago. And this is the only Web site where you will find Zeb Pike Month, but that’s the kind of exclusive service we offer our loyal readers, so enjoy!

Good ole Zeb wasn’t the only explorer, of course, to set foot on the Flint Hills in the first half of the 19th century but he is the most prominent. Pike’s was an ill-fated mission, however. He set out to make contact with the Pawnees and broker a peace between them and the Osage tribe. Then he was to ascend the Arkansas River, explore its headwaters, and find and descend the Red River to the Mississippi. The mission was surrounded by controversy — was he supposed to be a spy against the Spanish or not — and he got lost in the Rocky Mountains when he couldn’t find the source of the Red River. Finally, he was captured by the Spanish and taken to Santa Fe. You can read about his mission at the Zebulon Pike Bicentennial Page.

Pike in Southeast Kansas, from the Zebulon Pike Bicentennial Page

Here at Flint Hills, Tall Grass, as part of our celebration of Zeb Pike Month, we will in later posts focus on Pike’s journal entries describing his brief time in the Flint Hills. In 1806, Pike passed through the central part of the Flint Hills after leaving the Neosho River valley, crossing the headwaters of the Verdigris River and then entering the Cottonwood River watershed. So come back later in the month when we will share the details of Pike’s visit.

Zeb was followed by others who offered their own observations and impressions of the Flint Hills. In 1811 George Sibley, who was head of the Indian trading post at Fort Osage on the Missouri River, took a trip to visit the salines, which were large salt fields in northern Oklahoma. First, however, Sibley traveled from a camp of the Osage tribe in Missouri west to the Blue Earth Village of the Konza tribe, which was located at the mouth of the Big Blue River, near present-day Manhattan.

Sibley doesn’t describe details of the route, but he does say, “our way led through a wild but extremely beautiful, high prairie country, pretty well watered, and variegated with strips of woodland, ranges of quite lofty, rugged, naked hills overlooking very extensive tracts of level low ground prairie. Deer and Elk were found in plenty, and I frequently noticed Antelopes skipping over the verdant hills and vallies (sic) with almost bird-like speed.”

From the Konza village, Sibley traveled northwest to the same Pawnee village visited five years earlier by Pike. After arranging an uncertain peace between the Konza and Pawnee tribes, Sibley traveled south to the salines in Oklahoma, but we will leave the details of his trip for later posts.

In 1819, Thomas Say led a party through the Flint Hills from upper Mill Creek to the Kansas River and the Blue Earth Village. You can read about that trip in an earlier post, but in honor of Zeb Pike Month, we’ll revisit his trip and description of the Flint Hills.

In 1828 and 1830, Isaac McCoy, a baptist missionary from Michigan, made three separate trips into the Flint Hills, mainly in the area of the Kansas River, but occaisionally along the Santa Fe Trail. He traveled with groups of native Americans from eastern tribes — the Potawatomie, for example — scouting out possible locations for resettling these tribes west of the Mississippi. Lacking the scientific eye of Zeb Pike or Thomas Say, or the knowledge of the local culture that Sibley possessed, McCoy offers a unique perspective on the region. Perhaps a bit naive regarding the government’s true motives for resettling the tribal peoples — McCoy sincerely thought he was doing a good thing — he offers an honest look at the tallgrass prairie lands and offers some unique comparisons with the black-soil tallgrass prairies of Illinois.

In 1842 and 1843, the noted western explorer John Fremont made two separate trips through the area. The first time, he followed the Oregon trail up through the northern hills, and then explored the Platte River in Nebraska. The second trip, however, took Fremont up the Kansas River. By the time he passed through the area, the Blue Earth Village was only a memory.

There are probably more explorers that left a record of Flint Hills visits during this time, but for now the journals and reports of these expeditions are the ones I’ve been reading. In celebration of Zeb Pike Month, I’ll post now and again about some of their descriptions. The value of the Flint Hills is how little they have changed since these explorers passed through. Zeb wouldn’t recognize the land around Pike’s Peak these days and he would be amazed that every day, families drive to the summit of his mountain in their minivans, reaching an altitude with ease that Zeb failed to attain.

Put Zeb and his expedition back in the Flint Hills, however, and at least he would recognized the landscape. Zeb would look in vain for elk, antelope and bison in the hills, but his feet would still get tired walking over the flinty rocks he once encountered, and he would once again encounter the tallgrass prairie.