Pike’s International Adventure

During the two years that Pike’s expedition was in the field, its members traveled through what would become the modern states of Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.

Moreover, the expedition’s entry into Spanish territory also earned them an involuntary tour through today’s modern Mexican states of Chihuahua and Coahuila, making his reconnaissance of the Louisiana Purchase an international junket as well.

This Pike-by-State section contains essays that address Pike’s travels within the boundaries of today’s modern states. When Pike left St. Louis in 1806, none of these political entities existed as U.S. states; however, once in Spanish territory, the expedition traveled through formal geopolitical provinces lumped under the general rubric of New Spain: Nuevo Mexico (modern New Mexico), Nueva Vizcaya (Pike’s state of “Biscay” and today’s Chihuahua), Coahuila, and Tejas.

We have simplified all of the nuances of nineteenth-century geopolitics on the navigation bar above by placing Pike’s journey in the context of modern U.S. states. Pike’s segments in modern Mexico are treated along with the material on the U.S. state of New Mexico.

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