Citizen explorer

Born in 1779, Zebulon Pike joined the army and served in frontier posts before embarking on a series of expeditions that rivaled those by Lewis and Clark. He sought the headwaters of the Mississippi, the sources of the Arkansas and Red Rivers, which led him to Pike's Peak and capture by Spanish forces. Surveying and gathering data Pike sought to incorporate distant territories into the republic, to overlay the west with the American map; yet he became increasingly dependent on people who had no attachment to the nation he served.