Pike's Stockade is a historic exploration campsite located near Sanford,

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. Set on the north bank of the Conejos River, it is where explorer

Zebulon Pike Zebulon Montgomery Pike (January 5, 1779 – April 27, 1813) was an American brigadier general and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado was named. As a U.S. Army officer he led two expeditions under authority of President Thomas Jefferson th ...

raised the American flag on Spanish soil in 1807. The site, now managed by Historic Colorado, includes a reconstruction of a wooden

stockade A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls, made of logs placed side by side vertically, with the tops sharpened as a defensive wall. Etymology ''Stockade'' is derived from the French word ''estocade''. The French word was derived ...

, built according to Pike's detailed description of the original. The site was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1961.Joseph Scott Mendinghall (December 1, 1975) , National Park Service and .

Description and history

Pike's Stockade is located about northeast of Sanford, at the end of County Road 24 on the northern bank of the Conejos River. Now a small park, the site is now less forested than it was at the time of Pike's expedition. The stockade is a wooden structure, roughly , with

bastion A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...

s at the two northern corners. The stockade is built out of oak, a longer-lasting material than the cottonwood Pike used in 1807. Like Pike's construction, the stockade has no normal doorways, and is entered through a tunnel that passes under one of the walls. In deference to public access, the tunnel is lined in concrete, and the stockade itself is built on a concrete foundation. Zebulon Pike led one of several exploratory expeditions commissioned by President

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

following the

Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or app ...

to understand what exactly had been acquired. His expedition left

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

in July 1806, and reached this point in January 1807. The fort was built primarily as a defense against attack from the Spanish, on whose territory Pike had (either knowingly or innocently) encroached. On February 26, a force of 100 Spanish cavalry arrived at the fort, and requested that he come to Santa Fe, the territorial capital, to discuss the matter. Pike and his men went with the Spanish force, and were eventually released in July 1807.

References

External links

Fort Garland Museum & Pike's Stockade
History Colorado
Pike's Stockade
National Historic Landmarks Program {{National Register of Historic Places Infrastructure completed in 1807 National Historic Landmarks in Colorado Buildings and structures in Conejos County, Colorado History Colorado Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado National Register of Historic Places in Conejos County, Colorado

Description and history

See also

References

External links