USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Zebulon Pike, the U.S. Army officer who in 1805 led an exploring party in search of the source of the Mississippi River, sets off with a new expedition to explore the American Southwest. Pike was instructed to seek out headwaters of the Arkansas and Red rivers and to investigate Spanish settlements in New Mexico.

Detailed explanation-2: -In 1805 Wilkinson commissioned Zebulon Pike to lead a small military expedition to find the headwaters of the Mississippi River and to acquire sites for U.S. military outposts. Many of the objectives of this expedition were fulfilled.

Detailed explanation-3: -It was the first official American effort to explore the western Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains in present-day Colorado. Pike contacted several Native American tribes during his travels and informed them that the U.S. now claimed their territory.

Detailed explanation-4: -In 1806–7, Captain Zebulon Montgomery Pike (1779-1813) led a US Army expedition to the southwestern part of the Louisiana Purchase. The area now known as Colorado was a part of the Louisiana Purchase.