In 1806, Lieut. Zebulon Montgomery Pike, leading an expedition through Louisiana Territory, saw in the distance a mountain like "a small blue cloud" rising abruptly from the plains. Pike led three cheers for what he thought were the "Mexican Mountains," and set out a few days later toward the snow-covered summit. Poorly provisioned and clothed, his party was forced to turn back by a roaring blizzard. Pike predicted that the summit would never be reached by man. But 14 years later it was scaled (by someone else); in 1835 it was recorded on a map as Pikes Peak.
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