Zebulon Pike

Zebulon Pike (1779-1813), American explorer and army officer, born in Trenton, New Jersey. He entered the army in about 1793 and became a second lieutenant in 1799. In 1805 he led an expedition to discover the source of the Mississippi River. The following year he set out on another expedition through the newly acquired Louisiana Territory (the whole western drainage basin of the Mississippi), and in his travels he traversed Spanish territory. Historians are undecided as to whether Pike strayed or intended to spy. He was captured but released by the Spanish. Pikes Peak in Colorado, which was sighted by him on this expedition, bears his name. During the War of 1812, as a brigadier general, Pike directed the assault on the town of York (now Toronto), Canada, and during the fighting he was killed by the explosion of a powder magazine.