The National Park Service has begun a feasibility study to consider the creation of a national historic trail along the route of Zebulon Pike’s 1806-1807 expedition that took the explorer as far north as the Pawnee village located southwest of the present community of Guide Rock. Scholars now believe it was at that village and not the one near Republic where the Spanish flag was lowered and the Stars and Stripes raised.
Public comment about the proposal will be received through June 30.
The Pike expedition was among the first explorations ordered by the United States government into the southern portions of the Louisiana Purchase. The expedition traveled approximately 2,700 miles in the present-day states of Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico and Texas with an additional 1,000 miles of trail in northern Mexico.
In 2019, Congress directed the National Park Service to conduct a feasibility study for designating the Pike Trail as a national historic trail. If the trail is designated, sponsors said land ownership and private property rights will not be affected. Non-federal landowners would be under no obligation to participate or to allow the public on their lands.
The stated purpose of the study is to evaluate the national historical significance of the route.
National historic trails are designated by Congress to recognize past routes of travel that are significant to the history of the United States. Another such trail in Nebraska is the Lewis and Clark Trail.
Unlike the Rails to Trails Program in Nebraska, a national historic trail is not a hiking trail open to public use. Rather discrete locations on public lands and participating private property along the alignment are open to visitation. Designation of a national historic trail does not establish a public right-of-way or change land ownership and authority over private property. Visit nps.gov/subjects/national trail system to learn more.
The trail is thought to have passed close to the community of Jewell and west of Mankato.
On Sept. 16, Pike is thought to have been south of Salina. By Sept. 25 he had reached the Indian village at Guide Rock. He stayed there through Oct. 6 and then headed south. He was northwest of Glen Elder on Oct. 9. He stayed in the Great Bend area from Oct. 16 to 27.
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