[II-21] "Lieut. Pikes, Block House or Post, for the Winter 1805-1806" is legended on the pub. map, and marked by a zigzag line snug up under his Pine cr. (now Swan r.). The orig. MS. map, now on file in the Engineer Office of the War Dept., is large enough to show the exact spot, on which is delineated a stockade 36 feet square, with a blockhouse on the N. W. and another on the S. E. corner of the structure. Notwithstanding such precise indicia, the site has been vaguely stated by various authors, and even shifted down to Two Rivers by so careful and usually correct a writer as my friend the Hon. J. V. Brower, who is clearly in error in stating that "the south branch of Two Rivers was named Pine creek, and the other Second creek," Minn. Hist. Coll., VII., Mississippi R. and its Source, 8vo., Minneapolis, 1893, p. 126. This is simply an obiter dictum, by inadvertence. I had satisfied myself of the true site within a few rods, when I first learned from Prof. N. H. Winchell, State Geologist of Minnesota, that traces of the building had been discovered by Judge Nathan Richardson, Mayor of Little Falls, Minn. On writing to this gentleman, I received a prompt reply, as follows:

Little Falls, Minn., Feb. 24th, 1894.

Elliott Coues, Esq., Washington, D. C.

My Dear Sir: Yours of the 21st inst. is received making inquiry about my discovering the location of a fort built by Zebulon M. Pike in the fall of 1805. The location is on the West bank of the Mississippi River on Government Subdivision described as Lot No. 1, Sec. No. 7, in Township No. 128 North, of Range No. 29 West, of the 5th Principal Meridian, near the S. E. corner of said Lot No. 1, and near 80 rods south from the mouth of Swan river and four miles south of this city. I settled at this place in 1855. I wrote a history of this county in 1876. Then in 1880 I revised it. Before writing the revision in 1880 I looked over the books in our State Historical Society, where I found an account of Pike's Expedition up into this region of country that year. His description of the location was so plain and explicit that I had no trouble in finding it. At that time there were no logs or timber left. The place was plainly marked by a pile of stone, about the size of an ordinary haycock, of which the chimney or fire-place was built. The fort was built of logs. The bottom layer was imbedded about one-half their size into the ground when built. The groove in the earth showed very plain when I first visited the place. As near as I could judge the building was 40 feet square. Built just on the brink of a slight elevation, as described by Mr. Pike in his narrative. Afterward in speaking about the location of Pike's Fort to an old settler, Samuel Lee, now residing at Long Prairie in this State, he told me that he had been at the place many years before, and when he was first at the place the bottom tier of logs were still there. I visited the spot two years ago for the purpose of getting one of the stones that were used to build the fire-place, and took one that will weigh about 75 pounds, which I am keeping as a relic. The pile of stone is getting scattered about; the ground has never been cleared and broken up, but is used as a pasture. Unless something durable is put up soon to mark the location all trace of it will be obliterated. This country commenced to settle with farmers in 1850, and has become quite well settled up. I will say before closing that the rapids at the foot of which he built the fort bear the name of Pike rapids, so named in honor of him. I will send you a copy of our extra paper [Daily Transcript, of Little Falls], issued the 1st of January. If I have omitted anything that you may wish to know write me again.

Yours very respectfully,
[Signed] N. Richardson.

Judge Richardson is entitled to the credit of recovering and making known the spot in modern times. The Hist. Up. Miss. Vall., pub. Minneap. 1881, treating Morrison Co. in Chap. cxxxviii, has on p. 586 a short notice of the location, presumably upon Judge Richardson's data, as the publishers' preface makes general acknowledgments of indebtedness to him. In Oct., 1886, the place was visited by Mr. T. H. Lewis, at the instance of Mr. A. J. Hill of St. Paul, and through the friendly attentions of the latter I am put in possession of extracts and tracings from Mr. Lewis' notebook, made on the spot at the date said, when he found the extant remains. Mr. Lewis identified the site upon his own observations, not being at the time informed of the earlier discovery. So interesting a spot should be permanently marked before all traces of it are obliterated, and I hope Judge Richardson will interest himself to see that this is done. It need not be an expensive or elaborate monument; probably the stones of the old chimney and fire-place, now scattered about, would answer the purpose if they were solidly piled up.

Postscript.—Little Falls, Minn., Sept. 8th, 1894.—I have this day visited the spot in person, accompanied by Judge Richardson and Mrs. Coues. We have piled up the rocks in a conspicuous heap. I do not recognize any trace of the original woodwork, or of the ground-plan of the structure, except the place of the chimney; but the site is unquestionable. To reach it, you go down the main road from Little Falls, about 4 m. along the W. side of the Miss. r., crossing Pike cr. and next Swan r.; a few rods beyond the latter, turn to the left into Simon Kurtzman's cornfield, through bars, and keep on due E. to the river. You will see the cairn we have made in the following position: Sect. 7, T. 128, R. 29, 5th M., in S. E. corner of Lot No. 1, 80 rods E. of Simon Kurtzman's house, about 80 rods S. S. E. of the mouth of Swan r., near the E. border of the cornfield, 30 paces back from the brink of the Mississippi, 50 yards S. by E. of a lone pine tree 50 feet high, on a flat piece of high ground in a copse of scattered scrub oaks, overgrown with brush and weeds. Letter on the subject over my signature in Little Falls Daily Transcript, Sept. 10, 1894, urging the erection of a monument.

[II-22] Or windshake—not that the canoe foundered in the wind, but that there was a flaw in the wood of which it was built, such unsoundness of timber being called a windshock or windshake.

[II-23] For Dickson's trading-house of 1805-6 see [note beyond], date of Apr. 7th. Dickson's name frequently recurs in Pike, but I think never once in full. Robert Dickson was an Englishman who began to trade with the Sioux as early as 1790, and acquired great renown in the early history of the country. The following occurs in Minn. Hist. Coll., I. 2d ed. 1872, p. 390: "Five years after Pike's visit he espoused the British cause, and took a prominent part in encouraging the western tribes in hostility against the Americans. Yet he is said to have been very humane to American prisoners, rescuing many from the Indians, and restraining the latter from barbarities and cold-blooded massacres. After the war Dickson, some accounts say, did not resume trade with the Sioux; but he did at least live at Lake Travers as late as 1817, and was charged with alienating the Sioux from the United States, in complicity with Lord Selkirk, who was there establishing his colony on Red river. He was soon after arrested near what is now St. Paul, and taken to St. Louis. He was probably soon released, however, and found his way back to Queenstown in Canada, where he died. Dickson had a Sioux wife and four half-breed children. One of his grandchildren was wife of Joseph Laframboise, a well-known trader at Lac Qui Parle." To this may be added that one of Col. Robert Dickson's half-breed sons was William Dickson, whose name appears here and there in Minnesota annals.

[II-24] There is no such French word as "killeur," which Pike elsewhere renders "killieu," and which appears in the text of 1807 as "killien" and "killein." On consulting the F. text, I. p. 95, I find that the editor says, "Plutôt tueur rouge, car le mot killeur n'est pas françois; c'est sans doute un barbarisme échappé à M. Pike." The son of this chief Pike calls "Fils de Killeur Rouge": see [Mar. 5th and 8th], 1806, beyond. There is a Canadian French word pilleur, pillager, and the Leech Lake Chippewas were known as Pilleurs or Pillagers; but this Killeur was a Sioux chief of the Gens des Feuilles or Leaf Indians, now called Wahpetonwans: see L. and C., ed. 1893, p. 100. Pike translates Killeur by "Eagle"; and this clew to the meaning of the word is carried on by Beltrami, II. p. 207, who has a chief called "Ki-han or Red Quilliou"; ibid., p. 224, he speaks of "a bird which the Canadians call killiou, and the Indians Wamendi-hi"; ibid., p. 307, he says "a plume of killow," making an English word of it. Forsyth has "the killiew (thus named from a species of eagle)," in Minn. Hist. Col., III. 1874, p. 154. So killeur, etc., is simply a French way of spelling a certain Indian name of the eagle, whose feathers are used for ornament. I once noted this word in the form khoya. Riggs' Dak. Dict., 1852, has "Ḣu-yá, n., the common eagle" (the dotted h a deep surd guttural).