Enemies and Friends: Zebulon Montgomery Pike and Facundo Melgares in the Competition for the Great Plains, 1806-1807

Article explores two historic explorations that happened around the same time. Zebulon Pike's expedition went across the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains in 1806-07 and Facundo Melgares and his Spanish troops went from New Mexico to the Great Plains just prior to the Pike expedition. Pike's journal gives the only record of Melgares and his journey. Eventually Pike and Melgares had the opportunity to become friends. "The Pike expedition of 1806-1807, the Melgares expedition that preceded it, and Pike's published reports of both helped point the way to the Santa Fe Trade. Eventually the many actions set in motion by the two expeditions and Pike's published accounts resulted in the annexation of Texas in 1845 and the war with Mexico in 1846-1848."