I suppose my fascination with America has everything to do with its creation of a vast and powerful civilization upon a virgin land.
It involves putting myself into the shoes of those who felt excitement for making the agriculture, commerce and industry of this new Republic reality.
Thomas Jefferson certainly felt this exact type of excitement - even exhilaration - after purchasing Louisiana. No doubt he wondered what's out there. No doubt he asked at least some of the following questions…
How big is Louisiana really?
How far off to the West are the headwaters of the Red, Arkansas and Missouri? How far upstream are their waters navigable for commerce?
How high are those Rocky Mountains that birth these rivers? Where are all the passes through those mountains to their western sides? What is the mining and mineral potential of them?
What about the planes east of the Rockies? How suitable for agriculture are the Great Planes? What kind of agriculture? Where does the rain run out? Where does agriculture become impossible? What can you do with the dry lands? Ranching? Anything?
How crisscrossed are the Planes by tributaries of the Missouri, Arkansas and Red? Could those tributary streams make suitable some level of irrigation-based agriculture? Are those tributaries suitable for commerce and transportation?
What Indian tribes are there? How many tribes are there? How numerous is each tribe? Are they hostile or friendly? Can you negotiate with them to temper their hostility?
What can we learn from them? Their language group? History? Culture? Enemies? Basic means of sustenance? Knowledge of mountains? Passes? Rivers? Agriculture? Animals?
What animals are out there? Certainly there are known animals like buffalo, bear, moose, elk, deer, cougar, wolf and a thousand other critters. In what quantities? And what unknown animals are there? How many new species will be catalogued? How extraordinary could those species be?
What about the species of flora? What trees, bushes, grasses, flowers, succulents, etc, are out there? What new flora will be catalogued? Could a newly discovered plant be cultivated to profitable degrees, like New World corn, potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate and tobacco were? Could there be utterly extraordinary species? (Like sequoias?)
What natural wonders are out there? Are there vistas to be had which could become marvels of the world? Are there Yosemites, Grand Canyons, Yellowstones and Zions?
Certainly more practical questions were asked about the New Land. Certainly the excitement to discover the answers set hearts and minds on fire. The future was wide open, and no one knew where it was taking them.
That is why I love American History. It is the story of big dreams and their manifestation into reality.
And it all happened so quickly.
Anyways, Pike's Peak made me think of this because Jefferson was hoping to get some of these questions answered through Pike's explorations.