Introduction

Picture this: a team of men climbing a mountain, waist deep in snow. At the front is a short man, with a ruddy complexion, blue eyes and light hair and his head tilted to the side. when you envision pioneers and explorers, you usually don't come up with a man looking like this. However, this Explorer led two expeditions into the wild Louisiana territory, each for months at a time. This explorer is Zebulon Pike. The first was north, to find the headwaters of the Mississippi river. The second, bigger expedition, went deep into the southern Louisiana territory and northern Mexico. Both of these expeditions were to explore the huge expanses of land that we had purchased from France. Pike's expeditions yielded  maps and categorization of flora and fauna of this wild area that would prove essential to Americans settling the new land. However, probably his biggest contribution to the growth of the United States was that he sparked an interest in Mexican land. this interest would lead to a war and a giant expansion of the union. without Zebulon Pike, our country would not be what it is today.