Citizen Explorer: The Life of Zebulon Pike

Come join Colorado State Historian and Author Jared Orsi as we trace the route of Zebulon Pike across the Centennial State. Captain Pike’s expedition spent the winter of 1806-1807 lost in the Rocky Mountains. They had bad directions and uncertain intentions, and were unprepared for what they found. Dr. Orsi will cover both their bodily suffering and their larger context as young men of the first generation after the American Revolution.

This FREE public lecture is hosted by the Pueblo Archaeological and Historical Society and the Pueblo City/County Library District in honor of Colorado Archaeology and Historic Preservation Month.

In addition to being Colorado's State Historian, Dr. Orsi is also a professor at Colorado State University Fort Collins where he teaches Colorado history and directs the Public and Environmental History Center.

He is the author of the prize-winning Hazardous Metropolis: Flooding and Urban Ecology in Los Angeles and Citizen Explorer: The Life of Zebulon Pike, as well as numerous articles and book chapters. In 2008-2009 he was the Ray Allen Billington Distinguished Visiting Professor at Occidental College and the Huntington Library and is the principal investigator for a three-year grant from the Henry Luce Foundation entitled “Telling Untold Stories of Public Lands.” His next book, Peoples of a Sonoran Desert Oasis: Recovering the Lost History and Culture of Quitobaquito, explores the deeply peopled history of Quitobaquito Springs at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and will appear in fall 2023.