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The Lepidopterists' News
Volume 9 1955 Number 6
ITINERARIES OF THE WHEELER SURVEY NATURALISTS 1871—THEODORE L. MEAD
by F. Martin Brown
The early naturalists who collected material in the western part of North America during the nineteenth century have long been a favorite subject for research with me. As our knowledge of the natural history of this vast area increases, it is becoming more and more imperative that we know just where they traveled and where the specimens that later became types were originally found. In 1936 I published a short account of the butterflies that WILLIAM H. Edwards described as new among those collected by Theodore L. Mead in Colorado. Since then I have dug deeper into Mead's stay in Colorado and now can supply a brief biography of him and a reasonably accurate account of his Colorado itinerary.
Theodore Mead was born to an old American family. His father's forebears arrived from England in 1642 and his mother's from France in 1685. Mead was born in Fishkill, New York, in the Catskill Mountain region, on February 23, 1852. As a lad he traveled widely with his parents. He showed an early interest in natural history, particularly butterflies, that led him to William H. Edwards, whose son-in-law he later became. In 1867 he entered the Sub-Freshman class at the College of the City of New York and later attended the College itself.
In 1868 he was elected to the American Entomological Society. The following summer he spent in West Virginia with Edwards. Apparently the boy's enthusiasm and ability attracted the great man to him, for in 1871 Edwards arranged that Mead accompany the Wheeler Expedition to Colorado as a paying member. Mr. Edwards shared Mead's expenses for this trip and also shared in the catch. From Colorado Mead continued westward in the fall and visited entomologists in California. He returned by steamer via Panama, where he collected butterflies, other insects, orchids, and "a live Iguana or two." The records of Cornell University show that he entered in 1871 and graduated in 1874. Mead, however, stated that he entered Cornell in 1874 and received a "first degree in Civil Engineering" in 1877 and "the full degree as Civil Engineer in 1890". It is probable that Mead refers to his graduate studies and the University records to his undergraduate work.
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In 1877 he sold his collection of butterflies to the Carnegie Museum at Pittsburgh. From that time on, his life was devoted more and more to botanical and horticultural work. Today part of his great orchid collection is housed at Mead Park in Winter Park, Florida. 1878 saw Mead again heading for California with permission of his parents to stop over one steamer in Panama to collect. On the same trip he spent a few days collecting in mid-April at Acapulco, Mexico. He arrived in San Francisco in early May, leaving there on the 7th for Los Angeles and the San Gabriel valley. On this Californian trip, Mead visited the Mojave Desert, Yosemite Valley, Big Trees, Mariposa, Summit Station (on Donner Pass), Lake Tahoe, and Freel's and Talloc Peaks, the last being where he collected the types of (Eneis ivallda Mead. Heading home, he further collected at Virginia City, Nevada, Cottonwood Canyon, Utah, Salt Lake City, and Green River, Wyoming.
In 1881 Mead, Henry Edwards, and A. R. Grote started the journal PAPILIO. The next year Mead married the daughter of William H. Edwards, and after a honeymoon in England he settled in Eustis, Florida, to try his hand at orange-growing. From this time on, Mead's interest in butterflies definitely waned and his love of things botanical steadily increased. He died in Winter Park, Florida, in 1936, shortly after publishing his autobiography (Mead, 1935).
With this brief sketch of Mead's life let me turn to the details of his stay in Colorado during the collecting season of 1871. In his autobiography Mead dismisses this important trip in four lines! Mead and his brother, S. H. Mead, Jr. (Mead, 1875, p. 786), a student at the School of Mines of Columbia University, arrived late in May at Denver, Colorado, a rendezvous for the Wheeler Expedition of 1871. At this time Denver was a small frontier city on the banks of the South Platte River some miles east of the mountains. Here rails ended. Travel to the west into and through the mountains was by foot, on horseback, and over a few stagecoach routes. Mead's objective was South Park. Two routes were open from Denver. One way was to use Mount Vernon Canyon to gain the summit of the plateau and then swing southward and westward over a toll road into South Park. The other was to go somewhat farther south on the plains and gain the plateau via Turkey Creek Canyon and follow the toll road to South Park. Mead followed the latter route. He left Denver [June 4?] and traveled to Morrison along an old road that now is followed in the main by Colorado highway 70. From Morrison his path took him southward to the mouth of Turkey Creek Canyon up which he went to the Junction House [June 5, 6]. This was a stage stop at the junction of the Turkey Creek and the toll road south from Bergen Park to the South Park area. Most of Mead's specimens from "Turkey Creek Junction" were collected between Junction House and Brownsville, about a mile south of the junction on the east side of the road. Southward from the Junction House the road winds through dry hilly pine forests on the high shoulders of the Front Range. At Bailey (Bailey's Ranch) it takes to the valley of the South Platte. Here Mead made later stays for collecting. From Bailey the present road goes westward along the south bank of the river. The old road traveled by Mead followed the north bank,
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TROUBLESOME HOJSULPHUR SPRINGS
itinerary of THEODORE L. MEAD in Colorado i87i
and traces of it can be seen on the slopes of the valley. He passed through the settlements of Fairville (across the river from Santa Maria), Grant, and Webster (then called Godfrey's). At Webster, in the mouth of Hall Valley, he started
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Once on the Grand River Mead started back toward Denver. His track took him through Hot Sulphur Springs [Aug. 14] to 12-mile on Camp Creek where that stream breaks into a dozen or so streamlets. From there he went to Fraser and then up the north face of Berthoud Pass [Aug. 16] to gain again the Atlantic slope. His path from Berthoud Pass to Idaho Springs [Aug. 19] is the present location of route U. S. 40. From Idaho Springs he returned to Denver, probably by the same route he had used going west.
By now the season in the mountains was drawing to a close. Mead again entered South Park via Turkey Creek, Bailey's Ranch [Aug. 26], and the toll road. This time, when he reached Fairplay, he turned his back upon the mountains and struck out across South Park by its long diagonal along the road that followed the west bank of the Middle Fork of the South Platte River to Hartsel. The present automobile road, Colorado 9, follows in the same direction but along the east side of the river. From Hartsel MEAD continued southward between Chalcedony and 39-mile Mountain along the Current Creek road to Canon City [Sept. 20]. This road follows in part the north rim of the Arkansas Gorge. The field party disbanded at Canon City at the close of September. Mead returned to Denver and entrained for the West Coast.
The preceding itinerary is based upon intimate knowledge of the country, contemporary maps produced by the Hayden surveys of 1872-74, and dates given in Mead's account of the species collected by the Wheeler Survey and in various accounts found in W. H. Edwards' Butterflies of North America. The skeleton of dates upon which the meat of this story is hung follows with the species and sources; page references are to Mead (1875) unless Edwards is specified:
June [1-3]—nr. Denver, lyceas, p. 785; ridingsii, p. 774.
June 5—Turkey Creek Junction, 7500 ft., zephyrus, p. 769.
June 6—Turkey Creek Junction, meadi p. 775; weidemeyeri, p. 110 (Note 1 below).
June 10—nr. Fairplay, icelus, p. 787.
June 12-14—Beaver Creek, julia, p. 748 (note 2).
June 12—Fairplay, 10,000 ft., oleracea, p. 744.
June 15—nr. South Park, antiacis, p. 784.
June 17—4 miles from South Park on South Park road, ninus, p. 778.
June 20—[Turkey Creek Junction], 7500 ft., iole, p. 747.
June 20-30—Turkey Creek Junction, calydon, p. 760.
June 23—Turkey Creek Junction, heteronea, p. 781; rutilius p. 787.
June 24—Turkey Creek Junction, 7500 ft., satyrus, p. 767; weidemeyeri, p. 770 (note
3). June 29—Kenosha House, triclaris, p. 757. July 6—Fairplay, eurynome, p. 755. July 8—[Mosquito Pass], meadii, p. 750; callias, p. 775; chryxus, p. 777 (also
Edwards, 1868-97, vol. I, Parnassius II-IV). July 9—Twin Lakes, charon, p. 773.
July [10-11] [La Plata Peak?], semidea, p. 776; centaurea, p. 787. July 12—Twin Lakes, sirius, p. 781. July 13—Upper Twin Lake, sirius, p. 781. July 14—Arkansas Valley, triclaris. p. 757. July [15-20]—probably Twin Lakes until 17th, arachne, p. 761; ascent of La Plata
or Elbert may have been made at this time instead of 10-11.
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the abrupt climb to Kenosha Pass. Kenosha House, where he stayed, was just east of the present road, about a mile and a half north of Kino (a ghost town now) near the summit of the Pass. From the Pass he had his first vista of South Park, rimmed with towering peaks. The present route U. S. 285 is located on this old road from Grant westward. From the Pass it touches the town of Jefferson, skirts a mile south of Como, and goes into Fairplay. This was the terminus of the toll road in the northwestern corner of South Park. In Fairplay [June 10 -14] Mead made his headquarters in the Berg House. The present Fairplay Hotel is a new (1926) structure on the same site. At Fairplay Mead collected in the valley of Beaver Creek [June 12 - 14], just east of the town, and up the South Platte River in the broad glacial meadows.
Mead found that he was too early for much collecting at Fairplay and retraced his steps to Junction House on Turkey Creek. He lingered at Kenosha House a day or so [June 15 - 17] and spent about a week at Turkey Creek Junction [June 20-27] before returning to Fairplay. I do not know preciesly when he arrived there the second time. He was at Kenosha House on June 29th, and the next firm date is July 6th at Fairplay. Mead now continued westward. He crossed [July 8] Mosquito Pass on the trail to California Gulch and the headwaters of the Arkansas River and followed the river down to Twin Lakes, where he collected extensively [July 9 - 17]. Mead collected on one of the high peaks that flank the present route to Independence Pass [July 10-11?]. From his scant descriptive notes I suspect that the rugged peak he climbed was La Plata Mountain. He retraced his steps and recrossed Mosquito Pass [July 21] to Alma or Fairplay and before returning to Denver climbed Mount Lincoln [July 22] via the Russia Mine road. It is interesting to note at this point that shortly after Mead worked in this area, J. A. Allen from Harvard collected in the same region. Neither collector mentions the other in his accounts, however, so neither may have been aware of the other.
On his second sally from Denver, Mead struck out in another direction and headed for Middle Park. His route followed Clear Creek from Golden into the mountains as far as Empire. His locality, Apex Gulch [Aug. 3], must not be confused with Apex in Gilpin County. The name is an old one for Chimney Gulch or one of its neighbors. Mead says (1875, p. 773) that it is just within the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains, and neither of the species he recorded from there, Satyrus nephele and Thecla scepium, are high mountain species such as would be found at Apex. He must have made the trip from Denver to Georgetown by stage, probably "nooning" at Apex Gulch, for he arrived at his destination the same day, August 3.
From Georgetown he crossed the Continental Divide by means of Argentine Pass, visiting and collecting on Gray's Peak [Aug. 5] en route. From the pass he followed the Little Snake River through the mining camps of Decatur, Chihuahua, and Haywood to Dillon. There he picked up the Blue River [Aug. 8 -9] and worked his way along it to near its junction with the Grand River (now called the Colorado). This stretch was a lonely one with no mining-camps and no ranches at which to stay. Just before reaching the junction of the two rivers, he cut northeast through the hills to Troublesome on the Grand.
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July 21—[Mosquito Pass], callias, p. 775.
July 22—Mt. Lincoln (Edwards, 1868-97, vol. I, Parnassius II-IV).
August [1-3]—Apex Gulch, nephele, p. 773.
August 3—nr. Apex Gulch, scepium, p. 779-
August 3—Georgetown road, melinus, p. 778.
August 3—Georgetown, berenice, p. 750.
August 5—Gray's Peak, 12,000 ft., chalcas, p. 782; also en route to Middle Park
(Edwards, 1868-97, vol. I, Parnassius II-IV). August 8-9—Blue River, Middle Park (Edwards, 1868-97, vol. I, Parnassius II-IV). August [6-13]—Middle Park, myrina, p. 756. August 14—Hot [Sulphur] Springs, bellona, p. 756. August 16—nr. Berthoud Pass, hylas, p. 768 (Edwards, 1868-97, vol. I, Parnassius
II-IV). August 19—Idaho Springs, manitoba, p. 789. August 20—nr. Denver, arachne, p. 761. August 26—Bailey's Ranch, meadi, p. 774.
August 28—20 miles from South Park on South Park Road, hylas, p. 768. August 30—South Park Road, manitoba, p. 789. September 10—South Park (Edwards, 1868-97, vol. II, Colias IV). September 20—nr. Canon City, halcyone, p. 754.
Note 1: EDWARDS in vol. II, Argynnis 1 erroneously states Fairplay for this date. Note 2: EDWARDS in vol. II, Anthocharis 3 erroneously gives the dates July 10-12 for
the julia collected at Beaver Creek, Fairplay. Note 3: EDWARDS in vol. II, Argynnis 2 erroneously gives the year as 1873.
References
Brown, F. Martin, 1934. The Localities of T. L. Mead's Collection of Butterflies from Colorado in 1871. Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc. vol. 42: pp. 155-162.
Edwards, William H., 1868-97. Butterflies of North America, 3 volumes.
Mead, Theodore L., 1875. Reports of the Wheeler Survey, vol. 5, Zoology: pp. 739-794, pis. xxxv-xxxix.
................, 1935. Theodore L. Mead—Naturalist, Entomologist, and Plants-man. An Autobiography. Yearbook, American Amaryllis Society vol. 2: pp. 11-22.
Fountain Valley School, Colorado Springs, Colo., U. S. A.
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE HESPERIID^ OF THE ST. LOUIS AREA
by P. S. Remington
Within a radius of 100 miles from St. Louis, Missouri, an area which the newspapers are fond of calling "The Forty-Ninth State", occur at least 41 species of Hesperiidse, and it is possible that more may be discovered in the future. As recently as 1954 a first-capture record was established for one species. Some of these species are principally northern Skippers, some primarily southern, so that one explanation which has been suggested for this large number of species is the fact that St. Louis is located on what the ornithologists