Albert Pike

Portrait of Albert Pike.

Albert Pike (1809-1891) was a colorful Arkansas politician, poet, and Confederate military general.

Pike's military career was littered with disputes with authority. He was the leader of a Satanist movement called the Order of the Palladium.

Pike is memorialized in the District of Columbia by a monument to his involvement in founding the modern Scottish Masons in the country. Pike rose to the rank of Sovereign Grand Commander in this organization.

Pike also wrote handbooks for Arkansas lawyers.

Pike was a prominent member of the Ku Klux Klan.

The Albert Pike Campground in southeastern Arkansas is named after him.

References

• Paulette Walker and Alan Paulson, Historic Pulaski County: Arkansas (Arcadia Publishing, 1999), 16.