Santa Fe Trail

A trade route to the southwest United States extending about 1,287 km (800 mi) westward from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. First traversed in 1821, it was the primary wagon and stage route to the Southwest until the coming of the railroad in 1880.

A 780-mile (1255-km) wagon route from western Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico, that opened in 1821 and was frequently used, mainly for trade, until being superseded by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad in 1880.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

For more information on Santa Fe Trail, visit Britannica.com.

The Santa Fe Trail was an important commerce route between 1821 and 1880 that extended from Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The trail extended south from Santa Fe for an additional thousand miles through El Paso to the Mexican towns of Chihuahua and Durango, following the natural roads wagon masters found along the entire distance.

Prior to the opening of the trail, the city of Santa Fe was supplied with goods brought by mule at great expense from the Mexican seaport of Veracruz. Pierre and Paul Mallet of Canada crossed the Plains to Santa Fe in 1739, followed by more Frenchmen passing from the Missouri River or from Arkansas Post to the Rio Grande. The American army lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike arrived in 1807.

American attempts at Santa Fe trade met with summary action by Spanish authorities, who arrested twelve men from Saint Louis in 1812 and imprisoned them for nine years, and arrested Auguste Pierre Chouteau's Saint Louis fur brigade in 1815 for trapping on the Upper Arkansas. After Mexico overthrew Spanish rule, news spread that traders were welcome in Santa Fe. First to arrive was William Becknell of Missouri, who reached Santa Fe on 16 November 1821, and sold his Indian trade goods at from ten to twenty times higher than Saint Louis prices. Becknell started from the steamboat landing of Franklin, Missouri, followed the prairie divide between the tributaries of the Kansas and Arkansas rivers to the Great Bend of the Arkansas, and then followed the Arkansas almost to the mountains before turning south to New Mexico. His route became known as the Santa Fe Trail. The Missouri River terminus later became Westport, now Kansas City. At the western end the trail turned south to Santa Fe from the Arkansas by different routes touching the Colorado–New Mexico border and another near Kansas.

Merchants traveled in caravans, moving wagons in parallel columns so that they might be quickly formed into a circular corral, with livestock inside, in the event of an Indian attack. Josiah Gregg reported that up to 1843 Indians killed but eleven men on the trail. Losses were greatest from 1864 to 1869, the bloodiest year being 1868, when seventeen stagecoach passengers were captured and burned at Cimarron Crossing.

Santa Fe trade brought to the United States much-needed silver, gave America the Missouri mule, and paved the way for American claims to New Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Estimates of the heavy volume of westward-bound traffic on the trail vary. Gregg reported in Commerce of the Prairies that 350 persons transported $450,000 worth of goods at Saint Louis prices in 1843. Lt. Col. William Gilpin's register shows 3,000 wagons, 12,000 persons, and 50,000 animals between 1849–1859, a large part of the number bound for California. The register at Council Grove, Kansas, in 1860 showed 3,514 persons, 61 carriages and stagecoaches, 5,819 mules, and 22,738 oxen. Federal mail service by stagecoach was instituted in 1849. Completion of the last section of the

Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad in 1880 ended the importance of the wagon road.

Bibliography

Boyle, Susan Calafate. Los Capitalistas: Hispano Merchants and the Santa Fe Trade. Albaquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997.

Chalafant, William Y. Dangerous Passage: The Santa Fe Trail and the Mexican War. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994.

Dary, David. The Santa Fe Trail: Its History, Legends, and Lore. New York: Knopf, 2000.

Gregg, Josiah. Commerce of the Prairies. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1962.

Simmons, Marc. The Old Trail to Santa Fe: Collected Essays. Albequerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996.

Trail extending from Independence, Missouri, southwest to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

• Important route used by settlers moving west.

This article is about the historic transportation route. For the 1940 film, see Santa Fe Trail (film). For the auto trails, see Old Santa Fe Trail (auto trail) and New Santa Fe Trail.

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The Santa Fe Trail was an historic 19th century transportation route across southwestern North America connecting Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. First used in 1821 by William C. Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880. At first an international trade route between the United States and Mexico, it served as the 1846 U.S. invasion route of New Mexico during the Mexican-American War. After the U.S. acquisition of the Southwest, the trail helped open the region to U.S. economic development and settlement, playing a vital role in the expansion of the U.S. into the lands it had acquired. The road route is commemorated today by the National Park Service as the Santa Fe National Historic Trail. A highway route that roughly follows the trail's path through Colorado and northern New Mexico has been designated the Santa Fe Trail National Scenic Byway.

Route

Map of the Santa Fe Trail (in red) in 1845

Santa Fe Trail ruts at Fort Union

The eastern end of the trail was in the central Missouri town of Franklin on the north bank of the Missouri River. The route across Missouri first used by Becknell followed portions of the existing Osage Trace. West of Franklin the trail crossed the Missouri near Arrow Rock, after which it followed roughly the route of present-day U.S. Route 24. It passed north of Marshall, through Lexington to Fort Osage, then to Independence. Independence was also one of the historic "jumping off points" for the Oregon and California Trails.

West of Independence, in the State of Missouri, it roughly followed the route of U.S. Route 56 to the town of Olathe. The section of the trail between Independence and Olathe was also used by emigrants on the California and Oregon Trails, which branched off to the northwest near Gardner, Kansas.

From Olathe, the trail passed through the towns of Baldwin City, Burlingame, and Council Grove, then swung west of McPherson to the town of Lyons. West of Lyons the trail followed nearly the route of present-day Highway 56 to Great Bend, where it encountered the Arkansas River. Branches of the trail followed both sides of the river upstream to Dodge City and Garden City.

West of Garden City in southwestern Kansas the trail has a complex network of branches. One of the branches continued to follow the Arkansas upstream in southeastern Colorado to the town of La Junta. At La Junta, the trail continued south into New Mexico to Fort Union at Watrous. A dramatization of life on the route was made into a motion picture in 1940, starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Raymond Massey, and Ronald Reagan.

Cimarron Cutoff

The other main branch cut southwest to the valley of the Cimarron River near the town of Ulysses and Elkhart then continued toward Boise City, Oklahoma, to Clayton, New Mexico, joining up with northern branch at Fort Union. From Watrous, the reunited branches continued southward to Santa Fe.

Part of this route has been designated a National Scenic Byway.

Historic preservation

Segments of this trail in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.^[1] The longest clearly identifiable section of the trail near Dodge City, Kansas is listed as a National Historic Landmark.^[2]

See also

• MO: Jackson County Historic Places
• KS: Johnson County Historic Places
• OK: Cimarron County Historic Places
• NM: Colfax County Historic Places
• Oregon-California Trails Association
• Pawnee Rock
• Related National Park Units
  • Fort Larned National Historic Site
  • Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site
  • Fort Union National Monument

References

1. ^ National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Nomination Form: Historic Resources of the Santa Fe Trail, 1821-1880. Retrieved on 2007-04-10.
2. ^ National Historic Landmarks Program (NHL): Santa Fe Trail Remains. Retrieved on 2007-04-10.

External links

• [1] Santa Fe Trail Center
• National Park Service: Santa Fe Trail
  • Trails West Maps: Route choices
• Santa Fe Trail Research Site
• Santa Fe Trail Research Site Aerial Photo Tour of the Santa Fe Trail
• New Mexico Santa Fe Trail National Scenic Byway
  • Flying the Santa Fe Trail
• Pioneer Trails from US Land Surveys
• TerraServer Aerial photograph at Points of Rocks Mesa New Mexico

U.S. National Trails System
National Scenic Trails	Appalachian Trail • Pacific Crest Trail • Continental Divide Trail • North Country Trail • Ice Age Trail • Florida Trail • Potomac Heritage Trail • Natchez Trace Trail
National Historic Trails	Oregon Trail • Mormon Trail • Lewis and Clark Trail • Iditarod Trail • Overmountain Victory Trail • Nez Perce Trail • Santa Fe Trail • Trail of Tears • Juan Bautista de Anza Trail • California Trail • Pony Express Trail • Selma to Montgomery Trail • El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro Trail • Ala Kahakai Trail • Old Spanish Trail • El Camino Real de los Tejas Trail • Captain John Smith Chesapeake Trail
National Recreation Trails	National Recreation Trails Database • United States Forest Service • National Park Service • Bureau of Land Management • Department of Agriculture

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