Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a significant trade route established in the 1820s, primarily used by American traders seeking to reach Santa Fe, New Mexico. Initially restricted under Spanish rule, the trail opened up under the Mexican government, facilitating trade between American settlers in the north and Santa Fe. Starting from outfitting points in Missouri, specifically Franklin and Independence, traders would gather each spring to embark on the journey, which typically took forty to sixty days. The trail branched into two main routes: the mountain division, which involved more difficult terrain but access to water, and the Cimarron division, noted for being more direct yet perilous due to water scarcity.
Despite being a vital commercial artery, the Santa Fe Trail was not a primary route for settlers moving westward, unlike the more famous Oregon Trail. Its operation faced challenges, including the threat of hostile encounters with Native American tribes and the eventual closure of Santa Fe to American traders by Mexican leader Antonio López de Santa Anna in 1844. This closure marked the decline of the trail's significance, although its historical impact remained, showcasing the resilience and organization of traders navigating a harsh landscape. The Santa Fe Trail's legacy continues to be recognized in American history, reflecting the complexities of trade, exploration, and cultural interactions during the 19th century.
On this Page
Santa Fe Trail
Tribes affected: Apache, Comanche, Osage, Pawnee
Significance: The Santa Fe Trail was a westward route of commerce and migration for traders and settlers, stretching from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe in the present state of New Mexico
Although Spain had restricted trade between Santa Fe and American settlers to the north, in the 1820’s the Mexican government opened the Santa Fe Trail. Beginning in 1822 and continuing for more than two decades, an annual armed caravan of American traders gathered each spring, first in Franklin, then in Independence, Missouri. The group finally started from Council Grove, Kansas, and proceeded south and west to Santa Fe on what was usually a forty-day to sixty-day trip. Council Grove was simply a strip of woodland on the Neosho River (a tributary of the Arkansas River) where representatives of the U.S. government met with the Osage tribe. About 150 miles west of Independence, Council Grove in the 1830’s superseded the former town as a preferred outfitting and “jumping off” point for traders headed to Santa Fe. Unlike the Oregon Trail to the north, the Santa Fe Trail was initially, and remained primarily, a route for traders rather than for migrating settlers.
Leaving Council Grove, the Santa Fe Trail tracked west to Pawnee Rock (also called Painted Rock or Rock Point) at the Great Bend of the Arkansas River. The trail then followed the left or southern bank of the Arkansas past Dodge City, where the trail split: the mountain division took a northerly route through Bent’s Fort (actually not a fort but simply a trading post with some settlement), then went south over steep Raton Pass, between Trinidad, Colorado, and Raton, New Mexico. It then went south and west to Santa Fe. The Cimarron division or cutoff was more direct, with no steep grades, but it had very little fresh water for people and animals. The Cimarron cutoff route sliced diagonally through the southwest corner of Kansas, crossed what is now the Cimarron Strip of Oklahoma (Oklahoma was called Indian Territory from 1830 to 1906), and went southwest to Santa Fe. The Cimarron cutoff route followed the Cimarron River for part of its length, but there was also a stretch of 70 miles without drinkable water and with poor grass even in summer. Therefore, each alternative route possessed limitations as well as advantages. The physical toil of traveling on either route, combined with the danger of encountering Apache, or to a lesser extent, Osage or Comanche, warriors, drove up freight prices on the route to ten cents per pound by the early 1840’s.
In 1844, Mexican leader Antonio López de Santa Anna closed Santa Fe to American traders. Santa Anna’s decision, following restrictive Mexican tariffs in 1842 and 1843, effectively halted the Santa Fe trade and marked the demise of the Santa Fe Trail. Still, more than twenty years of trade through an unforgiving country with some hostile tribes proved that heavily laden pack wagons, whether pulled by mule or oxen, could cross the Plains if sufficiently organized and protected.
Twentieth-century historians suggested that Francisco Vasquez de Coronado’s expedition in 1541 approximated the route of the Santa Fe Trail some three hundred years before the fact, moving southward across the Oklahoma panhandle.
Bibliography
Colorado Historical Society. The Santa Fe Trail: New Perspectives. UP of Colorado, 1992.
Magoffin, Susan Shelby. Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico: The Diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin 1846–1847, edited by Stella M. Drumm, 1926. U of Nebraska P, 1982.
Myers, Harry C. "A History of the Santa Fe Trail." Edited by Joanne VanCoevern. Santa Fe Trail Association, 2010, www.santafetrail.org/the-trail/history/history-of-the-sft. Accessed 17 Oct. 2017.
"Travel the Trail: Map Timeline 1821-1880." Santa Fe National Historic Trail, US Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, 24 Feb. 2015, www.nps.gov/safe/learn/historyculture/map-timeline-intro.htm. Accessed 17 Oct. 2017.
Willard, Rowland. Over the Santa Fe Trail to Mexico: The Travel Diaries and Autobiography of Dr. Rowland Willard. Edited by Joy L. Poole, U of Oklahoma P, 2015.