Santa Fe, << `san` tuh FAY, >> Trail was one of the longest commercial routes in the United States in the prerailroad era. For much of its history, it began in Independence, Missouri, and ended in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a distance of 780 miles (1,260 kilometers). Caravans of traders traveled to Council Grove, Kans., and on to a point on the Arkansas River near Cimarron, Kans. There the route divided. One branch led up the Arkansas to Bent’s Fort (near La Junta, Colo.), then turned southwest across Raton Pass to the upper Canadian River in New Mexico. The other route, called the Cimarron Crossing, cut across a wide, dry plain. This one was shorter, but Indians made it more dangerous.
The early travelers transported their goods by pack horses. William Becknell opened the Santa Fe Trail in 1821, from Franklin, Missouri. Traders took wagons loaded with manufactured goods from there to Santa Fe to exchange for burros, furs, gold, horses, and silver. The starting point for the trail moved to Independence, Missouri, by 1830. Some later traders outfitted their parties at Westport, which later became part of Kansas City, Missouri. Between 1822 and 1843, an average of about 80 wagons and 150 people used the trail each year. Travel westward increased greatly in the 1850’s and 1860’s. By the late 1860’s, more than 5,000 wagons a year used the trail. An extension of the trail, known as The Old Spanish Trail, ran from Santa Fe to Los Angeles by way of Durango, Colo., the Green and Virgin rivers in Utah, the Colorado River, and across the Mojave Desert in California.
