Santa Fe Trail Summary

The Santa Fe Trail was an 800 mile Trail from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe, in New Mexico. The travel along this trail began in 1821 and continued until 1860 where the railroad took over control of the trade; under the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. It traversed what was called the Great American Desert. This was named as such because of the expanse of dry, arid terrain viewed as inhospitable to the nineteenth century contemporaries, and unsuitable for settlement and expansion. When travellers reached New Mexico there were mountainous regions and plateaus more suited to settlement, as the Spanish and Mexicans had found in previous centuries. Geographer Clarence Pullen gives a detailed analysis of the human and physical geography of New Mexico in the nineteenth century, which provides a suitable contextual understanding for the primary accounts being considered as part of this study. …show more content…
It is worth pointing out that there was a cut off called the Cimarron Cut Off, at which, there are two options in pursuing the Trail. One Trail heads in a North Westerly direction following the Arkansas River further into Colorado, whereas the other cuts across open land to the South West before following the Cimarron River. Both of these Trails leave their respective rivers crossing them at their easiest points and converge at Fort Union, near the Mora River and head into Santa Fe. From the accounts I have read the majority of the accounts take the route via the Cimarron River (Figure 1). When referring to the Trail in later sections, it is this part of the Santa Fe Trail that I am making reference