Wagon Tracks Volume 15 Issue 2 Wagon Tracks Volume 15, Issue 2 (February Article 1 2001)
2001 Wagon Tracks. Volume 15, Issue 2 (February, 2001) Santa Fe Trail Association
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SANTA FE TRAIL ASSOCIATION QUARTERLY
VOLUME 15 FEBRUARY 2001 NUMBER 2 WETlORY CHAPTER & FORT LARNED OLD GUARD JOINT f t MEETING, APRIL 28 ••,- • THE WetlDry· Routes Chapter of SFTA will host its fifth annual Trail I seminar on April 28, 2001, in a joint I meeting with the Fort Larned Old TO KEEP t Guard at Fort Larned National His toric Site. The seminar, "Alterca THE·TRAIL tions and Confrontations: The Civil War Along the Santa Fe Trail," will be presented during. the morning session, featuring four speakers: Ar nold Schofield, Leo E. Oliva, Harry C. Myers, and George Elmore. Lunch is included with registration for the PRE-SYMPOSIUM ACTIVITIES semInar. CALL FOR NOMINATIONS The Old Guard annual meeting SEVERAL pre-symposiumactivi will occupy the afternoon and even ties have been planned for those who THE 2001 nominating committee ing, with a field trip to the Indian wish to take advantage of them bef (Chair Louann Jordan, David Clap Village Site on Pawnee Fork (featur ore the main events begin in Las Ve saddle, and Clint Chambers) hereby ing an Indian encampment and gas, NM, on the evening of Sep issues a call for members and chap living-history presentations), even tember ·27, 2001. There will be a ters to submit names of candidates to ing meal in the quartermaster store Trail ride on the Cimarron Route in be considered for nomination to fill house at. Fort Larned (reservations northeastern New Mexico, and sev the positions of officers and directors required), and an evening with eral activities are available in the whose terms expire at the end of the Elizabeth· Custer (portrayed by Raton area of the Mountain Route. 2001 symposium. This includes the Marla Matkin).. The Trail ride has been planned president, vice-president, secretary Living-history demonstrations for the three days just prior to the treasurer, and six directors (one at will be scheduled at Fort Larned symposium. Riders will assemble on large and one from each of the Trail throughout the day. A copy of the Monday, September 24, at the Point states). program and a registration form for of Rocks Ranch 30 miles east of The bylaws specify that members this event appears as an insert in Springer, New Mexico. Ample space of the board of directors may not this issue. Everyone is welcome. Res between two parallel routes of the serve more than two consecutive ervations are required by April 16. Santa Fe Trail is available for horse four-year terms. The president and camping. Portable toilets and water vice-president serve two-year terms. WESTERN CHAPTERS for people and horses will be avail The secretary-treasurer serves a able. Catered meals will be provided four-year term, The current office MEETING JUNE 9-10 Monday and Tuesday evenings and holders are President Margaret BENT'S Fort Chapter will host the Tuesday and Wednes~ay mornings. Sears; Vice-President Sam Arnold, second annual meeting of the West Cost for the ride will be approxi and Secretary-Treasurer Ruth Olson 1 ern Six Chapters ofSFTA on June 9 mately $100. Peters. Board members whose terms 10,2001, at La Junta, CO. There will On Tuesday the riders will break expire in 2001 are Anne Mallison be viewing of ruts and visits to sev into two groups. One group will ride (Missouri); Clint Chambers (at eral SFT sites ofinterest. Mark your for four hours· and the other seven large); Mary Gamble (Colorado); Jo calendar and plan to attend; a good hours. The riders will explore the anne VanCoevern (Kansas); Stephen time will be had by all. For those who well-defined branches of the Santa Whitmore (New Mexico); and Morris can get away earlier, there·are many Fe Trail east and west of Point of Alexander (Oklahoma). different things to do and see in the Rocks. The longer ride will also ride All current members of the Santa area. For more information, contact up through Black Jack Canyon and Fe Trail Association are eligible to coordinator Dub Couch, telephone the hills to the north. Among the submit candidates for nomination. (719) 254-3000 or e-mail
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PRESIDENT'S COLUMN chures either directly or by contract. All matters relating to Wagon Perhaps, if museums, tourist cen~ Tracks should be directed to SFTA Recently I received an e-mail from a ters, convention and visitors bu Editor Leo E. Oliva, PO Box 31, Woodston KS 67675. tourist visiting Santa Fe who was reaus, chambers of commerce, ho tels, and on and on were carpeted Teleph()ne: (888) 321-7341 shocked to discover that no one in FAX: (785) 425-6865 the museums he visited. knew where 'with all the varieties of Santa Fe E-Mail: [email protected] Trail brochures that are available, he might find Santa Fe Trail ruts in Headquarters ofthe Santa Fe Trail the City of Holy Faith. He was we would not receive complaints like Association are located at the office particularly amazed by one docent those mentioned. However, even ofSecretary-Treasurer Ruth Olson who informed him, "you are the first that is no guarantee that Trail bro Peters, Santa Fe Trail Center, RR person to ask me that question. We chures would be placed on the racks 3, Larned KS 67550. are an art community-western and along with the myriad of others out Telephone: (620) 285-2054 there, rather than stored in a cabi-' FAX: (620) 285-7491 Indian art." I, too, was amazed by E-Mail: [email protected] this inaccurate and uninformed re net, which can happen. WAGON TRACKS is the official mark. Then, several weeks ago I re As for film products, probably, the publication of the Santa Fe Trail ceived a telephone call' from a best use of these expensive tools is Association, a nonprofit organiza gentleman who was searching for that they be available for viewing at tion incorporated under the laws of videos or other film products which state tourism centers, museums, and the State of Colorado. Letters and articles are welcome, but they be featured the Trail. He, too, was the like. Films are also shown exten come the property of WT and may shocked to learn that none was avail sively at most national parks. They be edited or abridged at the editor's able for purchase by the public, and are shown frequently each day. In discretion. All rights reserved. An proceeded to opine that SFTA should 20-30 minutes, visitors are intro nual subscriptions are obtained correct the situation. I informed him duced to a wealth of information through membership in the Asso ciation,. whose dues are fixed per that a few films had been produced, about the park. I, like most visitors, calendar year. Checks. should be but, could' not confirm where he always view the film before touring a made payable to the Santa Fe Trail' might find them. specific park. What about made-for Association and sent to the secre These. are but two examples of television documentaries ,such as tary-treasurer (address below). similar communications that come to Ken Burns produces? I explored this Membership Categories with two companies (including' Benefactor $1,000 my attention. The common thread Patron $100/year running through these critiques is Burns himself) several years ago. Institutional $40/year that the Trail is not being marketed Because of prior commitments and Business $40/year as it should. SFTA is a small organi perhaps other reasons not shared Family $30/year with me, no one was interested in Individual $25/year zation, more local in demeanor than Youth (18 & under) $15/year national, and many of its members producing a Santa Fe Trail film. However, the time or approach may Editor: Leo E. Oliva, PO Box 31, may be unaware of what is happen Woodston KS 67675 (888) 321 ing at the other end of the Road. not' have been right, thus such 7341, FAX (785) 425-6865 More important and specific to the should not be ruled out for the fu President: Margaret Sears, 1871 example above, we may not be as ture. Candela, Santa Fe NM 87505 (505) aware as we should that people are Most Trail promotion, whether it 473'3124 or
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visitors-centers are not on the NPS SFTA BOARD MEETING to pinpoint Cedar Grove Bluffs, an agenda, although money is probably other historic site (see WT, August THE SFTA governing board. will given as an overriding factor. Yet, 1997). meet in Santa Fe, March 31, at the other national historic trails have St. Francis Hotel, 210 Don Gaspar, The right front seat was always them, sometimes m collaboration 8:30-4:30. SFTA members are in Bob's so we could visit. Also, it was with other Interior Dept. agencies. vited to attend. For additional infor the best place from which a native One such example is the Oregon Na mation contact President Margaret guide could navigate. He was also tional Historic Trail center at Mont Sears (505) 473-3124. - good at opening and closing gates. pelier, ID, which shares facilities Other fondly remembered visits • with a National Forest office. What CORRECTION were over a single malt Scotch at his is important is that these centers ex home. We miss you, Bob Jones. ist, and some governmental entity by Margaret Sears Memorial donations may be sent must have agreed that they were THE article titled "Preservation .-' to the Santa Fe Trail Association, critical to the interpretation of these Task Force," in the November 2000 Santa Fe Trail Center, RR 3, Larned trails. issue ofWT contained several errors. KS 67550. So long as the Santa Fe National A Preservation Task Force has not Historic Trail is without a visitors been created by SFTA as claimed in SPIEGELBERG ADDENDUM the article. Preservation is managed center, it will be unable, in my opin by Mary Jean Cook ion, to properly tell the story of the by SFTA's Liaison Officer, Faye Trail as a national park should. It is Gaines. The persons identified in the I came across an old real estate ab not enough that you and I are "trail article have graciously volunteered stract in our vault and thought per savvy." There are thousands of peo to come together to examine preser haps it might be an addendum to the ple out there who would like to be in vation issues and identify threats to article on Flora in the November the "inner circle." The question is, the Trail. 2000 issue of Wagon Tracks. In the will the Interior Dept. (NPS' boss) in chain of title for the Spiegelberg vite them in? I..._;;;.;;EL;,;,S;,;;IE....;;C;.;.H;.;.A.;.;;V...;;E=.Z.:.;:LE:.;;;;D;.;:O;,;:U;,;,;x:"'-....I1 House, I discovered that other Santa This is no way to end a story. At Fe Trail names also played a roll in Elsie Chavez LeDoux, wife of its history. On November 5, 1879, the moment there is nothing more to former Corazon Chapter President say except, it may be incumbent on Dolores Perea de Connelly, Jose LeRoy LeDoux, of Wagon Mound, Francisco Chavez, Henry Connelly the grassroots-SFTA specifically NM, died January 14, 2001. She was -to press for better presentation of and Ofelia R., his wife, Julian Con 66 years old. Sympathy is extended nelly and Francisco Connelly, his the Trail through products, interpre to LeRoy and family. tation, and adequate quarters. wife, and Victoriana Connelly, all of Valencia County, New Mexico, grant The SFTA Membership Commit ~BO.;;;.;B;..,,;;J...;;,O.;.;.N I__ E;;",;;;s__.....I1 and convey to Lehman Spiegelberg tee recently designed a handsome (who then sold to Willi and Flora), promotional brochure which was by Jesse Scott the property on which the Spiegel sent to persons whose membership With the recent death of Bob berg House was built in Santa Fe in lapsed several years ago. Glenn Bus Jones, the city of La Junta, CO, lost 1880. Dolores Perea de Chavez de set organized committee members its leading citizen, and the state of Connelly was the widow of (1) Virginia Fisher, Morris Alexander, Colorado and the nation lost a histo Mariano Chavez (brother of Antonio and George Bayless to write the text. rian and a conserver of history. Jose Chavez who was murdered on Nancy Raleigh, a friend of Glenn's, Those of us who were fortunate the SFT in 1843; Mariano was also created the smart design, and Joyce enough to be friends lost a cherished mysteriously murdered in Santa Fe) Fox answered the call to seal each friend. and (2) New Mexico Governor Henry brochure in preparation for mailing. Throughout his life Bob Jones cre Connelly. Although this committee has been ated his own admirable eulogy. without a chair for the past year How could that quiet, knowledge PRE-SYMPOSIUM ACTIVITIES -happily, Jan McDaniel of Dixon, (continued from page 1) MO, recently stepped into the void able, complete gentleman be gone? tipi rings, Apache camping grounds, --others have volunteered to carry There are still so many places to lo and bandit hideouts. out projects which needed leaders. cate and things to do. Like pinpoint To wit, Leo Oliva and Sam Arnold mg the location of Hole-in-the On Wednesday morning, follow engineered the Business Member Prairie Stage Station, the next one ing breakfast, participants will con ship drive, and Joanne VanCoevern toward Santa Fe from his Hole-in voy the rigs southwest about 20 directed the national dues -survey: the-Rock. Bob bought Hole-in-the miles to another portion ofthe Trail, Sometimes, because of dedicated Rock Stage Station years earlier to perhaps the Rock Crossing ofthe Ca people who are committed to SFTA preserve it, and he and Marylou nadian River. Mter a four- or five and the Trail, things work out even deeded it to the Archaeology Conser hour ride they will convoy into Las when the odds appear unfavorable. vancy in 1996 (see WT, May 1996 Vegas, where horses may be stabled -Margaret Sears and February 1998). and rigs parked at the Zamora Because of his knowledge of his Training Facility. The SFTA Sympo • REMEMBER THE SANTA FE TRAIL tory and the land and landowners of sium starts the next day in Las Ve ASSOCIATION IN YOUR WILL his southeast Colorado, he was able -gas.
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If you are at all interested in the formation on all the exhibits. was National Historical Park will host an Trail ride, please contact Ray Marchi given in the November 2000 issue of open house for symposium visitors at (505) 387-5084 or bye-mail at Wagon Tracks.. on Sunday, September 30, with
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all programs offered for the sesqui "BLEEDING, PURGING, VOMITING, AND QUININE centennial commemoration, contact WERE THE CURES OF CHOICE" Ron Parks, Kaw Mission State His • toric Site, 500 N Mission, Council by Alma Gregory Grove KS 66846, (620) 767-5410, or e-mail
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Mallin said that rabies was rampant 9/18 Day off in Dodge City seum and asked about Life Member in towns because of carcasses left to 9/19 Dodge City to Larned ships, she said, ''Yes, we do. We have rot in· the streets-no one knowing 9/20 Larned to Sterling one member-and you are the one!" about germs. . 9/21 Sterling to Hillsboro It is interesting to see this concern ~'The food was terrible from east to 9/22 Hillsboro to Council Grove developing in a subject that is. surely west. From west to east it was much 9/23 Day off in Council Grove worth d.i~cussing. I believe that the better because of green chile 9/24 Council Grove to Baldwin City correct parliamentary procedure to stew-full of vitamin C! There were 9/25 Baldwin City to Independence reintroduce the subject of Life Mem almost no reports of scurvy from 9/26 Independence to Lexington bership is for a board member to en Mexico to Missouri. That disease 9/27 Lexington to Arrow Rock ter an agenda item to that effect. was pretty much under control on 9/28 Arrow Rock to New Franklin In event that a concerned SFTA the Trail by 1840 because someone 9/29 Return home member or members wishes to pur planted watercress that is high in Vi sue that course of action, the first tamin C, and the Army had sauer THE WAGON TONGUE step is to prepare a detailed proposal kraut," Mallin said. -OBSERVATIONS & OPINIONS- of the needs to renew the disclission. "Scalping was not always fatal. Certainly the letters printed in re It is with considerable interest cent issues of WT would be a good There is a layer of skin on top of the that I have read the recent letters in skull that is loose, so it was more like place to start the outline for such a Wagon Tracks concerning the Life request. Then, the detailed proposal a face-lift as the flesh healed up Membership issue. As the Ad Hoc ward." Sabers did more damage should be presented to a board mem chairman of the membership com ber, asking that this item be in bashing collarbones and skulls than mittee that recommended that the • cutting. The mortality rate for brain cluded on the agenda of a future life membership category remain meeting of the board. surgery was 90% because of pus in discontinued, I feel it is my responsi the brain-i'gnorance of germs. Whis bility to respond. The second step, it seems to me, key was given for snakebites. Scrap would be that such petitioner(s) in ing treated frostbite. Frankly, I am pleased to see inter clude an IOU to the Santa Fe Trail est expressed in a subject that has Association in the amount of $1,000 Dr. Mallin demonstrated imple been dormant for so long. One of the ments from his Civil War era surgi as a life membership pledge in order major reasons for the committee's to be considered seriously. cal kit. Its documentation came from recommendation was that in all the family records of an anesthesiologist time that life membership was of With all due respect to the fine or in the Iowa Volunteers. The "tools" fered, only one individual "signed ganization to which we all belong -left no doubt why doctors were some on." [Editor's Note: SFTA offered a and in which we take great pride, I times called "Saw-bones." life membership only during its first am, sincerely, Glenn M. Busset, member 2001 BICYCLE TREK year ofexistence, when two life mem berships were obtained (one was an SFTA membership committee WILLARD Chilcott reports applica individual and the other was a coun- . 316 Summit Avenue tions are already arriving for the ty historical society-associations or Manhattan, KS 66502 eleventh Santa Fe Trail Bicycle Trek ganized for perpetuity, I think we will ROSTER CORRECTIONS set for September 9-28,2001. After a all agree, should not be eligible for successful 10 years of annual trips, life memberships, only individuals), DUE to a clerical error the follow the trek changed to a biennial trip to and it has not been available since ing memberships were omitted from prevent volunteers' burnout. There 1987.] the recent SFTA Roster (in fact they was no cycling trip in 2000. The were omitted from the mailing list The other compelling reason came maximum number of riders is 50, for last year). Your staff regrets the out of the survey we did, making a error and apologizes to the following: d.istance traveled is approximately telephone poll of organization simi 1096 miles. For more information lar to ours in ten midwestern states. Bishop, C. J., 2265 S Broadway, Denver contact Chilcott at (505) 982-1282 or CO 80210, (303) 575-1287, PDRCO Briefly, their experience with life [email protected], Individual, 1996 e-mail
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THE SANTA FE TRAIL IN THE KANSAS CITY AREA: EVOLUTION OF THE LANDSCAPE by Hal Jackson (SFTA member Jackson earned a on plains vegetation. The Indians Elm). This was the fIrst time some Ph.D. in geography at the University used fires to modify the habitat as one commented on Becknell's wagon of Colorado and taught 20 years at well as drive or attract game.3 A road, pioneered just a few months Humboldt State University in Ar well-placed fIre could frighten a herd before. Matt Field also commented ,cata, CA. He presently resides in Pla of bison over a cliff where the result on the burning prairies. He wrote citas, NM, and is adjunctprofessor of ing deaths could feed the Indians as that "we fired the prairie behind us, ... ;:.. geography at the University of New well as provide needed hides and and the prairie is burning before us; Mexico. His revised edition of Marc bones for tools. Additionally, fires so we are between two fIres.,,10 Simmons's Following the Santa Fe were used to improve pasture much The word prairie entered the Eng as fire is used today, Use ,of fire for • Trail will be published by Ancient lish language late. Prairie comes City Press in May 2001.) this purpose was reported through 4 from French, and earlier, Latin (pra DURING the past three years I out the eastern United States. tum = meadow). According to the Ox spent many days in the Kansas City Stewart also claimed that most prai ford English Dictionary, the first use rIe fires, ninety per cent, were of prairie in North America was in metropolitan area looking at Santa 11 Fe Trail sites and remnants. Today caused by humans. In locations 1773. It was then that English the area is hundreds of square miles where burning had stopped (Illinois speaking settlers were moving of tree-lined streets and houses. The is the example cited), forests ad across the Appalachians into Ohio vanced into grasslands one to two country, They were perplexed by more I drove these streets the more 5 curious I became about what this miles in thirty years. The Stephen openings in the forest (early French area looked like when the fIrst trad H. Long expedition naturalists also settlers had called them prairies) be ers passed through, noted (just west of Saint Louis) that lieving that land that did not support the "borders of this plain begin to be What we see today in Kansas City tree growth was infertile. The small overrun with a bramble of black jack prairies of Ohio led to ever larger is a cultural landscape. By this I [oak]."6 mean a landscape created by hu ones in Indiana and Illinois (the mans over a long period of time in Precipitation records show why Prairie State). By 1821, the meaning which the residents' landscape pref these eastern areas of the Trail of prairie as a meadow had evolved erences are imposed. Nature pro should have had a forest cover. Boon into any grassy, treeless expanse. vides the canvas, humans decide ville, across the Missouri River from One of the most graphic accounts what to do with it. We Americans Franklin, receives about 38 inches of of fires and their aftermath comes love our trees and lawns and try to precipitation annually. Continuing from the report of Isaac McCoy in create an almost pastoral landscape west, Olathe, Kansas, has about 37 1830. McCoy was with a surveying inches, and Council Grove, Kansas, party 60 miles west of Fort Leaven wherever we settle. 7 receives 32 inches. Forests would worth. He wrote that "the ashes from Today's landscape in Kansas City, have been the natural vegetational and elsewhere along the Trail, was the recently burned prairies, and the -. response in this area without the ex dust and sand raised so by the wind created over a previous one that the ternal intervention of fIre. intrepid Santa Fe Trail, traders was so scattered that it became im viewed beginning in 1821. In fact, The fIrst Santa Fe traders were possible to ~erceive the trail of the the landscape of 1821 was also a cul not traversing through nature but, surveyors."] He reported flames 20 ' turallandscape. Human occupation instead, a cultural landscape that feet high and wrote that he ceased to over thousands of years had greatly had been created over thousands of wonder about the paucity of timber modified the landscape that nature years by the indigenous population. but only wondered that a vestige of provided, What then was the natural The only remnants of the earlier for wood was left. 13 landscape of western Missouri and est were found along stream beds. To reconstruct what early traders eastern Kansas? How far back in Fires can easily spread across flat to saw I will rely on their journals and time must one go to determine it? rolling country, but dissected land comments as they traversed the scapes do not promote the spread of Trail. William Becknell commented Botanist Roger Anderson claims that 8 18,000 years ago the plains were cov fires. Deeply cut streams along the but briefly on the landscape but did ered by spruce and jack pine subse eastern portions of the Trail would say he traveled for several days (Ar quently displaced by oak and hickory have retarded fIre and the substan row Rock ferry to Fort Osage) in a by 10,000 years ago.1 For our pur tial moisture here was also a factor. high prairie in which timber was poses, 10,000 years ago will suffice. Burning of the prairies did not scarce. Becknell also claimed that a Omer Stewart, an anthropologist,' stop when the traders began their growth oflofty timber two miles wide concluded that since Folsom points ,annual treksin 1821. Jacob Fowler bordered the Missouri River. His de are found on the prairies, it followed " 'on his return trip east in 1822 wrote scription is for that stretch of Trail that humans entered the area in . "We Set out Early to follow the Wag between Arrow Rock ferry and Malta early post-glacial time.2 That was gon Road but Heare the Pirarie Has Bend. Becknell went on to say this Bur~ed , the period ofthe oak and hickory for Been In'the Spring and the portion of his journey was over, a I c grass So gron up So that We Cannot beautiful plain with a view of nearly est cover. These early n9mads knew 14 I it fInd it.,,9, Fowler'was' writing from twenty miles. Meredith Miles Mar I • about fIre and its uses and-it was fire • that had the largest'humanimpact near Rp~n~ Grove'(1ater called Lone maduke, traveling the same route in
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City metropolitan area·and I mapped every creek in this area to see how MISSOURI RIVER closely traders used the ridges. The map shows the routes of the trail be tween 1821 and 1827 and my best es timate as to prairie and forest cover. Today the Kansas City metropoli tan area is not at all as it appeared to KANSAS RIVER traders on the Santa Fe TraiL The topography has not been changed Blue Spring but the vegetation is dramatically al Campground tered. I can suggest to those seeking a piece ofthe Trail as it might have appeared in those early days to drive south from the Archibald Rice house to Arrington Road. This road is on the course of a later route of the Santa Fe Trail (after 1828) but meets the older Trail near the Upper Cross ing at 151st Street. As you descend Arrington Road you are on a ridge
I that looks somewhat as it did 180 I years ago. 21 You should. not tarry. though, because this will soon be Round Grove Campground converted to a modern cultural land K,MI To Osage River scape with lawns, fences, and tree S'O lined streets. The First Stratum of the Santa Fe Trail, 1821-1827. Shaded area represents woodland NOTES cover south ofMissouri and Kansas rivers. Area adjacent to Kansas River is specula 1. Roger C. Anderson, "The Historic Role of Fire in the North American Grassland." in tive and not based on journal entries. Scott C. Collins and Linda L Wallace, edS., Fire in North American Tal/grass 1824, wrote that two miles west of next day Sibley crossed the Big Blue Prairies (Norman: University of Oklahoma the Arrow Rock ferry was the begin River and went forward seven miles Press, 1990), 12. . 15 ning of a beautiful prairie. Mar to a small grove ofhickory. He stated 2. Omer C. Stewart, "Burning and Natural maduke continued west over prairie that "so far today nearly all Prai Vegetation," Geographical Review, XLI not mentioning trees until he rie.,,19 In contrast to Marmaduke, Si (1951): 319. The Folsom archaeological 16 complex began sometime before camped near Lexington, Missouri. bley utilized the Lower Crossing of 10,000 B.C. It is characterized by distinct He continued westward to Camp the Big Blue River. When Joseph C. projectile points and was named for the Blue Springs (near today's Blue Brown, Sibley's surveyor, reached site of the initial discovery near Folsom, Springs, Missouri) passing over a the Big Blue River (he was traveling New Mexico. The Folsom site, coinciden tally, is located but a few miles from the prairie country. He used the Upper ahead of Sibley at this stage) he Grenada to Fort Union Military Road. Crossing of the Big Blue River and wrote "now the prairie commences 3. Scott L Collins, "Introduction: Fire as a even here he failed to mention trees, which extends to the mountains near Natural Disturbance in Tallgrass Prairie although there were undoubtedly Santa Fe.,,2o Ecosystems," in Collins and Wallace trees bordering the river at this (eds) Fire in North American Tal/grass Later travelers such as Matt Prairies, 3. crossing. Finally, on May 28, he says Field, Adolphus Wislizenus, and Jo 4. Omer C. Stewart, "Fire as the First Great "leaving the timber of the Osage siah Gregg all confirm the observa- Force Employed by Man," Man's Role in River on our left, and that of the . tions ofthe pioneers on the Trail. For Changing the Face of th~ Earth, ed. by Blues and Kanzas on our right, keep the most part, the Santa Fe Trail William L Thomas (Chicago: University of ing upon the great ridge which di Chicago Press, 1956), 120. was in prairies even in the eastern 5. Ibid., 127. vides those waters." 17 Here Mar segment from Arrow· Rock ferry 6. Howard Ensign Evans, The Natural History maduke was heading for Round through Lone Elm Campground. The of the Long Expedition to the Rocky Grove (later called Lone Elm Camp . traders fo'llowed the high ground be Mountains, 1819-1820 (Oxford, Eng ground) and beyond to the Narrows. tween streams whenever possible. land: Oxford University Press, 1997), 40. George Sibley, marking the Santa Thousands ofyears ofseasonal burn 7. Climates of the States (Detroit: Gates Re search Company, 1985), third edition, Fe Road in 1825, claims to have ing had cleared these ridges of their Volume I (A labama-New Mexico). This is crossed the Little Blue River eight forest cover with only streams pro a summary of annual reports by the Na miles from Fort Osage. After cross viding protection for gallery forests tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad- ing the Little Blue, he passed along their courses. ministration (NOAA). . through a small prairie and then 8. Anderson in Collins and Wallace, Fire in 18 I have attempted to summarize North American Tal/grass Prairies, 14.. through. some woodS. The small this discussion on the accompanying 9. Elfiot Coues, ed., The Journal of Jacob prairie was on the ridge separating map. Craig· Crease provided a de Fowler, 1821-1822 (Minneapolis: Ross . the Little and Big Blue Rivers. The tailed map ofthe trails in the Kansas and Haines, 1965), 170. . .
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10. John E. Sunder, ed., Matt Field on the chives of New Mexico make it clear trip. The written request was to be Santa Fe Trail (Norman: University of that by 1823, officials in Santa Fe sent to Santa Fe by the local cus Oklahoma Press, 1995),57. 11. The Oxford English Dictionary, second were concerned that the americanos toms officers along with any in edition, (Oxford, England: Clarendon were importing goods without pay voices, passports and other re Press, 1989), 280. ing the required tariffs. Officials lated documents. 12. Lela' Barnes, ed., "Journal of Isaac were especially concerned that these 5. When contraband was discovered McCoy for the Exploring Expedition of men were hunting beaver illegally 1830," Kansas Historical Quarterly, V or an extranjero (or local accom (1935): 365. and to the detriment ofthe local resi plice) attempted to defraud the 13. Ibid., 366. dents. Beaver trapping was a branch government, the nearest judicial of industry reserved by law exclu • 14. Harry C. Myers, ed., "Captain William official was to formally open· a Becknell's Journal of Two Expeditions sively to Mexican citizens. case, take charge of the disputed from Boon's Lick to Santa Fe," Wagon One of the earliest efforts by offi goods and place the suspects un Tracks, XI (May 1997): 20. , cials in Santa Fe to assist customs of der bond to assure their appear • 15. Harry C. Myers, ed., "Meredith Miles Mar maduke's Journal of a Tour to New Mex ficers along the border to cope with ance in court. If found guilty,'the ico, 1824-1825," Wagon Tracks, XII (Nov. the influx of extranjeros, or foreign person's goods were to be confis 1997): 9. ers, .was the set of instructions is cated and subjected to sales at 16. Ibid. sued by Juan Bautista Vigil, the ad public auction. 17. Ibid. ministrador de rentas, in early April 6. Until all these steps were taken, 18. Kate L. Gregg, ed., The Road to Santa 1825. The instructions were issued Fe: The Journal and Diaries of George proper guias issued and approval Champlin Sibley (Albuquerque: Univer to Severirio Martin and Rafael Luna, obtained from the administrator, sity of New Mexico Press, 1995), 55. the guardians, or customs officers of no goods could be sold or traded. 19. Ibid. New Mexico's northern frontier in Violation of this regulation could 20. Joseph C. Brown, "Report of Committee Taos. These consisted of seven sec result in the loss of all goods by Appointed to Prepare a Correct Map of tions, as follows: the old Santa Fe Trail across the State of the merchant. Kansas," Eighteenth Biennial Report of 7. Iflocal officials had any doubts on 1. Upon receiving notice that extran the Board of Directors of the Kansas how to proceed or deal with a jeros were approaching the bor State Historical Society for the Biennial situation, they were to suspend all Period July I, 19/0, to June 30, 1912 ders, they were to request assis activities until the administrator (Topeka: State Printing Office, 1913), 6. tance from the local chiefofmilitia was consulted. 21 . For detailed directions to Arrington Road and proceed to go out to the fron and other places mentioned in the text, see Marc Simmons and Hal Jackson, Fol tier to determine if these foreign The records show these regula lowing the Santa Fe Trail, third edition, to ers proposed to introduce commer tions were observed through much of be published by Ancient City Press in cial goods into New Mexico. May 2001. the Mexican period of our history. 2. At some point before these foreign Escorts of militia or regular presidio REGULATION OF TRADE ers entered any settlements, they troops from Santa Fe were sent to were to .show their passports to by Robert G. Torrez meet approaching commercial cara prove they were persons traveling vans at or in the vicinity of the (Torrez is New Mexico State Histo in good faith. They were to present Napeste, or Arkansas River. The rian. The following is reprinted from the guias, or permits and invoices idea was to meet the caravan before his column Voices from the Past" of the goods they wished to intro it had a chance'to disperse or mer which appeared in 'Round the duce into the territory. Their chants had the opportunity to hide Roundhouse, the monthly paper for packs and loads were to be in goods in order to avoid paying tariffs. state government employees, July 25 spected and prohibited items Every load was apparently in August 22, 2000, with thepermission identified. The travelers were to spected, and suspected contraband of the author.) be advised that these prohibited confiscated. In 1831, all the stores in HISTORY books tell us the Santa items could not be traded or sold Santa Fe were ordered closed while Fe Trail opened in 1821, the same unless they obtained an exemp officials went through each one after year that Mexico gained its inde tion from the governor or princi they received word that some contra pendence from Spain. The general pal customs officer in Santa Fe. band goods had gotten through. impression one often gets is that at . 3. If their passports were not in or The tariffs collected every year some point that year the borders be der, the cargo was to be closely ex were important to New Mexico. The tween New Mexico and the United amined and compared to the pub revenue generated from the States were magically opened, ush lished tariff listings. The goods American merchants constituted the ering in an era ofthe free flow ofpeo were to be impounded and sent to principal source of income for ple and trade between the two Santa Fe for review by the admin government operations during much foreign entities. istrator (Vigil) and the proper tar of the Mexican period. The archives The reality was that as with all iffs applied. show that funds collected were foreign countries, whatever com 4. If any of the foreigners demanded immediately paid out to cover the merce took place between New Mex the personal presence of the ad often overdue salaries ofgovernment ico and the United Stat~s was regu ministrator in the field, they were . officials, troops, and even loans that lated and closely watched by officials to do so formally, in writing, and had been made to the' government of the Mexican government in Santa under the obligation that they with the projected income as Fe. The records of the Mexican Ar- were to pay for the expenses ofthe collateral.
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SANTA FE TRAIL PERSPECTIVES ON NATURAL HISTORY
by Leo E. Oliva, - (The following was presented as a Whatever their views, they lived natural problem but a spiritual prob lecture at Rendezvous 2000 on Sep close to nature. lem for the people. When Euro tember 22, 2000. By request it is Almost everything Trail travelers Americans came and slaughtered printed here for the benefit of those did involved dealing with the natu the bison, Plains"tribesfirst objected who were unable to attend or slept ral world; the major exceptions being and retaliated because the Euro through the presentation.) relationships with other human be Americans had offended' the bison THIS introduction to the 2000 Ren ings (social world) and purely super spirits. In time, they realized the bi dezvous program on "Cultural Per natural ideals (religious world). son were disappearing. They also speCtives of Nature Along the Santa Their -lives were dominated by joined in the slaughter to trade bison Fe Trail," at~empts three things. nature although most had little sci robes for manufactured items on First is a brief overview of the per entific understanding. Many people which they had become dependent. spectives on natural history held by of all cultures were unable to sepa Itwas not simply, as some historians the three cultures associated with rate their supernatural beliefs from _ have implied, that the Indians were the Trail: American Indians, His observations of ·nature. How they environmentalists and the Anglo panic Americans, and Anglo Ameri viewed the natural world affected Americans were exploiters. In the cans. Second is a selection of their perspectives and relationships .end, it should be noted, bison were quotations from Trail travelers with nature, and these, in turn, af saved from extinction by Anglos.. about various aspects of nature fected relationships with other eth Indians felt close kinship with the along the Trail (these are mostly An nic groups (including trade and war natural world, and the supernatural glo because that IS what is available; fare) and how they treated the envi powers which they believed were be there are not many Hispanic and In rq,nment in which they traveled be hind it. They were part ofit, and they dian records). Third is a short list of tween Hispanic New Mexico and An tried to become one with the powers questions to ponder about the sig glo Missouri, crossing the lands of of the world. The closer their rela nificance of the different cultural American Indians in the process. tionship with the spiritual powers perspectives of nature along the There was no single view of na behind the natural world, the better Trail. ture for any of the cultures, for each their life would be. They were con The most common and constant contained a variety of perspectives. cerned about this life, not some after companions of everyone who trav This is a word of caution that the life. Almost everything they did was eled the Santa Fe Trail were the generalizations which follow may closely involved with nature, and multifaceted phenomena ofthe natu have been dominate, but there were they saw themselves as an integral ral world: - geography, geology, other points of view represented part of rather than separate from plants, animals, weather,' astro among the people of each society. In and superior to the rest of-the ani nomical attributes, and deceptive oc addition, over time, social contacts mals, plants, and minerals. currences such as mirages. Trail that resulted from the Trail led to an The Indian perspective on natural travelers had to have water every exchange ofideas and perspectives, a history was circular, as opposed to day, and their livestock also needed degree of assimilation that _contin the European linear view with its grass. Fuel was required, whether ued long after the Trail was history. theories ofprogress. The best expres- wood or bison chips. They hunted The first Americans, commonly - sion of this and the Indian perspec game for food, were irritated by in called Indians because Columbus tive on natural history was provided sects and battered by wind and was lost, had developed a view of the by Oglala Sioux holy man Black Elk, storms, faced dust and mud and natural world that was dominated as recorded by John Neihardt in drought and flood, fought fires, fol by beliefs that supernatural forces Black Elk Speaks, wherein Black Elk lowed landmarks, recognized rocks, control the natural world. Those su explains why everything tries to be crossed streams, enjoyed trees and pernatural forces were propitiated round. flowers and clouds and animals, by ceremonies, including vision ''You have noticed [Black Elk said] hunted bison and deer and prong quests, physical endurance and mu that everything an Indian does is in horns and turkey, watched prairie tilation, music and dancing, and a circle, and that is because the dogs and dust devils, shunned sometimes warfare. The provisions Power of the World always works in snakes, scrutinized wolves, cursed of nature depended on pleasing the circles, and everything tries to be mosquitoes, sufferedthirst, stared at supernatural powers behind all round. In the old days whenwe were stars, experienced sunburn, sought things. a strong and happy people, all our springs, braved blizzards, marveled The supply of bison (which com power came to us from the sacred at mirages, and speculated about the prised their supermarket) and suc hoop ofthe nation, and so long as the meaning of natural events. Most cessful hunting, fqr example, were hoop was unbroken, the people flour~ were not scientists but they held believed to be dependent more on the ished. The flowering tree was the liv views of the natural world and its- ing center of the hoop, and the circle - - proper behavior_and ceremonies of history, a combination ofscience and the people than on conservation and ofthe four quarters nourished it. The superstition, of reason and religion, careful hunting practices. When bi east gave peace and light, fhesouth of rationalism and romanticism. gave warmth, the west gave rain, son were not available, -it was not a . . i
10 Wagon Tracks February 2001 .. https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/wagon_tracks/vol15/iss2/1 10 : Wagon Tracks. Volume 15, Issue 2 (February, 2001)
' .. and the north with its cold and tional, scientific view of natural his and came home with the first store
' . • mighty wind gave strength and en tory. Marc Simmons wrote, in his bought suit anyone had in his home durance. This knowledge came to us Witchcraft in the Southwest: town of Las Placitas. from the outer world with our relig "For Hispano folk, Catholic Chris It is difficult to identify clearly the ion. Everything the Power of the tianity offered the strongest bulwark Hispanic perspective on natural his World does is done in a circle. The and protection against the malicious tory as it affected the Santa Fe Trail, sky is round, and I have heard that arrows ofwitches.... As a safeguard for Mexican merchants pursued the the earth is round like a ball, and so against supernatural attack, the same ends as did their Anglo are all the stars. The wind, in its cross served as the most effective re American counterparts, profitable greatest power, whirls. Birds make ligious weapon. No mule drover set trade, economic improvement; and their nests in circles for theirs is the ting out with a pack caravan would the uses of nature's bounty for those same religion as ours. The sun comes think of exposing his stock to need objectives. In fact, when it comes • forth and goes down again in a circle. less danger from malign supernatu down to the daily life ofpeople on the The moon does the same, and both ral forces, so upon each long-eared Trail, the people from all three cul are round. Even the seasons form a animal's shoulder he carefully made tures shared common objectives. A great circle in their changing, and al a cross with cornmeal.,,2 bison hunter, be he Indian, New ways come back again to where they In one of the'few recollections by a Mexican, or Missourian, set out to were. The life of a man is a circle New Mexican teamster, Jose Li kill bison and utilize the carcass. from childhood to childhood, and so it brado Gurule, who traveled the They prepared differently for the is in everything where power moves. Santa Fe Trail in 1867 as a teenager, hunt, for example, with the Indian Our tepees' were round like the nests explained something of the supersti apologizing to the spirit of the bison ofbirds, and these were always set in tions connected with their travels as and seeking to appease those pow a circle, the nation's hoop, a nest of they departed for the trip to the ers, the Hispanic seeking spiritual many nests, where the Great Spirit States: aid in the hunt, and the Anglo think meant for us to hatch our children."] , "About the middle ofFebruary the ing little of such things. In other Everything in Indian culture de caravan started. At Las Vegas there words, the same activity, which ap pended on keeping in tune with the was nothing to mark the momentous peared to the onlooker to show little spirits. Nature flowed 'from proper event but behind them in every home differences beyond hunting tech relationships and withheld its from which these men had come to niques, was affected by cultural per bounty when the people lost touch venture upon the long and danger spectives on nature. with the powers. Powers came The Anglo-American perspective ous voyage, simple but impressive , through visions, a blend of super ceremonies were held. In every home was complex because European and natural with the natural, which in candles were lit before favorite American thought was undergoing '-.- the Indian mind could not be sepa saints and prayers were offered. transition during the 19th century rated. The Indian perspective of Then the wives or mothers of the de when the Santa Fe Trail was a route natural history was mostly incom parted men wrapped a cloth about ofcommerce across the Great Plains. • prehensible to the European mind, the saints supplicated and put them The Anglo perspective on natural and these differences were an impor in captivity to hold them there as history was pre-Darwinian, al tant part of the cultural views that hostages for the safe return of their though the ideas of evolution were separated Indian and European so men. The bottom of the homemade popularized during the later years of cieties. chest, which was an article of furni Trail history. It should be noted that Indian and ture in every house, became the The prevailing European and European cultures also held conflict prison of the saints: When the men American perspective on natural ing views of property and the use of came back the saints in those homes history was contained in the concept nature's bounty, a major source of were resurrected and a wake held in of the Great Chain of Being in which collision. Neither culture understood their honor and there was dancing every living thing was a link in that the other, making their relation and singing. In those homes where chain from the very bottom (perhaps ships difficult at best and dis'astrous the men did not return, the saints bacteria?) to the very top, which of at worst. This topic will be addressed were taken from captivity and bur course was the position ofhuman be again, briefly, in the final section. ied with sad and solemn ceremony.,,3 ings. Everything had its place in this The Hispanic culture of New Mex It may be noted the Gurule went hierarchy, everything in the chain ico was a blend of American Indian to Kansas City. On the return trip had existed since creation, and noth and European views, including a his wagon train left the Santa Fe ing new was developing and nothing combination of Indian and Catholic Trail, went to Hays City, and worked in the chain could become extinct. beliefs based on the assumption that on the construction of the railroad The foundation for this perspective nature responds to human spiritual for several months. In time they was found in Aristotle and Christi I ~ actions. There was more influence of anity, and it supported the view that ., loaded the wagons with commodities supernatural beliefs in the Hispanic brought to Hays City by the railroad everything in the natural world is American culture than in Anglo and returned to Las Vegas. Along the there for human exploitation and use American culture, with common be because humans are the top of the , way they were hit with cholera, the , liefs in witchcraft, ghosts, possessed disease that ravaged people along all chain. There was, in this view, a be animals, and other such phenomena; the trails in 1867. Gurule survived, lief in abundance. There was plenty, all of which are contrary to a ra- received pay of $8 for the entire trip, no matter how wasteful people might
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be. The slaughter ofthe bison, for ex look at some of the records of Anglo able succession of green undulations ample, would not endanger the sup travelers on the Santa Fe Trail may and flowery slopes, of every gentle ply ofbison for there were millions of provide further insight into the and graceful configuration, stretch them. views of the natural world. Clearly, ing away and away, until they fade Anglo-Americans were going Trail travelers were very much from the sight in the dim distance, through an era of change in which .aware of how close they lived with creates a wild and scarcely controlla the ideals of rationalism that domi nature. Note, too, the touch of ro ble ecstasy of admiration."7 nate,d the 18th century and provided manticism in some of these selec Katie Bowen wrote the following the most scientific view of nature up tions. after the fifth day of travel out of to that time was being challenged by John Taylor Hughes, private sol Fort Leavenworth on June 25, 1851. the development of romanticism, dier in the Missouri Mounted Volun Katie recorded both the beauty ofthe with its love of nature and idyllic at teers and part of the Army of the land and the hazards oftraveling the titudes. Although most Anglos saw West in 1846, was observant of the Trail: "The scenery all along is the natural phenomenathey encoun natural scene: charming, what is called the rolling tered (land, flora, and fauna) as a "Early on the morning of the 21st prairie, fine grass and wood along largely hostile environment to be [of July, 1846] we continued' our the banks of the streams. Flowers overcome so they could reach their march, winding along the north mar grow in the greatest abundance and goal and, with luck, make a profit gin of the [Arkansas] river, leaving in great varieties. I wanted to get out which was· often foremost, even more the main Santa Fe Road by the Ci and pick some of each kind to press, important than any sense of adven marron at the crossing. This part of but they change in every few miles ture on the Trail, some also held a the country abounds, in serpents, and it would not do to stop the wag reverence for nature. Among Anglos cameleons, prairie lizards, horned gon so often.' Our second camping traveling the Trail and writing about frogs, dry-land turtles, and the ground was as pretty a place as I their experiences, Matt Field stands whole tribe of the entomologist. ever saw, a sharp rise on the bank of out as the leading romantic. Grasshoppers are as numerous as ,a cool clear stream and no flies to When he and a companion came were the locusts sent by the afflicting trouble us. We have found delicious upon a large buck deer at Cotton hand of Providence in swarms upon water thus far and tonight we have a wood Creek in 1839, Field wrote: the land of Egypt. To cheer the soli clear sweet spring to fill our jars "Our rifles were loaded in our hands, tude and break the monotony of the from. I have a stone jug covered with and with leisurely aim we' might plains, in many places a rich variety flannel which we keep wet and the have planted a ball in the creature's of flowers blossom and brush 'waste air keeps the water cool. Isaac has a heart as it stood with its nose in the their sweetness on the desert air.' chart with all the camping places put water.... But we were young travel The prairie pink or yamper is an ex down and marked with or without lers, and as yet the love of Nature quisite flower of a rich purple color. wood and water as the case may be had not given place to the hunter's The root of this plant IS bulbous and and ofcourse where there is none we fiercer passion. The idea never oc esculent. When dried the Indians will carry from the last place. I do not curred to us of what a treasure of use it for bread. The blue lily of the anticipate any difficulty in the want game was there almost inviting our bottom prairie, the white poppy, and of wood and water. Last night we powder and shot. We never thought the mimic morning-glory are inter camped at "Soldier creek" where the of firing, but paused in utter forget esting specimens of prairie flowers, ox wagons were crossing nearly all fulness ofaught save the rare beauty and would do honor to the finest gar day. One of the soldiers who had of the scene before us. The noonday dens of Missouri."s been hard at work all day went in to stillness, the IIIurmur of the glassy The romantic view of nature fig bathe at night and got into a deep water, the delightful shade in con ured in other descriptions. Thomas hole where he went down to come up trast with the heat of the blazing Jefferson Farnham left Independ no more. His comrades immediately prairie, and the living tenants ofthe ence with a pack train on May 30, went in after him but could not find solitude standing so fearlessly before 1839, and was impressed with the him and although they watched us, . all gave rise to ,sensations of beauty of the land when he left Mis nearly all night and dragged the pleasure really resembling a fairy in- souri and crossed into Indian terri stream in several places, they had to fluence.,,4 , tory, now Kansas: . leave this morning without finding him to bury."s .. There were also references to di "Before us were the treeless plains vine forces in some Anglo accounts, of green, as they had been since the A few days later Katie wrote: giving them a perspective in common flood-beautiful, unbroken by bush "July 2nd. Still remaining at the with Indians and Hispanics. For or rock; unsoiled by plough or spade; same camp. More rain last night and Santa Fe traders of all cultures, sweetly scented ,with the first blos we all have to leave our beds and , when they were on the Trail, water, somings of the spring. " .. A lovely stand by the .tent poles to keep them grass, and wood were essentials, laJ).dscape this, ... so mazy and beau- upright. I never saw such continual with game an important part of the ,tiful was the scene."6 flashes oflightening or as bright and the rain did come down in the biggest diet. ·Everything else in nature was Edwin Bryant expressed a similar drops and the most of them. Yet we' seen as a challenge or blessing, an view in May 1846 as he followed the experience to be faced or an event to do not feel any ill effect from this con Trail to catch the road to Oregon and stant expo.sure. Not a stiff joint or be endured. California: "The view of the illimit- With those perspectives in mind, a cold have I heard complained,ofsince
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leaving Leavenworth. ... The Larned we have followed the Arkan when the panting oxen, with lolling roads are in a shocking state·and so sas, the river scarcely out of sight at tongues, seemed incapable of pro many bad crossing for oxen that they any time. I s'ay the river, for I don't ceeding. A halt was made, and they do not make more than five miles a know of any word that exactly indi were taken from the wagons, but ,,9· day. cates the place where a river ought to stood motionless. The wind blew a W. W. H. Davis, newly appointed be or has been, or is now but out of gale.... We sought every cover to to serve as U. S. Attorney for the Ter sight; and yet is just the sort of a avoid it. A messmate-one of those ritory of New Mexico, traveled the stream that the Arkansas is for this unfortunates who prefer the dark Trail by stagecoach in 1853 and later hundred miles. There it stretches side of a picture, and croak when· a published a wonderful account ofhis from half to a mile wide, all sand, cheerful word of encouragement is experiences in El Gringo: New Mex with sharply defined, generally pre needed-gave vent to his despon ico and Her People (1857). He de cipitate banks, studded with green dency, and sought to engender dis .,\ scribed the prairies in romantic islands, receiving creeks that are full content and fearful apprehensions; terms: of water, and yet not showing a drop he predicted we would lose our bag itself." 12 "To a person who has never been gage train, ifnot our lives, in the des upon the great American prairies, a They could dig for water in the ert. Indignant, and without a better trip across them can not be other- . river bed and have a good supply. answer, perhaps, I undertook to wise than interesting. Their appear Some places were without water. prophesy, and actually foretold the ance can hardly be imagined: to be The so-called Cimarron Desert be exact event, viz: that, pushing on, appreciated they must be seen. You tween the Arkansas and Cimarron within ten miles we would find water find yourself surrounded on every rivers was described by many, in and grass in some hollow, and buf side, and as far as the eye can reach, cluding Lieutenant Philip St. George falo too. After marching about that by a country almost as level as the Cooke who, in 1829, accompanied distance, we came to the sandy bed of sea, with an occasional gentle roll, Major Bennet Riley with an escort of a dry creek, and found in it, not dis like the ocean swell, to break the uni Sixth Infantry for the westbound tant from our course, a pool ofwater, versal evenness of the surface.... caravan as far as the Upper Crossing and an acre or two of fine grass.... Out on these great plains a person of the Arkansas River near Mter encamping we saw a few buf experiences different feelings than Chouteau's Island west of present falo, attracted doubtless by the wa when confined within cities and for Lakin. The troops encamped to await ter; and several were killed. Beyond est, and surrounded with the appli the return of the traders in the fall, our hopes, all our necessaries were ances of civilized life. He appears to but the caravan had not gone far thus ministered to; it seemed a spe- breathe deeper, and to increase in without the escort when Indians at cial providence." 13 . .. stature; the sky seems to be bluer tacked and killed one man. Major The physical characteristics ofthe and clearer, the air purer, and the Riley marched his command to the plains were depressing to Susan sun to shine more brightly. The relief of the caravan and accompa Shelby Magoffin. On July 11, 1846, earth expands in size, and the vast nied the traders another day. Cooke she wrote of the plains after leaving ness spread out on every side gives described the land and their experi Pawnee Fork and heading west: "Oh him a. higher appreciation of the im ences: how gloomy the plains have been to mensity of God's handiwork. The "These 'sand-hills' compose a strip me today! I am sick, rather sad feel-" m~nd seems to become enlarged also, of country found occasionally a few ings and everything around corre in beholding the greatness of Na miles off, on the Mexican side of the sponds with them. ture's works, and a man who is not river, and where its valley has no "We have never had such a per insensible to such influences can not abrupt boundary; they- are irregular fectly dead level before us as now. fail to be made better and wiser by a hillocks of the loosest sand, seem The little hillocks which formerly trip across the prairies." 10 ingly formed by the sport ofthe wind. broke the perfectly even view have The scene changed as travelers There is scarce a sign of vegetation, entirely disappeared. The grass is . moved westward. Teenager Lewis and they present an aspect as wild perfectly short, a real buffalo and Garrard, traveling west on the Trail and desolate, and as little American, Prairie dog and rattle snake re in 1846, noted in Wah-to-Yah and as possible. gion." 14 the Taos Trail: "On leaving Council "Emerging from .the hills, we W. W. H. Davis provided a rare Grove, the verdure and scenery found ourselves on the verge ofa vast geological observation of Rock Creek change; the grass is much shorter, plain, nearly level, where it seemed in New Mexico: "We breakfasted at I' partaking of none of the luxuriant nature had ineffectually struggled to Rock Creek .... The geological for growth of the herbage a few days convert a sandy desert into a prairie. .mation of the rocks along the stream back; wooded creeks become scarce, There was a scanty and dwarfish is rather interesting. The banks are and timbered principally with sweet growth of wiry grass, brown and abrupt, and in many places perpen cottonwood." 11 withered, amid the white sand. On dicular. The rocks were originally It continued to change the farther we marched, under a fiery sun, fac formed by deposition in water, and one proceeded westward, and Joseph ing a burning wind. Not a tree, not a the strata can yet be distinctly Pratt Allyn wrote this description of shrub, nor the slightest indication of traced, as though hey had been laid . the Arkansas River in 1863: water could be seen in a view appar by a stonemason. The layers have "Since we left Pawnee Fork and ently illimitable in every direction. not been disturbed from their hori Thus we struggled on until noon, zontal position, and the attrition of
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water in times of freshets has worn lighting up the dazzling snow on "The 14th, 15th and 16th, were days many of the softer stones away, and their summits." 18 of more than ordinary hardships. left the harder ones projecting over New Mexicans on the Trail were With barely food enough to support the bed of the stream.,,15 also overjoyed to see the mountains, life, drenched daily by thunder Later, when the stagecoach an indication that they were nearly storms and by swimming and ford passed through the crestone south of back home again. Alphonso Wetmore ing the numerous drains of this allu Las Vegas, Davis observed, "The described one such incident in 1828: vial region, and wearied by the con- ridge appears to have been cloven "We were today gratified with a full .tinual packing and unpacking of our asunder by some great convulsion of view ofthe Rocky mountains ranging animals, and enfeebled by the damp nature, and a beautiful road made along to the right. When our Mexi ness of my couch at night, I was so through it wide enough for four wag can, from a hill top, caught a distant much reduced when I dismounted ons to pass abreast. The sides of the view of the mountain, he lept for joy, from my horse on the evening of the canon are formed ofimmense masses 16th, that I was unable to loosen the discharged his carbine, and ex ,I of rocks nearly perpendicular. The claimed, "Las luz de mis ojos, mi girth ofmy saddle or spread my blan original formation was deposition in casa, mi. alma;" light of my eyes, my ket for repose.,,33 .. water, but there has been a subse house, my love. Such emotions as Astronomical events, such as com quent upheaval, as well as a subjec these, we call in Spanish, amor de la ets and meteor showers, were seen tion to intense heat, which has dis patria [love of country]." 19 by peoples of all three cultures. placed the strata, which now lie atan Along the Trail all aspects of na There were few references to the sky, angle of about 45°, with the dip to ture were encountered. Marion but Matt Field wrote a speculative ward the east.,,16 Sloan Russell recalled, many years poem, raising one of the questions Albert Pike's party, as did many after her first trip over the Trail at about the universe still begging an travelers, rejoiced when they saw age seven in 1852, the many storms: answer: the mountains ofNew Mexico, partly "Frightening thunder storms came Moonlight upon the great prairie because they knew they were near up suddenly. They would sweep over About this word good speakers vary ing the end oftheir journey, but also, us, and away they would go as sud Since the vulgar acceptation as Pike expressed so eloquently, they denly as they had come.... The prai And not the true pronunciation were out of the Great Plains: ries would darken and then would BecatJse it easier makes a chime "In the prairie we are· alone; we come a mighty clap of thunder and a And flows most natural into rhyme have that same desolate, companion sheet of drenching water would fall Moonlight upon the great prairies! less feeling of isolation, so well ex from the skies upon us. ... So we Ah! would the moon were yet more bright, pressed by Coleridge. We separate would sit [in the covered wagon] ourselves from our companions, and through wind, water, thunder, and Or could I·but a candle carry To paint the beauty of the night! turning our mind inward to a consid lightning. Then, as suddenly as it From under my musquito bar eration ofits own hidden joys or mis had come, the. storm would pass I gaze upon each lovely Star eries-its memories or anticipations, away. We would emerge then from And yon great lantern of the Sky we pass over the desert as men pass the wagons to stretch our cramped Riding refulgently on high. through a glimmering and lonely limbs and to see the golden sun shin And is yon little twinkling light dream. But the mountains are our ing through the scattered clouds. Al Burning so far away in either companions. We lose that feeling of ways we saw our storm, a tattered The center of a system bright solitude and oppression at the heart, beggar, limping offacross the distant hills. Looking back now it seems to That binds yet unseen worlds to- and in its stead is an expansion and gether? . an elevation of the mind, as thought me that we had a thunder storm al most every day.,,2o . Yon myriads in the milky way, the great spirit, which, as fancy Planets and peopled worlds are might imagine, inspires the mighty On July 3, 1846, traveling along they?23 mountains, was enterin~ into the the Arkansas valley toward Pawnee The phenomenal meteor shower of heart and abiding there." 7 Rock, Susan Magoffin described a November 12, 1833, reported as Lydia Spencer Lane, wife of army storm: "A thunder storm at sunset on "hundreds of thousands of shooting officer William B. Lane, recalled, "It the Prairie is a sublime and awing stars" and referred to by the Kiowas was always a pleasure to us when go scene indeed. The vivid and forked as the "winter the.stars fell," was ing towards New Mexico to sight the lightning quickly succeeded by the witnessed by the peoples of all three Spanish Peaks, the highest of the hoarse growling thunder impresses cultures. Although no Trail travelers Taos Mountains, crowned with per one most deeply.,,21 The next day, recorded this (no one may have been petual snow. It was· a change from July 4, Susan carved her name on on the Trail at the time), this great the everlasting grass-covered Pawnee Rock and suffered the upset meteor shower was widely noted and stretch, which we had for weeks at a of her Rockaway Carriage while given supernatural attention. The time, east, west, north, and south of crossing Ash Creek . Indians were reported as especially us. We never seemed to get closer to The rains could be taxing, as Tho alarmed.24 David Lavender noted the Peaks. ... They were always mas Jefferson Farnham, with the other responses in Bent's Fort: "In there, grand and beautiful, in the 1839 pack train, wrote after·crossing Independence frightened Missouri early morning with the first rays of the flooding Little Arkansas River in ans were convinced that heaven was the sun upon them, and at evening mid-June: protesting against recent mobbings with clouds of gold and crimson
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and whippings of the Mormons. In described the beginning of winter up. I have often thought if I ever be Santa Fe horrified Mexicans were' that struck while they were on the come a childish old woman my de sure that the state had brought a Cimarron in the autumn of 1831. light will be to pick up sticks, re flaming curse on itself by denying Winter weather could be one of the membering how valuable a piece of certain privileges to the Church." most destructive forces of nature wood was in a country where there And the Cheyennes encamped near faced by Trail travelers. Pike wrote: were no trees.,,28 .' Bent's Fort thought death had come "Mter striking the Semaron, that Firewood was a problem, and so for them. "While the skies dripped saltest, most singular, and most were prairie fires. In the fall of 1861, fire, while William Bent and other abominable of all the villanous after the Civil War erupted in the traders watched from the fort's un streams of the prairie, we went States and in New Mexico, Lydia finished walls, the visiting warriors crawling up it for forty miles, with Spencer Lane, with her children and decked themselves in full battle re our jaded oxen, at the rate of about servants, left New Mexico and made galia of feather and paint, lance and eight miles a day, and about the first her fourth trip across the plains with shield. They could not fight this fear of November we reached the middle troops accompanying paroled u.s. ful thing. But at least they could die spring ofthe Semaron. Before reach troops from Fort Union to Fort Leav like men. They mounted their ing this point, my horse ran off in a enworth. While the travelers were ~,.... horses. Women cried and children storm, one night, and left me to walk camped in Kansas a fire burned • I shrieked; in the fort the dogs howled the rest of my way to Santa Fe. I had through the camp, destroying almost back at the chorusing wolves. Chant no particular objection, for. :. it was everything. As Lydia recalled, after ing their death dirges above the din, altogether too cold to ride.... We she was in her tent for the night, she the warriors rode in a single file reached the spring in the middle of a heard the fire and looked out to see around the tepees, under the shadow light snow, accompanied as it had what was happening: "The grass was ofthe great mud bastions." Lavender been heralded, by a keen, biting on fire, and the flames, driven by the concluded that it was an omen sig north wind.... We camped, and com wind, leaped a hundred feet at a naling the beginning of the end of menced gathering the dry ordure of time. It was a fearful sight. I knew Cheyenne culture as it then existed, the buffalo for fuel-the only salva instantly our only safety was in and end brought in part by Bent's tion of the journeyer in the prairie, flight, and not a second must be Fort: "Little though Bent, St. Vrain as the hours of the night ware away, wasted.... We fled down the side of & company may have i~tended the the snow fell thicker, and the cold the hill and into the water, ... then doom, or even thought about it, ... grew more intense. At half past one, up the opposite bank, never looking the star of the Cheyennes could do I was called out to stand guard. I back until we had the water between nothing but dim.,,25 strapped my blanket round me, us and the fire.... For some reason astronomical shouldered my gun, and was ready to "... There were but few ofthe offi events seemed to be more powerful stand as sentry till nine in the morn cers' tents left, and, if it had been portents than other components of ing. : .. For about half an hour, I planned to burn ours, the purpose the natural world. The powerful paced back and forth on the rod and could not have been better carried Comet Donati (named for its discov half of line allotted me-in snow out. The fire came straight towards erer, Italian astronomer Giovanni about a foot deep. The storm was them, and nothing was left in our Battista Donati), visible during over, and the wind every moment pretty camp but one big wagon and August-November 1858, was noted grew more intensely cold. At length the running-gear of the ambulance. by Trail travelers. David Kellog, my feet forced me to the fire.... In the morning my feet were so swollen "Only the irons that had been on member of a party seeking gold in the ends of the poles were to be seen Colorado, followed the Santa Fe that I could with difficulty move and ... a horse froze to death within of our tents. Beds, table, chairs, Trail where he recorded the follow mess-chest, everything we had for ing on September 26, 1858: ten feet of me. Great God! how those animals suffered.'>27 camping was gone.... Desolation "Camped on Cottonwood Creek was on every side; the whole country where we find fine bottoms and con Wood was scarce and bison chips was black with the remains of the siderable timber.... The comet has were fuel. Any piece of firewood was burned grass.'m valued, as Lydia Spencer Lane re been very brilliant for the last two . In 1855 Major William Thornton evenings; it stretches clear across called in her memoirs of a trip west ward on the Trail in 1860: "When traveled. . the Trail to New Mexico the Western sky. The great firebrand with a military escort and unit of re and the glittering stars make night wood was abundant we laid in a sup ply for future use, carrying a log of cruits. He recorded in his diary for seem enchantment and this en July 16, 1855: "Resumed our March chanted land. The night watch fatty pine perhaps a hundred or two hundred miles chained under a at day light and encamped at 10A.m. passes quickly by as we gaze at the about 22 Miles from the little Arkan flaming wonder in the heavens...."A wagon, and using it very sparingly to kindle the fire. Anyone fortunate saw on Cow Creek. Many Buffalo few days later, on October 11, Kel and Indians in our Neighbourhood. enough to find a piece of wood, log's party met Kiowas and Arapa At Noon a fire broke out, Caused by hos on a buffalo hunt. He recorded: dropped by a passing train possibly, was the envy of the camp. neglect of Some Servants in lighting "All the Indians met lately predict a the dry grass. The wind was high & a hard winter on account of the "To this day, when I see a quantity comet.,,26 [it] Spread rapidly, and in a few Mo ofgood chips lying in the street, I can ments we lost all of our Company Winter could be fierce. Albert Pike hardly refrain from gathering them tents and Most of the Men's Knap
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Sacks, and baggage. Also about 60 On horseback with a loaded gun. ment of Missouri Mounted Volun of our Muskets were badly burned, A second now app'3ars in view; teers, part of General S. W. Kearny's and by the fIring ofSome ofthem had And four of us now chase the two. Army of the West, recorded an en four Men wounded one dangerously And one escapes, the other lies counter with a rattlesnake on So. Fortunately Many of the Mus Tossing and snorting as he dies. August 7, 1846, west of Middle kets had been loaded by the intro The first shot entered his right eye, Spring on the Cimarron River, pres duction ofthe ball before the powder, He turned, and 'twas our turn to fly, ent Morton County, KS. which fortunately Saved Many But another sends him stumbling , ,,30 It was on this day that he also re IIves. down, corded the death of another soldier Hazards were plenty, and so were He rises, reels, and rushes on. whom Marc Simmons admonished bison (buffalo). Susan Magoffin ex And now he gasps upon the ground, us all to remember when we visit pressed her views on the bison on And sees his hunters gather round; Point of Rocks near Middle Spring: July 13, 1846: "Passed a great many Death from his left eye takes the light, "On the seventh we passed, at the And now 'tis dark as is the right. buffalo (some thousands) they foot ofthe hills near Middle spring, a We tear the warm skin from his back, crossed our road frequently within new-made grave, which the wolves His flesh we cut, his bones we hack T~ey had been scratching at. Found a two or three hundred yar.ds. And once more mounted, home we are very ugly, ill-shapen thmgs wlt.h piece of the head of a ~arrel. in the the~r go . 32 their long shaggy hair over Some fifteen mortal miles or so. grave, on which was wntten m pen heads, and the great hump on theIr Lewis Garrard declared: "One re cil: 'John Goose, of Pa., Mo. Battal backs and they look so droll run markable peculiarity is there about ion' died Aug. 2d, of the bite of a ta radtula, 9 days after infliction of ning. : .. They draw themselv.es in.to buffalo meat-one can eat beyond wound.' I have since learned that the a perfect knot switching theIr tails plenitude without experiencing any about, and throwing all feet I up at man belonged to Shepherd's co~ ill ef'i!lects.,,33 once.,,31 pany. He went to sleep while a senti Bison were food, but· the wolves Matt Field, on the Trail in 1839, nel on post, and the tarantula ha.d were enemies. In the autumn of 1831 crawled into his blanket and bIt recorded parts of his journal as po Albert Pike was a member of a cara etry. On July 23 he described a buf h1m.·" van led by Charles Bent, and Pike· "Stoppe~ falo hunt that took him through described the Cimarron Desert, buf Ferguson continued: at night a few miles past Middle sprmg. Cheyenne Bottoms: falo, and the ubiquitous wolves: "M Whilst hobbling his horse, Russell Our Bacon-box is running low, ter crossing [the Arkansas], we trav And we are out of Buffalo, elled about twelve miles through the was bitten by a rattlesnake and be ~he And "Walnut Creek" is running high sand-hills, and then came iJ?-to the came very much alarmed. One of Mexicans cured him in the followmg And the Waggons cant get over dry. broad and barren prairie agam. The And hints are hard of short allowance prairie, however, between the Ar manner. Made him swallow half a co~d Unless we kill a Bull or Cow hence. kansas and Semaron ... was not pint of whiskey, then tied a So mounted soon, our way we take, , around his forefInger (the end of hIS level but rather composed of im ~nd O'er hill, and hollow, plain & lake, men~e undulations, as though it had finger being the place bitten) cut it to the bone with a sharp kmfe, and Lakes, some of them a good mile once been the bed of a tumultuous wide, then seared or burnt the wound. His ocean-a hard, dry surface' of fine Without a ripple or a tide. hand was held down all night, and in gravel, incapable, almost, ofsupport And none of them too deep to wade. the morning all danger was pa~t. ing vegetation. The general featur~s , They seem as they were only ma~e Some of [the] boys, seeing that whIS of this whole great desert-Its stenl To raise Flys, long grass, & mosquitos, key was important in the cure of ~ ity, dryness, and unconquerable bar Those noxious little Ouriditos! [sur- snake bite, complained to the ~exl renness-are the same wherever I geons] . . can that they were bitten and wIshed have been in it. Our oxen were daily Ante meridian now IS past, to be cured as he had cured Russell. decreasing in number, and our train And we see a Buffalo at last. The Mexican, discovering the ruse, of wolves enlarging. I can give the A high spot, distant, dim and bl~ck, wished to cut the flesh first and ad- It might be grass, but we know hiS reader some idea of their number minister the whiskey.a fterwards.1',35 and voracity, by informing him ~hat back. ' David Kellog met his rattlesnake His hump so high, his head so low, one night, just at suns~t, we. killed • six buffaloes, and haVing time to while hunting buffalo on Septem?er His lazy motions well we kno",:. 30, 1858: "Today, while crawlm~ High on a hill he stands agrazlng butcher and take to camp only three, along a slight depression in the praI j The Sun so hot the grass seems blaz- we left the other three on the ground, Ing. skinned and in part cut up. The next rie to get inside the fringe of. bulls Around the hollow now we ride morning there was not a hide, a which are always surroundmg a Our figures from his view to hid~, . bone, or a bit of meat, within fifty herd ofbuffalo, I heard a sudden rat ,,34 A nd cautiously we mount the hili yards 0 f th e pace. 1 , tle just where I was about to put down my hand, and came .face-to Where all unwarned he grazes still. Wolves were a possible danger, face with a rattle-snake COIled for Alarmed at last, he either sees, and so were snakes and tarantulas. Or sniffs our presence in the breeze. A volunteer soldier in the Mexican business. In my eagerness to stalk the buffalo I had not noticed him. I And now the huge beast starts to run, War, Philip Gooch Ferguson, th.e was thrilled as with an electric shock A nd now begins the hunters fun. company clerk of Company D, Regl- Under the blazing, burning sun and, bounding to my feet, I placed
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my gun against the snake and blew themselves, and Magoffin seeing no curious" him to pieces. It was an ungracious other alternative than to remain He tried one place, and tried anoth~r, act on my part after he had given me there all night, tied his head and He smoke himself almost to smother, He rolled thick blankets tight around . fair warning, but' I had but one neck up with pocket handkerchiefs · ..' thought in my mind and that was to and set about having the tent h1m, kill that snake, and I was satisfied to stretched. I drew my feet up under And still by some strange art they see my cows, one of which I had se me, wrapped my shawl over niy found him, lected for my meat, go lumbering off head, till I almost smothered with Face, fingers, feet, toes, and sconce, over the plain."36 heat, and listened to the din without. He had to guard and scratch at once. And while his hands were busy • Travelers were fascinated with And such a noise as it was, I shall pray, ever to .be preserved. Millions scratching, prairie dogs. On July 19, 1851, Katie ~is.enemies upon millions were swarming . more work were hatching, Bowen wrote from her camp at Cow Till In despair, with one grand jump, •...) Cr~ek: "For several days we have around me, and their' knocking against the carriage reminded me of . He went into the river "plumb"; been passing through "dog towns." A nd there, with water all around him a hard rain. It was equal to any of They cover acres and acres, little His enemies could no more wound holes a few feet apart and deeper . the plagues of Egypt. I lay almost in him.39 . a perfect stupor, the heat and stings than anyone knows. We tried this Several travelers mentioned mi made me perfectly sick, till Magoffin morning to drown some out and rages. After leaving Bent's Fort fol- came to the carriage and told me to . ' poured many buckets full of water lowmg a delay for her miscarriage, run ifI could, with my shawl, bo~net into their holes without any success. Susan Magoffin experienced a com and shoes on (and without opening While running down the water mon phenomenon of the plains on my mouth, Jane said, for they would sounded 20 or 30 feet below the sur August 9: "And for the first time I choke me) straight to the bed. When I face. They are as big as kittens a . have seen the 'Mirages' or false got there they pushed me straight in week or two old and when we ap ponds. It is so deceiving to the eye under the musquito bar, which had proach, sit at the opening of their that the thirsty traveler often break~ been tied up in some kind of a fash holes and bark right sharply, wag from his party with anxious eyes and ion, and oh, dear, what a reliefit was their little tails and disappear. We heart to gain first the long wished for to breathe again. There I sat in my frequently see owls sitting on their luxury, but ere he reaches the brink holes and are told that with the rat cage, like an imprisoned creature it vanishes from his sight."4o frightened half to death. ... On tlesnake, they form a charming soci Marion Sloan Russell recalled the ety in their houses.,,37 awaking this morning I found my forehead, arms and feet covered WIth mirages: "There was the desert mi One of the most irritating experi rage, a will-'o-the-wisp that beck-, ences on the Trail was provided by knots. They were not little red places as musquitos generally make, but oned and taunted. Sometimes it mosquitoes. Susan M.agoffin, a would look like a party of mounted spoiled daughter of frontier aristoc they were knots, some of them quite as large as a pea.,,38 Indians and the women would cry racy, wife of a prominent Santa Fe and begin counting their children. Matt Field found inspiration to trader,and pregnant young woman Sometimes it would look like a tall write a poem about the mosquitoes: in her late teens, one of the first An- . castle set among the trees, or a blue g~o women to cross the plains, We question not the great design, lake with waves lapping white sand. vIewed nature along the Trail some Or aught that touches things divine. ' It danced ever before us through the what differently than the men. On But still should really like to find hot hours and only disappeared at the Trail between Cottonwood Creek For what musquitos were designed. sunset.,,41 and the Little Arkansas River the These hungry, bloody little creatures They've no respect for limbs or fea- Marion Russell traveled the Trail Magoffins encountered mosquitoes. several times and retraced the old On June 29, 1846, they left a camp tures. And with their pointed needle noses~ route in her later years, long after on the prairie "after a sleepless the railroad had replaced the wagon night, our tent was pitched in the They bite us in our evening dozes, A nd such a buzzing round us keep road. She reflected upon her associa musquito region.... It was slap, tion with the old Trail: "As I write slap, all the time, from one party of We can as easy fly, as Sleep. • Our blood to them I think is Brandy scenes of the old trail come flooding • :the combatants, while the others back to me: Places where the earth came with a buz and a bite." The next They suck it in like sugar candy A nd they are quick as they are thick, was like a Persian rug, thelavender, evening was worse. . ye~low I You may kill a hundred at a lick. re.d and wild flowers mingling ••1 "Now, about dark, we came into But who the Devil wants to kill WIth the silvery green prairie grass. the musquito regions, and I found to When 'tis our own blood that we spill! There' were'places where we saw my great horror that I have been And then for every one that dies, wild turkeys among the cottonwood complaining all this time for noth A hundred hungry ghosts arise. trees, and where the wild grapevines ing, yes absolutely for nothing; for To beat them off is all in vain ran riot. Always there were. buffalo. . some two or hundred or even thou . ' Twice doubled they retum again Sometimes we saw them walking sands are nothing compared with For they are quicker than the light, slowly in single file along their nar what we now encountered.... The And thieker-Yes-They darken night! row paths on the,way to some distant mules became perfectly frantic, and Poor Pill last night was fairly furious, water hole., The buffalo' are gone nothing 'could make them stand. For the way they tortured him "was now; gone, too, the sea .of grass. They were turned out to shift for
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When the railroads came the old by each society, and how did this af tion (1847; reprint, College Station: Texas trail was neglected. Weeds sprang fect relations? Because of their per A &M University Press, 1997), 80. 6. Thomas Jefferson Farnham, (Travels in the . up along its rutted way. The old trail, spective on natural history, the Indi Great Western Prairies (1841; reprint, the long trail over which once flowed ans were slow to object to Euro . Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1906), 15. the commerce of a nation, lives now American exploitation. By the time 7. Edwin Bryant, What I Saw in California only in the memory of a few old they realized what was happening (1848; reprint. Minneapolis: Ross & hearts. It lives there like a lovely, oft and retaliated, it was too late for Haines. Inc., 1967), 22. 8. Katie Bowen to Mother, June 25, 1851. repeated dream."42 them to stop the conquest of their Bowen Family Papers, United States . Those are samples ofobservations lands and cultures. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle of nature along the Trail by those How did differing views of nature Barracks. Pennsylvania. who traveled it. Trail literature is contribute to warfare? This was ref 9. Ibid" July 2. 1852. 10. W. W. H. Davis, EI Gringo: New Mexico filled with other examples. It is a erenced in the first portion ofthis es and Her People (1857; reprint, Lincoln: subject worthy of further study. As say, the inability of each culture to University of Nebraska Press. 1982), 24. ' .. promised, in conclusion, here are understand the other. Surely that 11. Lewis Garrard. Wah-to-Yah and the Taos some questions to ponder regarding failing created misunderstandings Trail (1850; reprint, Norman: University of the Trail and cultural perspectives that led to conflict. How did the three Oklahoma Press. 1955), 15. . 12. Joseph Pratt Allyn. West by Southwest. on natural history. The answers, if cultures view protection or destruc ed. by David K. Strate (Dodge City: Kan there are answers, depend on each tion of the environment along the sas Heritage Center. 1984), 75. person seeking to know more about Trail? How did the various levels of 13. Philip St. George Cooke, Scenes and Ad nature along the Trail. technology of these cultures affect ventures in the Army (Philadelphia: lind how they viewed nature? How do the say & Blakiston, 1857). 60. How did each culture adapt to the 14. Stella M. Drumm. ed" Down the Santa Fe forces of nature? Did they accommo various perspectives of nature and Trail and into Mexico: The Diary of Susan date themselves to nature, try to natural history help provide a better Shelby Magoffin, 1846-1847 (1926; re dominate it whenever possible, or a understanding ofSanta Fe Trail his print. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 1982), 47. combination of adaptations? My re tory? Do some of those 19th-century views of nature continue to the pres 15. Davis, EI Gringo, 43. search suggests that the Indians, 16. Ibid., 55. perhaps of necessity and perhaps as ent? If so, to what effect? And, fi 17. AIbert Pike. Prose Sketches and Poems, a result of their view of natural his nally, a question we all need to pon ed. by David J. Weber (1834; reprint, tory in which they were an integral der, what is the proper relationship College Station: Texas A&M University part, adapted best to the environ of humans to the rest of the natural Press, 1987). 235-236. world? The future ofcivilization and, 18. Lydia Spencer Lane, I Married a Soldier ment of the plains. They utilized (1893; reprint. AIbuquerque: University of available resources to achieve a vi possibly, life itself depends on how New Mexico Press, 1987). 91. able civilization that lasted hun societies throughout the world de 19. Quoted in A. B. Hulbert, Southwest on the dreds of years and which was de cide this endless problem. Turquoise Trail (Denver: Colorado Col lege and Denver Public Library, 1933), stroyed by the Euro-Americans who As we contemplate such questions 193. . came and decided the Indians were and think about the cultural atti 20. Marion Sloan Russell, Land of Enchant not making good use of the land and tudes toward nature, maybe we can ment (1954; reprint, Albuquerque: Uni took it from them. An Indian once gain a better understanding of the versity of NewMexico Press, 1997), 15-16. said that Indians knew better than history of the Santa Fe Trail and the 21. Drumm. Down the Santa Fe Trail, 39. various perspectives on natural his 22. Farnham, Travels in the Great Western to build homes on the flood plain but Prairies, 45-46. whites came and built next to the tory. Rendezvous 2000 was a begin 23. Sunder, Matt Field on the Santa Fe Trail, river and then built dams to control ning. This topic deserves further 19-20. the river. There were different per study, not justto gain a better under 24. Louise Barry, comp.. The Beginning of the spectives. standing of the past but to be better West (Topeka: Kansas State Historical So prepared for the future. Today, as in ciety, 1972). 251-252. This relates to a second question, 25. David Lavender, Bent's Fort (Garden did these cultures view themselves Trail days, one may hide but cannot City: Doubleday & Co., 1954). 150, 153, as part of nature or as superior to escape the overwhelming forces of 154. and therefore "authorized" to exploit the multifaceted phenomena of the 26. Simmons, On the Santa Fe Trail, 55, 59. natural resources regardless of the natural world: geography, geology, 27. Pike, Prose Sketches and Poems, 232- 233. consequences? Clearly, it seems, the plants, animals, weather, and astro • nomical events. 28. Lane. I Married a Soldier, 89. level of technology of the three cul 29. Ibid., 120-122. tures affected their ability to exploit NOTES 30. Wagon Tracks, 13:3 (May 1999): 21. , resources, but there was also a dif 1. John Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks (Lincoln: 31. Drumm, Down the Santa Fe Trail, 49. • ferent attitude among Indian socie University of Nebraska Press, 1961), 198 32. Sunder. Matt Field on the Santa Fe Trail, 199. 16-17. ties than among European people. 2. Marc Simmons, Witchcraft in the South Over time, partly because of trade, 33. Garrard, Wah-to-Yah and the Taos Trail. west (1974: reprint, Lincoln: University of 29. . Nebraska Press, 1980), 44. Indian .societies became more like 34. Pike, Prose Sketches and Poems, 231. those of the dominant Euro 3. Marc Simmons, ed., On the Santa Fe Trail (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 35. Ralph P. Bieber. ed., Marching with the American culture. 1986).125. Army of the West (Glendale: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1936), 310-311. How did the differing views of na 4. John E. Sunder, ed" Matt Field on the ture affect social relations among the Santa Fe Trail (Norman: University of 36. Simmons. On the Santa Fe Trail, 57. Oklahoma Press, 1995), 83-84, 37. Katie Bowen Journal, july 19, 1851. Bow three cultures. For example, how en Family Papers. was the slaughter of the buffalo seen 5. John Taylor Hughes, Doniphan'S Expedi-
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38. Drumm, Down the Santa Fe Trail, 31,33 with no good excuse. He was alerted account in less than 100 pages than 34. to this encounter after he spoke at what Dary does in over 300. 39. Sunder, Matt Field on the Santa Fe Trail, 18-19. the 1996 SFT Rendezvous by myself. For the legends, read storytellers 40. Drumm, Down the Santa Fe Trail, 72. He has sprinkled the text with a Henry Inman and Stanley Vestal 41. Russell, Land of Enchantment, 16. liberal number of errors. A few ex (Henry Inman, The Old Santa 'Pe 42. Ibid" 18-19. amples: Pedro Vial is credited with Trail: The Story ofa Great Highway, making peace with the Comanches New York: The Macmillan Co., 1897; (p. 44) without mention of Governor Stanley Vestal, The Old Santa Fe Juan de Anza's 1779 victory over the Trail, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Comanches that really led to peace. 1939). Both tell wonderful stories We learn that Jedediah Smith in and legends ofquestionable veracity, CONVERSE OF THE PRAIRIES 1822 had been over the Dry Route to but you know they are legends. -BOOK NOTICES~ Santa Fe and convinced William There is value in Dary's book. Get Becknell that wagons could be taken it from the library and look on every , ' David Dary, The Santa Fe Trail, Its over the trail (p. 76). Never mind page for misstatements, wrong infor- History, Legends, and Lore. New that Smith, in his own reminis mation, and bad writing. You won't York: AlfredA. Knopf, 2000. Pp. xii + cences, mentions nothing at all be disappointed. And ifyou check the 368. Maps, illustrations, glossary, about this significant occurrence. facts like Dary didn't, you will learn notes, bibliography,' index. Cloth, Dary exhibits no understanding of more about the TraiL, Read it at your $30,00. the import tax situation in New Mex chapter meetings and give a .prize to In a recent interview in the Albu ico when he says that the tax was the first one who notes a mistake and querque Journal (11/26/00, section computed on the arbitrary value set why it is a mistake. But bring plenty F, page 8) David Dary says he would by Mexican officials (p. 107). The tax of prizes, you'll need a lot of them. rather "be known as a journalist or duties set in 1824 were dearly an . -Harry C. Myers than a Scholar historian. 'I'm not a established amount based on' the ' revisionist historian.'" If being a value of the goods imported. " • . • • journalist means pedestrian writing, Dary missed the first name of Tom Dunlay, Kit Carson & the Indi Lincoln: University of Nebraska questionable facts on almost every [Robert] McNees who with Daniel ans. page, and the writing of a history Munro was killed in 1828 at what be Press, 2000. Pp. xx + 525. Illustra that would not have been current 20 came known as McNees Creek (p. tions, notes, index. Cloth, $45.00. years ago, then Dary succeeds as a 111). He says that it was "Samuel" Kit Carson's career in the Ameri "journalist." But in reality he fails as who was killed and that both Robert can West was at many points closely a historian and as a journalist. who was killed and Munro who was identified with the Santa Fe Trail. In His account of the Santa Fe Trail still alive were taken to Upper Ci a number ofcases, while on the Trail, is a straight chronological account of marron Springs and buried. It was he faced confrontation or even con who went where in which year. We only Munro who was carried on, flict with Indians, for example at get no understanding of why the died, and was buried at the Springs. such places' as Pawnee Rock, at a Trail came about and the forces in You could say that the book is po camp west of Fort Dodge, and Max well's ranch at Rayado, NM. Mexico and the United States that at litically incorrect in that it gives no first did not allow the Trail to exist understanding of the .people of the The subject of Dunlay's towering and then the changes that allowed it Southwest, but it gives no under book is Kit's attitude and conduct to to flourish. Since the publication of standing of the Anglo-Americans or ward Indian people during his resi Wagon Tracks over ten years ago, anyone else on the Trail. We learn in dency on the frontier. He successive and the establishment of the Na the final chapter that the SFT's true ly married two Indian wives; served tional Historic Trail, the amount of significance is Santa Fe, NM, as a as government agent for three tribes; new information on the Santa Fe modern-day tourist destination. and campaigned against hostiles, Trail has exploded. If you want to read a compelling first as a scout and afterward as a solder and a troop commander. We know more about the nature of story of the high adventure of the the trade. We know more about who Trail, Robert L. Duffus's The Santa Readers are urged by the author ,, came and went and are beginning to Fe Trail (New York: Longmans, to judge Kit's behavior in the context understand better why all this took Green & Co., 1930), even though of his own time, and to heed evi place. Dary does not acknowledge published in 1930, cannot be beat. If dence, such as that provided by con any of that new information. On the you want a good history of the Trail, temporary writers, who formed opin afternoon of November 13, 1821, Bill Brown's 1963study (William E. ions of his character based upon William Becknell and five others Brown, The NPS 1963 Historic Sites first-hand observations. This is a were met just south of present Las Survey, Santa Fe Trail, St. Louis: challenging and engrossing book, Vegas, New Mexico, by Captain Don Patrice Press, 1988) provides a con one that will help us achieve a better Pedro Ignacio Gallego and over 450 cise overview and one more accurate ,understanding of the westerning ex- . regular soldiers, militia, and Pueblo in 1963 than Dary's in 2000. Marc perience, and will also aid in coun .Indians searching for Comanche In- Simmons's essay on the Trail, con tering some of the' revisionist non- dians who had raided the cattle herd tained in Along the Smita Fe Trail, ,sense of our day. Reliable and at San Miguel del Vado. This excit (Albuquerque: University of New strongly recommended. ing encounter is ignored by Dary Mexico Press, '1986), gives a better -Marc Simmons'
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THE CACHES April." Students on site will trade celebrate her birthday. The Center their name for one taken from an old also presents an exhibit, Laura In -MUSEUM NEWS- . class roster in the same way that In galls Wilder: A Pioneer Life, January Anna Belle Cartwright, Editor dian students had to give up their 15 to March 31, 2001. The display tribal names for Anglo-American features portraits ofthe Ingalls fam (Please keep sending those newslet ones. The children will be introduced ily and fills exhibit cases with 19th ters, your important dates, and hap to the Indian curriculum of domestic century artifacts that help to bring penings to Anna Belle Cartwright, and vocational studies: farming, their pioneering adventures into fo SFTA Museums Coordinator, 5317 woodworking, and shoemaking for cus. Cave Springs is located right on Charlotte St, Kansas City MO 64110, the boys and sewing, cooking, spin the Santa Fe Tra.il and the spring e-mail
major restoration of the site's three vises on proper storage and encapsu Main Street), Trinidad CO 81082. < large brick buildings (classrooms lation. There is even a section on Call (719) 846-7217 for more infor and dormitories for young Shawnee tape preservation. The price of $12 mation. Indians, 1839-1854) and to expand includes postage. Order from West i Saturday, May 12, the Muse " . arid enlarge exhibits, including more ern History Manuscripts Collection, um's Trinidad and Santa Fe Trail In exhibits about American Indian University of Missouri at Kansas formation Center will be dedicated to tribes. Short Term Goals: She ex City, 5100 Rockhill Rd, Kansas City celebrate National Historic Preser plains, "We need to make ourselves MO 64110. vation Week.. The. Center is located more yisible in the community and Laura's 134th Birthday at the main entrance, in the Barlgow we need to increase our offerings. It's a yearly event now. At Cave Building at 300 Main St. On display: One new offering has been to intro Springs Interpretive Center in Kan Historic Colorado photos taken by duce 4th graders to, 'A Day in the sas City, when February 7 rolls Henry Jackson and contemporary Life of a Mission Student.' We have around, it is time to remember the photos of the same locations by John six schools coming for six days in writings of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Fielder. Free Admission too.
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TRAIL TROUBADOUR - Metamorphosis NAACP for the obelisk;s removal be by Alison Irvin cause it was found offensive to Indi -Traffic in Verse- How could I change so suddenly, ans. Again, one has to wonder if Sandra M. Doe, Editor I who have always loved the sea? there was any serious reading of the text. This column seeks poetry which Someway the memory's dimmer addresses the history, realism, ro In this column recently, I quoted Of the sea at dawn, Major Rafael Chacon who was in the mance, and diversity ofthe Trail and And the wave's pale platinum tracery demonstrates authentic - emotion, thick of the hand-to-hand combat at Of a moon's silver crescent; Valverde with his volunteer regi original images, and skill in crafts Now, instead, I'm loving ment. We fought like fury, he said, manship. Submit poetry, in open or Deserts at sunset, and the ground was soaked with closed form, along with a brief biog Hill-trails, etched in 'dobe. ~f blood, a horrible sight to see. The J raphy to Sandra M. Doe, Dept. Where few men have met; .- men who perished that day did so English, Campus Box 32, MetropolI Little low mud houses under a flag whose cause included tan State College of Denver, PO Box Trimmed with June-sky blue, the abolition of slavery. Therefore, I 173362, Denver CO 80217-3362. A fireplace in the corner would expect, the NAACP to have With a faulty flue; This poem, "Metamorphosis" by joined in protecting the plain, un Rainbow-bright serapes, Alison Irvin, was published in Sun lovely Plaza monument that stands Sunshine all day long, set Magazine in December 1926. as the only physical memento of A flat round purple mesa, Like its companion piece from the their supreme sacrifice. last issue of WT, "Hill Trails" by Ted A Mexican's high thin song- Olson,it was found in the Margaret One of the obelisk's inset marble Oh, I am glad I have changed, and tablets memorializes others who lost Long Collection at the University of suddenly, Colorado Archives. their lives in battles with Indians. 'Though I had always loved the sea. The original text read "savage Indi "Metamorphosis" speaks to the OUR HALLOWED MONUMENT ans," which, like it or not, was how experience of Trail travelers, their survivors regarded the particular extraordinary change-as if by by Marc Simmons killers of their friends and relatives. magic, as if by sorcery-their very The "offending" word, was chiseled transformation to admirers of the (This column appeared in the Santa Fe Reporter, August 16-22, 2000, away by a vandal in 1974, and only space and culture ofthe West "where the ugly scar remains. There is no few men have met," filled with "the and is reprinted here with special thanks to Simmons.) single word now that could possibly purple mesa." The poet draws on all be considered offensive. The refer the senses as she sketches adobe I have lost count of the number of ence to those who perished in the houses creates images of "rainbow- times over the last 30 years that I , - battles with Indians is simply a non bright serapes," and remarks upon and other historians have been judgmental statement of historical "sunshine all day lang." This trans obliged to rescue the Soldier's Monu fact. formation is accompanied by sing ment in the center of the [Santa Fe] ing, "the [New] Mexican's high thin Plaza from destruction or removal. The monument properly belongs song," and by color, a "June-sky That appears odd since it is one of to the people of New Mexico, rather blue," and by the smell of a fireplace the city's most sacred treasures. than to the city ofSanta Fe, its care burning. Do we smell pine or sage? taker. First authorized by the terri The latest flap seems to have been torial legislature in 1866, it was \ In contrast, the writer's previous initiated by a young lady, a new funded by a public appropriation of love, the "sea at dawn" is colorless or comer, who according to the press $1,500. The new memorial shows up "pale platinum" and only a part of wants the obelisk done away with in some of the earliest photographs the moon, its "crescent," is reflected because she and other peace-minded of the Plaza. In several of those im in the ever-moving waves. In staid people are horrified at seeing some ages, it is flanked by wagon trains ,full light, "sunshine all day long," the thing "dedicated to the domination of newly arrived over the Santa Fe writer muses that the old rippling federal troops over native people." Trail. Old soldiers and statesmen memory is "dimmer." Marc Simmons Of course, the monument is not like Colonel Diego Archuleta and accounts for the "hill trail" traveler's "dedicated" to any such thing. Like Governor Donaciano Vigil, had their metamorphosis in Following the most advocates of removal, she pictures taken in front ofthe pillar in Santa Fe Trail: A Guide for Modern seems never to have read the inscrip the 1870s and 1880s. I Travelers (p. xiv): "one must take -. tion, or ifshe has, to have completely The Soldier's Monument, in place into account the magic and beauty missed its historical meaning. In fact that persists in much of the land now for 132 years, has assumed con it is a memorial, honoring people siderable historical as well as senti scape through which the Santa Fe who gave their lives in defense of Trail passes." . mental value. It is the only -truly New Mexico. Their number included authentic relic left on the Plaza, eve The literature of the Santa Fe native Santa Feans who died heroi rything else, including the Gover Trail is filled with similar accounts cally at the Civil War battle of Val nor's Palace, have been drastically of transformation. Perhaps today's verde, trying to repel a Confederate . . altered in the 20th century. traveler might describe his or her InvaSIOn. - "metamorphosis." We Trail followers That-the -issue of the obelisk's More startling was the subse- preservation keeps recurring' sug" are listening. - ,quent call by the local chapter of the
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gests to me that Santa Fe's interest came an effective fort. Punche is a New Mexicanism still in its own history may only be skin The coi could be entered only used today. Itis a native tobacco long deep. Many see the past as valuable through a trap door in the roof, as ki grown in the Rio Grande Valley. Co solely for the commercial opportuni vas are today. Its dark chamber was lonial settlers produced large quanti ties it offers. Other, as in the present not suitable for daily living so it ties for the Indian trade. Corn husk case, view history simply as a re served the residents as a storage cigarettes made with punche were source to be exploited in the promo area, particularly as a granary. pretty strong, but the plant also had tion of their own social agendas. By 1870 or so, the pueblos were no value as a folk medicine, which is An example of the latter was seen longer subject to attack, so doors and why a few old-timers continue to last year in the "Obelisk to the He windows were opened in their first raise a bit of it, and the word sur roes," installed on the Old Santa Fe floors and the interior space con VIves. Trail. Touted as a parody of the verted to apartments, like those In standard Spanish, the term for Plaza obelisk and as a metaphor for above. The word coi dropped from dusty or dust cloud is polvareda. But "people's history," it was also misrep used and within a generation it was in New Mexico it became "cor resented, I believe, as a work of"art." forgotten. rupted," as language scholars say, How could anyone of sensitivity ap Another term, having a somewhat when the local people transposed the prove a project that slurs the mem similar history, was "genizaro," re two final consonants to produce pol ory of men who gave their lives in ferring to Indians, captured and ran vadera. (Actually, the new word battles that led to the banishing somed, who were assimilated into sounds better to the ear). slavery? It is disgraceful. New Mexican society. The royal gov .A small village north of Socorro is Visit the old abandoned State Ar ernment allowed them to establish called Polvadera. According to leg chives building on Montezuma their own communities on the fron end, the first settlers were debating Street. Across the front, these words tier. Belen, Abiquiu, and San Miguel what to call their new community, can still be read: "A nation that for began as genizaro towns. when the Lord spoke to them, saying' gets its past has no future." It's Hispanos looked down upon them, that if it did not rain by August 10, something to think about. as being crude and rustic bumpkins. the land would become a desert. OLD NEW MEXICANISMS A mother might admonish her As it happened, the rain did not naughty child: "Hijito. No seas come. Hence, the village fathers de by Marc Simmons genizaro," (that is, "Son. Don't act cided that it was appropriate to name their creation Polvadera (This column appeared in Albuquer like a genizaro'j. The meaning of (Dusty). que Prime Time April 8, 2000, and is that archaic expression would not be reprinted here with special thanks to understood at present. Sadly, our New Mexican Spanish Simmons.) . One of the most New Mexican of is slipping away. Many young people all words is cibola, preserved as a' do not speak it at all. Once lost, this I'VE long considered the variant of place name in Cibola National For treasure will be impossible to re the Spanish language spoken in New est and Cibola County. Coronado in cover. Mexico to be one of our country's 1540 knew the cluster of Zuni pueb great cultural' treasures. The local los as the Province of Cibola. POST OFFICE OAK speech is rich in pronunciations and Strangely, cibola (or cibolo) also be -LETTERS- vocabulary that are unique, having came the regional name for buffalo. evolved in place over the past 400 Editor: years. The Spanish language did not have a word for that New World ani I was especially interested in the I find especially fascinating those mal, so when it was encountered on letters regarding the Sand Creek regional words whose meanings are the northern frontier, pioneer folk Massacre in the last Wagon Tracks. closely connected to our history. Col called it simply a "vaca de Cibola," Silas Soule, author of one of the let lecting and studying such New Mexi or, in other words, a Cibola Province ters, was my grandfather's brother. canisms gives us small glimpses into cow. By the 17th century, cibola alone Malcolm Strom who submitted the a way of life, now largely gone. had come to mean buffalo, and buf letters is my youngest sister's hus Take the old word "coi," borrowed band. The Soule family in America falo hunters were known as cibole • from the Tewa language north of ros. goes back to George Soule of the th Santa Fe. In the 18 century, it was The reddish-brown American elk Mayflower. Byron Strom, my part·of everyday speech here. Coi nephew in Des Moines, Iowa, is an also presented a problem. Spanish I• was the name Spanish-speakers lacked a name for this creature, too. authority on Silas Soule. used for the first story, or floor, of So here in New Mexico, it was called Silas Soule was born in Maine on multi-level Indian pueblos. an "alazan venado," signifying a July 26, 1838. In 1854 his father, In the early days, remember, the "sorrel deer." Amasa Soule, and older brother, Wil first floor had no windows or doors. Elk were considered so exotic that liam Lloyd Garrison Soule, came to Outside ladders gave access to the the King ordered New Mexicans in Lawrence, Kansas, with the Emi roof and to the stair-stepped stories .the 1780s to capture several and ship grant Aid Society. The next year Si above. This arrangement allowed for them to Spain. They finally arrived las and his mother (my grand the drawing up of ladders in case of mother) and his sisters, Emily and and were placed on display at the Re attack, whereupon the pueblo be- Annie, followed. In 1859 Silas was a tiro Park in downtown Madrid.
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member of the group known as the mation about Wetmore. If anyone times tumbling against the cattle & "Immortal Ten" who rescued Dr. knows where more may be found, I waggon wheels & narrowly escaping John Doy, an abolitionist who was would appreciate hearing from being run over. Many men have lost captured while conducting escaping them. their lives by riding on their waggon David Maron tongues, . & falling under the wheels slaves on the Underground Railroad when asleep. However, sleep we must, through Kansas Territory and taken
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Mark Lambertson hopes the signs and freight wagon. They hope it is teacher). Membership in the FKH is will bring additional visitors to the completed in time for the Grassland $10 per year for individuals and $20 museum. Heritage Festival planned for tne for families. • • • • end of May and early June. • • • • H. Denny Davis, Fayette, MO, • • •• A new Kaw Mission State Historic longtime SFTA member and leader Congratulations to Dan and Carol Site website, "An Intersection of Cul of the Franklin, M0, efforts to be in Sharp on the tenth anniversary of tures" designed by Deb Pryor ofKan cluded in the SFNHT, has retired their agreement with the National sas State University, is now online at from more than 50 years in journal Park Service that designated Auto
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the USDA Forest Service and En (806) 371-9309 from the site of the ranch to the dowment for the Arts for the Grass
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Trail ride, a meeting was held vandalism to the schooL Weare now Over 100 riders participated in July 7 to plan a ride for 1988. Com involved in restoration ofthe school's the 2000 Trail ride from near mittee members were Don Cress, west wall which fell out in 1995. Frankfort to the Jeffrey Energy chairman, Joleen Day, secretary, . In September 1994 we began in Center, up to the Skyline Scenic and Jack Gieswein and Dean Spit stalling interpretive signs along the Drive, to Old Highway 4, and on 'to tIes, members. Trail, placing the first signs at the Council Grove. Nature provided a The 1988 Trail riders started at Trail ruts west of Council Grove. In spectacular thunderstorm for the the Osage' County fishing lake, south October we sponsored a horse sale as interest ofthe riders while they were of Topeka, and rode west to Council a fund raiser for the chapter. In No on Skyline ridge. Mapping of the Grove for the Wah-Shun-Gah pa vember we held the first organiza Trail began by GSP and work rade. We then continued west on tional meeting for the 1999 SFTA continued on the Wilmington School Suriday morning and ended at Can Symposium which was to be held in House. ton on Thursday. Council Grove. End of the Trail The chapter officially formed on a Interpretive signs were placed in President Tom Steel Sunday afternoon in August 1988 af 1995 at 142 Mile Creek and Old Al 12919 Chitalpa Place ter a short Trail ride to the Council len town site, Six Mile Stage Station, Albuquerque NM 87111 Grove City Lake for a picnic and and the Old Stone Barn. (505) 821-5805 meeting. On November 10, 1988, the The highlight of 1996 was the
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Corazon de los Caminos tation of the Lower 0Nagon Bed) COLORADO SFT PHOTOS President Faye Gaines Spring.. AvAILABLE ON CD HC 60 Box 27 Dodge City/Fort Dodge/Cimarron Springer, NM 87747 . IN late 1998 the Bent's Fort Chap (505) 485-2473 Ann Warner ter- of the Santa Fe Trail Association [email protected] 10072 120 Rd .received partial grants to obtain aer Spearville KS 67876 ial photographs of all the Trail in No report. (620) 385-2456 Colorado. This consists of 176 miles Wet/Dry Routes The November 19 meeting at of the Mountain Route and 14 miles President Lon Palmer Dodge City, a joint meeting with the of the Cimarron Route. Nearly 600 Wet/Dry Routes Chapter, featured a • 358 W 8th St low-level photos were taken at a Hoisington KS 67544 program by Janice Klein about "Rob scale of approximately 1"=500'. (620) 653-2827 ert's Trunk," a study unit about the Every other photo was prepared into The fall meeting was a joint meet TraIl available to schools. .a presentation sheet showing the .- ing with the Dodge City/Fort Dodgel The chapter is celebrating its 10th public land system (sections and Cimarron Chapter at Dodge City. anniversary this year. The quarterly townships) for orientation purposes. The business session included re meeting was set for February 25 at The approximate location of the ports of the mapping/marking com the Kansas Heritage Center in Trail alignment is also shown. Many mittee, chuck wagon committee, and Dodge City, with Heritage Center Trail scars are evident on the photos. the seminar scheduled for April 28 Director Jim Sherer presenting a Mter additional man hours ofprepa with the Fort Larned Old Guard. program on the Santa Fe Trail ration, the presentation sheets are The program by Janice Klein was Elderhostel tour offered each year. now available on CD Rom in a "tif' about "Robert's Trunk," a collection Other business included election of format. Any IBM compatible or ofTrail material available for loan to officers. McIntosh computer with graphics schools. Missouri River Outfitters program can be used to examine the The winter meeting was at Kins President Roger Slusher photos. The two CD's include an in ley, KS, on January 14, 2001. In dex map, instructions, and the photo cluded in the business session were 1421 South St Lexington MO 64067 sheets as organized by county direc reports from the seminar, chuck wa (660) 259-2900 tory. gon, and Faye Anderson committees. David Dary, author of The Santa You can order your two CD's ofthe Rusti Gardner also reported on the Fe Trail, spoke on January 21,2001, Santa Fe Trail in Colorado for $59.95 work of the Western Alliance which at a joint meeting of the chapter and plus $4.50 shipping and handling. is designing a tour ofKansas related the Friends of the National Frontier Colorado residents add $2.40 sales to the Santa Fe Trail to be marketed Trails Center. tax. Order from PSP Enterprises, PO to European audiences. The officers Box 357, La Junta, CO 81050. Allow elected for 2001 are President Lon The annual election of officers for up to three weeks for delivery upon Palmer, Vice-President Barbara MRO will be in ApriL The chapter will also celebrate its 10th anniver receipt of check or money order. German, Secretary-Treasurer Anita Mter expenses are met, remaining Thomas, Program Director David ·sary in ApriL proceeds will go to Bent's Fort Quivira Clapsaddle, and past-president/Con Chapter's marking of the Trail sultant Rusti Gardner. No report. projects. The Faye Anderson Award for Cottonwood Crossing 2001 was presented to Larry Mix, St. HELP WANTED John, webmaster of the WetlDry President Dale E. Brooks I~~--I Routes Chapter Web Site, by Joan 316 W 16 St I am seeking biographical infor Forrest of Larned, daughter of Faye Newton KS 67114 (620) 283-6454 mation on a James Stokes, a traveler Anderson. Faye Andereson was a No report. on the Santa Fe Trail in 1862. He faithful, outstanding, contributing was from Texas, but there are sev charter member of the chapter and Bent's Fort eral James Stokes in Texas during the originator of the famous Buffalo President Mark Mitchell that time. Ifanyone has or can direct Chip cookies. Among Mix's contribu Comanche National Grassland me to information about this man, I tions to the 8FTA and the Wet/Dry 1420E3rdSt will be most gratefuL Thank you. Routes Chapter are the chapter's ex La Junta CO 81050 Richard J. Ulbrich tensive web site, Trail research, and, (719) 384-2181 PO Box 905 related historical issues. He received The annual meeting was January Middlebury CT 06762 a SFTA Award of Merit in 1999. A 20, 2001, in Las Animas, CO. The •••• lifetime membership in the chapter business meeting was followed by a I have a collection of 16 Zane Grey as well as a plaque accompanies the program by Alice McDonald, "Home books, some dealing with the Santa honor. steading the Dry," and the history of Fe Trail, which I would like to sell. If Following the business session, a the black settlement south of Man interested, please contact me. well-received program by Ed Dowell zanola. The chapter will host the six Evalyn Stull and Jeff Trotman was presented on western chapters meetingJune 9-10, PO Box 134 the history and present interpre- 2001. See article on page 1. Chase KS 67524
February 2001 .Wagon Tracks 27
Published by UNM Digital Repository, 2001 27 , . Wagon Tracks, Vol. 15 [2001], Iss. 2, Art. 1
YOUTH MEMBERSHIPS N;.;;.;E;..W SF_TA__M_E_M_B_ER"",S_...II Trail Information Center, 300 E I...... ,;,;. Gabrielle Joret Bayless, 7955 N 73rd SI, Main, Trinidad, CO, (719) 846-7217. This list includes new member Longmont CO 80503 May 20-June 9, 2001: Grassland ships receiv;ed since the last issue. Sterling Wyatt Dietz, 201 S Carmelina Heritage Festival, Elkhart, KS, con Those received after this printing Ave, Los Angeles CA 90049 tact Helen Brown (620) 697-2833. will appear in the next issue. Ifthere May 26-28, 2001: Santa Fe Trail is an error in this information, TRAIL CALENDAR Days, Larned, Santa Fe Trail Cen I~---I please send corrections to the editor. ter, and Fort Larned NHS. We thank you for your support. Everyone is invited to send no tices for this section; provide loca June 9-10, 2001: Old Spanish Trail BUSINESS MEMBERSHIPS tion, date, time, and activity. This is Association annual symposium, San ".,, Arrow Rock Craft Shop, Arrow Rock MO a quarterly. The next issue should Bernardino County Museum, Red 65320 appear in May, so send information lands, CA. Contact Rick Whitaker Kansas Trails Council, 1415 Chelle Ct, EI for June and later to arrive by April (909) 792-6315. Dorado KS 67042 20,2001. Thank you. July 4, 2001: Old Time Independ Quarterage Hotel at Westport, 560 Mar. 4,2001: Leadership Council of ence Day celebration, Fort Larned Westport Rd, Kansas City MO 64111 the Partnership for the National NHS. Westport Merchants Association, 4123 Trails System, Washington, DC, con Aug. 12-18, 2001: aCTA Annual Mill St, Kansas City MO 64111 tact Gary Werner (608) 249-7870. Convention, Casper, WY, (816) 252 FAMILY MEMBERSHIPS Mar. 17, 2001: End of the Trail 2276. Cherie & Steve BirkbeCk, 805 Liberty, Chapter meeting, Folk Art Museum, . Sept. 9-28, 2001: SFT Bike Trek, Clay Center KS 67432 Santa Fe. contact Willard Chilcott at (505) 982 Philip & Elaine Fallon, 19 S Lenox St, Mar. 20, 2001: Deadline to submit 1282. Worcester MA 01602 candidates to the nominating com Sept. 26-29, 2001: 3rd International Yvonne & Patrick 0'Brien, RR 1 Box 19A, mittee. Trails and Greenways Conference, Cimarron NM 87714 Mar. 31, 2001: SFTABoard meet sponsored by Rails to Trails Conser INDIVIDUAL MEMBERSHIPS ing, St. Francis Hotel, Santa Fe, NM. vancy, at St. Louis, MO, (202) 974 Bill Bockius, 2605 Robin Lane, Musko April 28, 2001: WetlDry Routes 5152. gee OK 74403 Chapter 5th Annual Symposium on Sept. 27-30, 2001: SFTA Sympo A Ian Bradford, 122 Park Ave, Santa Fe the Santa Fe Trail and the Civil War sium, Las Vegas, NM. Contact Steve NM 87501 . and Fort Larned Old Guard annual Whitmore, 120 Gabaldon Rt, Las Ve Leonard Goldberg, 2607 A rlington Blvd meeting, Fort Larned NHS and In gas NM 87701, (505) 454-0683. #101, Arlington VA 22201 Joe Knowles, Dos Rios Ranch, Springer dian Village on Pawnee Fork, (888) .FROM THE EDITOR NM 87747 321-7341. Reservations required by April 16, (620) 285-6911. The errors of medical information Beverly K. Nicholson, 9449 SW Stewart in Bob Mallin's statements, pp. 5-6, Rd, Wakarusa KS 66546 April 28, 2001: Texas Panhandle should be a challenge to anyone in J. Doug Ryan, 29951 Happy Sparrow Chapter, Wildcat Bluff Nature Cen terested in frontier medical history. I' Lane, Laguna Niguel CA 92677 ter, and Amarillo Botanical Gardens apologize for including it. C. D. O'Leary-Siemer, 2227 Utah NE, M festival. Call Kathy Revett Wade at buquerque NM 87110 (806) 371-9309 or e-mail
28 Wagon Tracks February 2001 https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/wagon_tracks/vol15/iss2/1 28