Santa Fe National Historic Trail NRA Whittington Center NRA Whittington Center—Frank Brownell Museum of the Southwest National Park Service Santa Fe Trail, 1821-1880
You can see Red River Peak, the mountain in this painting by Ronald Kil, by looking north.
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Raton Midd r OLORADO ve seeking a change in fortune, Civil War Cimarron ARRO IM ima ron Cimarron was an important stop for wagon trains veterans looking for a new start on life, Elkhart 25 OKLAHO You are here. MA on the Mountain Route. Many buildings, such es ing and gold seekers heading for California. 64 McNe as the courthouse, jail, stagecoach office, and a 87 Cros 56 Cimarr Boise City ado t of Rock E gambling house, still remain from that era. The Ra UT Poin O As with the travelers’ oxen, wagon, 21 RON Springer M A town is located on Highway 64. TEXAS it Ea 25 Rab supplies, and trade goods, firearms were Clayton 56 a necessary item for the arduous journey. men ound onu n M 87 al ag North
NEW MEXICO Fort Un ation 50 10 Kilometers
SANTA FE 10 Miles 50
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a Watrous (La Junta) Santa Fe Trail Timeline 25 iver Vegas Las Vegas as Plaza
84 New York i City 1821 Mexico gains independence from ta Fe a a MEXICO UNITED Santa Fe Spain. William Becknell makes STATES his first successful trade trip into 1840 New New Mexico from Missouri. Orleans Fort Union Fort Union protected the western end of the trail Wagon trains The Santa Fe Trail linked a system of 1825 US government survey of the loaded with trade international trading routes. Goods heading Colorado Franklin and maintained well-supplied warehouses for Kansas goods took from six east were transported on rivers and canals Missouri Santa Fe Trail. both military units and private caravans reaching weeks to two and to reach the ports of New York City and New one-half months to Orleans. El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro the fort from the east. Follow the signs off I-25 Santa Fe Oklahoma make the trip. connected Santa Fe to Chihuahua, Mexico, 1834 Bent’s Old Fort completed. east of Las Vegas, New Mexico. New Mexico and sites farther south.
1846 War declared between US and Mexico.
1850 New Mexico becomes a territory of the US.
1851 Fort Union established to protect trail commerce.
1861 Civil War begins; ends in 1865. Point of Rocks Boggsville Historic Site Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site Used as a landmark for traders heading west, Boggsville is about two miles south of Las Bent’s Old Fort is north of the Arkansas River, 1880 Railroad arrives in Santa Fe and Point of Rocks had a fine spring. This outcropping Animas on Colorado 101. This small community eight miles east of La Junta on Colorado 194. was a popular campsite for various Indian buffalo was a stage stop on the Santa Fe Trail. Although accounts describe the fort as a castle on the Santa Fe Trail is abandoned. hunting parties and Santa Fe Trail caravans. the plains, for most trail traders it was more truck Follow the signs off Highway 56 east of Springer. stop than palace—a place to resupply and rest.