Wagon Tracks Volume 34 Issue 2 Wagon Tracks Volume 34, Issue 2 Article 1 (February 2020) 2020 Wagon Tracks Volume 34, Issue 2 (February 2020) Santa Fe Trail Association Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/wagon_tracks Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Santa Fe Trail Association. "Wagon Tracks Volume 34, Issue 2 (February 2020)." Wagon Tracks 34, 2 (2020). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/wagon_tracks/vol34/iss2/1 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wagon Tracks by an authorized editor of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. : Wagon Tracks Volume 34, Issue 2 (February 2020) Quarterly Publication of the Santa Fe Trail Association volume 34 ♦ number 2 February 2020 "A Taste of History" Films on the Santa Fe Trail ♦ page 8 Newspapers Spread the News From Santa Fe and the Trail ♦ page 13 Domestic Manufactures and the Santa Fe Trade ♦ page 23 Published by UNM Digital Repository, 2020 1 Wagon Tracks, Vol. 34 [2020], Iss. 2, Art. 1 On the Cover: -30 Degrees in the Sunshine by Ron Kil After the rut and breeding season, buffalo bulls separated from the cows and calves to winter on their own. Bands of old bulls, whipped out of the herd by the younger upstarts, stuck together for protection from the wolves. They would seek out shelter from the wind in river valleys or isolated canyons along the eastern slopes of the Rockies or Sangre de Cristos. While -30 degrees might quickly freeze a horse or a human in his tracks, to a buffalo with his thick winter hide it was just another sunny day. Buffalo were the most important wild animals on the prairies to the travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. They were the focus of atten- tion when the caravans reached buffalo country. Without them to provide the life-sustaining protein and other nutrients required for the arduous journey from Missouri to New Mexico and back again, the traders and others on the Trail, as well as the early set- tlers on the plains, would most likely not have fared as well as they did. Indians had depended on these animals for thousands of years, and the Spanish colonists and ciboleros (buffalo hunters) relied on them for more than 200 years before the trade caravans arrived in the 1820s. In those days, herds of "the monarch of the plains" made a mag- nificient scene to behold, each animal an impressive member of the animal kingdom. The largest land mammal of North America, a male buffalo, or bull, can reach a height of six to six-and-a-half feet at the shoulders, seven to eleven feet in length, and weigh nearly a ton. Once ranging as far east as New England and the Atlantic Coast, these massively-built animals reigned supreme over the prairies and woodlands for thousands of years. Roaming is in their nature: about 300,000 years ago they roamed across the Bering land bridge from their home in Asia to North America. By Phyllis Morgan, from the May 2004 issue of Wagon Tracks and her book As Far as the Eye Could See (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 2015). About the Santa Fe Trail Association The mission of the Santa Fe Trail Association is to protect and preserve the Santa Fe Trail and to promote awareness of the historical legacy associated with it. Follow us online at www.santafetrail.org, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube Wagon Tracks, the official publication of the Santa Fe Trail Association (SFTA), publishes well-researched and documented peer-reviewed articles relating to the Santa Fe Trail. Wagon Tracks is published in February, May, August, and November. Deadlines are the 10th of the month prior to publication. Queries are welcome. Complete submission guidelines are posted at www.santafetrail.org. Although the entire issue of Wagon Tracks is copyrighted in the name of the Santa Fe Trail Association, copyright to each article remains in the author’s name. Articles may be edited or abridged at the editor’s discretion. https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/wagon_tracks/vol34/iss2/12 Wagon Tracks February 2020 2 : Wagon Tracks Volume 34, Issue 2 (February 2020) Quarterly of the Santa Fe Trail Association volume 34 ♦ number 2 February 2020 Contents 2 On the Cover: -30 Degrees in the Sunshine by Ron Kil, Phyllis Morgan 4 Insights from your President 5 Joanne’s Jottings 7, 10-12 Trail News 22, 28 Trail News 28-31 Chapter Reports 29 Membership Form 32 Calendar of Events Courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society ofCourtesy the Oklahoma Historical Margaret Fitzpatrick's photo was inadvertently omitted from the article by Dr. Alice Anne Thompson about Fitz- patrick in the November 2019 issue of Wagon Tracks.The article was an excerpt from Thompson's forthcoming book entitled Women and the Santa Fe Trail: Diversity, Tenacity, Femininity. 8-9 13-21 23-27 Domestic Manufactures "A Taste of History" Newspapers Spread the News and the Santa Fe Trade, Films on the from Santa Fe and the 1831-1846 Santa Fe Trail Santa Fe Trail by Ruth Friesen by Dr. Susan Calafate Boyle PublishedFebruary by UNM2020 Digital Repository, 2020 Wagon Tracks 3 3 Wagon Tracks, Vol. 34 [2020], Iss. 2, Art. 1 Insights from your President by Larry D. Short, President of SFTA Trail. I want to also remind all of our to provide them with much more members and friends that the 200th support and “eyes and ears on the is a "commemoration" of the open- ground” in each of the five states. I ing of the Santa Fe National Historic am therefore establishing a task force Trail. Please do not use the word consisting of representatives from “celebration” in any of your press re- each of the five states to provide the leases, posters, flyers, or other modes local on-the-ground support that our of advertising your upcoming events. preservation committee deserves and I have also created a new DAR Task requires. I have had a few volunteers Force, led by Pat Traffas, which to fill these positions but would like includes DAR representatives from to hear from more of our members each of the five states which the Trail who would volunteer to serve in this crosses. They will work closely with capacity. Please contact me directly if the National DAR 200th Represen- you have any questions as to what the tative, Dee Sadler, to organize events position would entail. The protection across the length of the Trail and on of our Trail is essential for its future! a national level. As we move forward over these next It has been an exciting and produc- We continue to add new Trail cross- years, we, as a team, need to do our tive time since I assumed the office ing and segment signs to our SFTA part in securing the future of both of President at our St. Louis Sympo- sign plan. We recently completed the our Santa Fe Trail Association and sium/Board meeting in September. Barton County, Kansas, sign plan for our Santa Fe National Historic Trail. Working closely with our manager, the cities of Ellinwood and Great We will continue to work together as Joanne VanCoevern, and our new Bend. Our next major goal will be to a team with the National Park Ser- vice-president, Chris Day, we have complete the signs located on Kansas vice. Their leadership has been, and assembled a group of co-chairs for Department of Transportation right- will continue to be, exceptional and a our various committees to help lead of-ways. It is our hope that these critical part of our success together. us as we commemorate the Santa Fe signs will be installed by the end of Trail’s 200th Anniversary in 2021. 2020. We are also currently working Each of our chapters should continue with the National Park Service to to encourage ALL of their mem- I want to personally thank our new complete our sign program in Mis- bers to also become members of the board members and our returning souri with the directional signs along national Santa Fe Trail Association. board members for stepping forward the Missouri Department of Trans- Each member of SFTA should set to provide the leadership and direc- portation right-of-way. A highlight as a goal to bring at least one new tion for the committees which are of the past couple of months has member to their chapters AND the backbone of our Santa Fe Trail been securing the signed agreement to SFTA. As one of our respected Association. Several chairs which had with the New Mexico Highway leaders, Pat Palmer, once told me: been vacant for some time are now Department to replace directional “You just have to ask them to join.” I filled with qualified leadership to signs on Highway 56 for Faye challenge each of you to just go ask direct us as we move forward in the Gaines’s Point of Rocks Historic Site someone to join! future. in Colfax County, New Mexico. The National Park Service secured this The months and years ahead will be Plans for our 200th Commemora- signed agreement, and the signs will both challenging and exciting. We tion are well underway, led by Deb soon be shipped and installed. will continue to work closely with Goodrich and her team. Many of the our National Park Service personnel chapters have stepped up and have One critical issue that we have faced to continue our goals of protecting, started plans for commemoration in the past and will continue to face preserving, and promoting our Santa activities in their local areas.