The Santa Fe Trail

The Santa Fe Trail. Santa Fe Trail National Scenic Byway. Stretching 900 miles from Franklin, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Santa Fe Trail was one of the most important North American trade routes of the nineteenth century. Begun in 1821, it was in use for 60 years until the arrival of the railroad. It was a hardy traveler who attempted the journey. Wagon trains up to 500 wagons long traversed the trail through blizzards, stampedes, dust storms, fires, disease, and Indian attacks. And often they lacked for water. , Here, near two landmarks of the trail, Round Mound and Rabbit Ears, wagon trains camped for the night. William Becknell, the trader who inaugurated the Santa Fe Trail in 1821, came this way on his return trip east while forging the smoother Cimarron Route across the plains., Two-way Street , Unlike the great emigrant trails to the north, the Santa Fe Trail ran both ways, with traders from Mexico, or returning U.S. traders, carrying Mexican silver, gold, mules, buffalo and beaver pelts to waiting markets in Missouri., "As the caravans passed under the northern base of the Round Mound, it presented a very fine and imposing spectacle to those who were upon its summit. The wagons marched slowly in four parallel columns . . . .The unceasing 'crack, crack,' of the wagoners' whips, resembling the frequent reports of distant guns." , Trader Josiah Gregg, in his chronicle of trail travel, Commerce of the Prairies, 1844