The End of the Road

The End of the Road. Depot Transportation Corral. Think of what you see here as the forerunner of today's busy truck stops on the interstates. Now, freight rides cross-country safe inside boxes of steel and aluminum, rolling on rubber tires. In the mid-1800s, cargo rode under canvas on iron-shod wagon wheels. In the place of the rowdy clatter of diesel engines today, imagine hundreds of mules braying , and thousands of oxen bellowing. Forget the shriek of air brakes. Hear the creak of leather harness and the jingle of wagon trace chains. Replace the smells of today's oil-based exhaust with the mountains of manure dropped by horses, mules, and oxen inside this corral. Refueling here in the late 1800s required hundreds of tons of hay and grain feeds. , For teamsters with Army contracts, this corral was the end of their 800-mile journey across the Great Plains. Many freight companies continued on to Santa Fe, another 80 miles. Some wagoneers turned left at the Rio Grande, and went on to deliver their cargos another 500 miles farther south , to Chihuahua, Mexico., Wagon trains only crossed the Plains in summer and early fall when there was enough grass growing to feed their mules and oxen. An average day’s progress was just 8-10 miles. In some years, over 3,000 wagons made the trip.