Santa Fe Trail - Road to Opportunity

Santa Fe Trail - Road to Opportunity. . For almost 60 years, from 1821 to 1880, the Santa Fe Trail was part of a complex web of international trade and business. The trail began as a connection from the Missouri frontier in the United States to Santa Fe in Mexico. Spanning 900 miles, the trail also linked to cities deep in Mexico via El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. In its early years, trade stabilized and supported the economies of Missouri and the Mexican province of New Mexico in an era of monetary upheaval in both the U.S. and Mexico., From glory days to romantic memory, Prior to 1821, Spain's colonial policy restricted the kind and number of trade goods available in New Mexico. Trade barriers were lifted after Mexico achieved independence in 1821. Merchants like Antonio Martinez, Juan Jose Delgado, Albert Speyer, and Charles Ilfeld prospered from the trade. , With the successful American invasion of the Southwest in 1846, the character of the trade changed. Fewer individual traders were involved and more commercial firms began trading. The New Mexico economy was transformed from one of barter to cash. , After 1865, the railroad moved westward from Missouri, reaching New Mexico in 1880. The trail was replaced with steam engines and a new era of transportation began., (caption:), Trader William Becknell made his pioneering trip to Santa Fe in 1821. He returned in 1822 with wagons. His trips have earned him the title of "Father of the Santa Fe Trail.", (quote on bottom right panel:), "A cheer went up from the drivers. I think both Will and I regretted that we had come to the end of the trail. We had loved the feel of the grass under our feet and the sound of the wind and the waters. The trail had been our point of outlook upon the universe. The blue sky above us had been bread and meet for our soul. If you have ever followed the old trail over mountains, through forests, felt the sting of cold, the oppression of the heat, the drench of rains and the fury of winds in an old covered wagon you will know what I mean.", -Marion Sloan Russell , Marion Russell and her mother traveled the Santa Fe Trail five time between 1852 and 1862 - the first when Marion was only seven years old.