Trail Remnants

Trail Remnants. . , Sometimes muddy, often dusty, shared tack of three major roads - the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California Trails, once passed this way. It was created by teamsters urging heavy freight wagons to and from New Mexico. In the 1840's-50s, pioneer families traveled this part of the Santa Fe Trail as they started west to Oregon and California. , , Here, travellers found an ideal camp, with water and good grazing. By the 1850s, a stage stop called "New Santa Fe" offered several amenities: a post office, two general stores, an inn, and a shoe shop, drugstore, blacksmith, and saloon., The wheels of heavy wagons, thousands of hooves, and the feet of generations of people wore deep ruts into the land. The rolling, grass filled swales in front of you are the last hints of these famous western roads.,

"At six o'clock we reached … (Little Santa Fe), which marks the separation between civilized and uncivilized life. Beyond were the vast plains … little known to the white man - the home of the Indian - land of the buffalo." , -William G. Johnson , Overland to California, 1849, "…we drove 20 miles to New Santa Fe, on the western borders of Missouri, where we encamped upon the prairie. The mail companion had an agent … with whom the passengers found accommodations … there was an abundance of good cheer." , -W.W. Davis