Santa Fe Trail, 1821-1880

Santa Fe Trail, 1821-1880. . , The Santa Fe Trail passed through present Lamar a quarter-mile south of this sign. In 1821 it became America's first international commercial highway, and for sixty years it was one of the nation's great routes of commerce and westward expansion. The trail network spanned more than 900 miles through Indigenous lands, from Franklin, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and from there many traders traveled far south into Mexico. Anglo- and Hispano-American merchants carried cloth, metal tools, household items, and whiskey westward to trade for gold, silver, beaver pelts, bison hides, wool, and donkeys. Wagons were pulled by mules and oxen (the latter preferred by many freighters because they were cheaper and less likely to be stolen by Indians). As railroads built westward after the Civil War, the wagon road was shortened periodically and ended when the railroad reached Santa Fe in 1880. The trail involved three cultures and was a route of conquest that added more than half of Mexico to the U.S. and nearly all the Indigenous lands along the trail between the Missouri River and the Rio Grande. The historic route was designated as a National Historic Trail in 1987. There are more than 70 geocache sites along the trail; details for those sites are located at www.santafetrail.org. This sign was erected in 2021 by the Bent's Fort Chapter of the Santa Fe Trail Association.