The Old Spanish Trail

The Old Spanish Trail. . , The Old Spanish Trail was neither entirely Spanish nor Particularly old. But the name seemed to fit this rugged road, which passed about thirty miles south of here as it stretched from Santa Fe to California. Franciscan pathfinders Dominguez and Escalante forged the trail’s eastern half in 1776, reaching Utah before turning back; American trapper Jedediah Smith blazed the western segment in 1826 and launched a new trading era. For the next two decades the Old Spanish Trail served as a commercial highway, ferrying blankets, furs, mules, and other goods over 1,200 crooked, desolate miles. But California’s 1849 gold rush spelled doom for the Old Spanish Trail, whose rigors daunted all but the most seasoned travelers. The pack trains moved north to the Oregon Trail, leaving this hardscrabble highway virtually abandoned. , John Macomb , Ordered to chart a military road between Santa Fe and Utah, Capt. John Macomb led a scout team along the Old Spanish Trail in July 1859. By then ten years defunct, the highway proved unsuitable for the Army’s purposes, so the expedition turned north in search of easier going. A Ute trail brought the party to Pagosa’s hot springs, of which Macomb gushed: “There is scarcely a more beautiful place on the face of the earth.” This was perhaps the happiest day of the journey; for though they did get through to Utah, the explorers failed to establish a usable thoroughfare. It was nonetheless a worthwhile expedition, yielding the first geologic descriptions of the Colorado Plateau and filling in one more blank in the map of North America. , [photo captions] , . By 1850 the Old Spanish Trail had fallen into obscurity due to the inability of wagons to easily traverse its rough terrain. , . Setting out from Salt Lake City in 1826, Jedediah Smith blazed the western route of the Old Spanish Trail. His unusual hairline came from an encounter with a grizzly bear, which ripped Smith’s scalp open above his left eye. When the wound healed, the hair never grew back. , . In a prophetic observance, Capt. John Macomb noted, “It can scarcely be doubted that in future years [these hot springs] will become a celebrated place of resort.” An artist drew this illustration of Pagosa Springs during Macomb’s 1859 expedition.