Well, as you can see from this National Parks map, we only touched on a bit of the Santa Fe Road around Raton Pass.
In 1821, William Becknell decided he would load up a wagon with goods for sale and set out from Franklin, Missouri headed for Santa Fe. The road he created would become known as the Santa Fe Road.
His trip was successful financially, and the stories he brought home ignited the wanderlust in a whole lot of folks.
After the Mexican War in 1846-48, the Road became packed with commerce laden wagons. In 1855 alone these wagons generated $5 million in trade. (In 1855!?! WOW!) However, this bounty didn't come without a cost of life and limb. The American Indians didn't much appreciate the encroachment on their homes and hunting land.
It took nearly 200 years to settle "east" America from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River. It took only eighty years to settle the West. The focal point for the first forty of those years was the Santa Fe Trail. In 1866, $40 million worth of goods was carried west in 5,000 wagons. The population of the Kansas Territory boomed from 8,600 in 1855 to 143,000 in just six years.
It took the railroads to distract travelers from the dusty, long Santa Fe Trail. In 1880 newspapers headlined the fact that the Santa Fe Road had been lost to the sands of time. OUR love of history, however, will never let it disappear completely. Kudos to the National Park Service for recognizing the importance of a path to prosperity and success!
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