The Santa Fe Trail

History can be broken up into distinct epochs and American history lends itself rather handily to epochs of centuries and half centuries.  The period from 1600 to 1650 saw the establishment of many of the first settlements along the eastern seaboard and the years between 1650 and 1700 was the time when most of the original 13 colonies were established.  1700 to 1750 was characterized by the growth of the new colonies and the impact it had on the indigenous populations while the span of time from 1750 to 1800 saw the development of the political growth that resulted in the American Revolution.  This brings us to the period of time between 1800 and 1850, the time of exploration and, I feel, the beginning of the westward movement. 

Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Thomas Jefferson launched two expeditions to explore the new territory and its resources.  The “Corps of discovery Expedition” led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1804 is well known by most, but a similar expedition led by Zebulon Pike in 1806, less than two years later, was just as important, albeit a little less spectacular in its results.  Both of these expeditions opened pathways to further exploration and the published reports of both inspired many adventurers to move west.  My recent story about Isaac Cooper and his Colorado escapades inspired me to take a closer look at this “second” expedition led by Zebulon Pike and the pathway, soon to be named the “Santa Fe Trail,” it opened leading to Missouri, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico.

Unlike the “civilian” expedition of Lewis and Clark, Zebulon Pike was a military man and his direction came from his commander, General James Wilkinson.  Thus, the “Pike Expedition” was considered a military one.  Pike’s initial task was to explore the headwaters of the Mississippi River, which he completed in 1805.  In 1806 he was assigned the additional task of exploring the southwestern reaches of the Louisiana Purchase to locate the headwaters of the Red River and the Arkansas River.  This is the task that took him into what would later become Colorado and the discovery of Pike’s Peak.

Like the Santa Fe Trail, the Pike expedition left the area of St. Louis and headed west, following the Missouri River as far as Kansas City at which point the trail diverged from the river and headed out across the prairie until it met up with the Arkansas River at Great Bend, Kansas.  The trail, and Pike, followed the Arkansas River to Dodge City, Kansas where it separated into two distinct paths.  The upper or mountain route was considered longer but safer and continued to follow the Arkansas River until the river turned northwest at Bent’s Fort and the trail turned south.  The lower and shorter route almost bypassed Colorado completely, just clipping the very southeastern corner of the state and then crossing the Cimarron Strip in the western panhandle of Oklahoma and reuniting with the mountain route near Las Vegas, New Mexico.  From that point, it became one trail again all the way to Santa Fe.

Zebulon Pike followed what would become the upper mountain route of the Santa Fe Trail but when it turned south toward its convergence with the shorter southern route, he continued to follow the Arkansas River into Colorado and the peak that is named in his honor.

Unbeknownst to Pike and kept secret for over 100 years, his commander, General Wilkinson, was a double agent for Spain and orchestrated Pike’s capture by the Spanish before his mission could be completed.  Despite this setback and even though William Becknell is credited with pioneering the entire Santa Fe Trail, it’s fair to say that Zebulon Pike was the first white man to traverse a good portion of it 15 years before Becknell.  In 1821, Becknell was the first to organize a mule train (the trail was not passable to wagons until several years later) to transport eastern goods the entire 900 mile distance from Franklin, Missouri to the Spanish settlement of Santa Fe.

Initially, an upper or northern route did not exist and Becknell made all his trips on the lower route, but the Indians soon learned that they could gain substantially by intercepting the cargos before they reached their intended destinations.  To thwart this danger, Becknell pioneered the longer northern route but it was only a temporary cure.  The Indians soon caught on and began to plunder that route also.  In desperation, Becknell appealed to the government for protection and soon, the army was providing escort service all the way to Santa Fe.

Before long, the Santa Fe Trail was carrying more than trade goods as more and more adventurers and trappers moved into the Colorado mountains looking for opportunities.  Through the 1830’s and 1840’s, tantalizing hints of gold discoveries made their way to the eastern cities and by the 1850’s, several well organized teams of prospectors made their way over the Santa Fe Trail thence up the Arkansas River to the rugged Rocky Mountains.

With the development of the Erie Canal, major railroad expansion, the advent of steam powered sailing ships, and trails like the Santa Fe, it was an era of great improvement in transportation for the United States.  Soon, the Santa Fe Trail would be supplanted by the Atchison/Topeka/Santa Fe railroad and an epoch would end, but a new one, the age of Civil War, telegraph, cattle drives, and the transcontinental railroad, was waiting in the wings to take us all the way to the 20^th century.