The Santa Fe Trail: Its History, Legends, and Lore

by David Dary

Overview

“The famous trail of romantic western lore was established in about 1610 by Spanish settlers of Mexico who had explored western and southern regions of North America long before the French and English arrived. Stretching 900 miles from its origin in Santa Fe through present-day Colorado and Kansas, the trail, originally a combination of many old paths worn down by buffalo, ends in Franklin, Missouri. Enterprising Americans from the east soon discovered that the Spanish of Santa Fe and the nearby Indians had many material needs that they could supply very profitably. Thus the Santa Fe Trail came to be known as a key commercial link to the west. Dary, a leading historian of the Old West, draws on original newspaper stories, letters, diaries, books, and expedition records to re-create the adventures of many tough and colorful people who endured a journey that might take more than two months, if they were lucky enough to survive severe hardship, bad weather, broken axles, and marauding tribes.”—Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700618705
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	08/23/2012
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	382
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

David Dary is the recipient of a Cowboy Hall of Fame Wrangler Award, two Western Writers of America Spur Awards, the Westerners International Best Nonfiction Book Award, and the Owen Wister Award for lifetime achievement from the Western Writers of America. His many books include Cowboy Culture, True Tales of the Prairies and Plains, True Tales of Old-Time Kansas, More True Tales of Old-Time Kansas, Entrepreneurs of the Old West, and Seeking Pleasure in the Old West.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. From Conquest to de Onate, 1492–1610

2. the Attraction of Santa Fe, 1610–1762

3. Trails to Santa Fe, 1762–1807

4. Destination Santa Fe, 1807–1822

5. The Santa Fe Trail, 1822–1825

6. Surveying the Road to Santa Fe, 1825–1827

7. The Business of Trade, 1821–1829

8. The Growth of Trade, 1830–1835

9. The Growth of Trade, 1830–1835

10. Years of Change, 1840–1845

11. The Mexican War and the Santa Fe Trade, 1846–1848

12. Forts, Emigrants, and Freighting, 1849–1852

13. New Tensions and Trade, 1853–1860

14. The Civil War, 1861–1865

15. The Slow Death of the Trail, 1866–1880

16. The Legacy of the Trail, 1880–2000

Glossary

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

If you are stirred by the legends that endure around the opening of the American West, then poking through the index of Dary’s book will send chills down your neck. There are great names here: Jedediah Smith, the mountain man who once, famously, survived a grizzly-bear attack and had a companion sew his ear back onto his head; Kit Carson, the celebrated scout; John C. Fremont, a.k.a. ‘The Pathfinder’; Zebulon Pike, the map maker, and, perhaps, secret agent; Buffalo Bill Cody. . . . But what is often missed in the story of the Western frontier is how much it was not about destiny—manifest or otherwise—but about commerce. This is a story that Dary tells comprehensively and ably.”—Wall Street Journal

“Dary demonstrates a firm grasp of the terrain’s history and is skilled at resurrecting the old lives of this landscape. . . . A densely populated account executed with fine historical veracity.”—Kirkus

“A grand, sprawling story, populated by characters whose voices emerge loud and clear from their journals and letters . . . An unforgettable procession of dreamers and doers, losers and winners, villains and heroes (and heroines) in a well-told and carefully researched tale.”—New York Times Book Review

“Rich with fascinating detail about how travelers made their way across those nearly 900 miles, what they packed, what animals they used, how much the freight weighed and what it was worth, and who those travelers were.”—Washington Post

“Dary has done it again with this masterful treatment of a great American emblem.”—Los Angeles Times

“Will be the standard source for the trail’s history for years to come.”—Booklist

From the Publisher

The Santa Fe Trail is rich with fascinating detail about how travelers made their way across those nearly 900 miles, what they packed, what animals they used, how much the freight weighed and what it was worth, and who those travelers were.
— Washington Post

Jennifer Veech

Tells the story of the Santa Fe Trail, which ran between Missouri and Kansas and New Mexico, from 1610 when the Spanish founded the city of Santa Fe, to the 1860s, when the railroad brought unprecedented changes. Firsthand accounts by native Americans, trappers, soldiers, and men and women of many nationalities give insight on daily life camping in friendly and hostile Indian territory, danger from natural disasters, and the pleasures at the southern end of the journey. Includes b&w photos and illustrations. Dary is retired from the school of journalism at the University of Oklahoma. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

A grand, sprawling story, populated by characters whose voices emerge loud and clear from their journals and letters . . . An unforgettable procession of dreamers and doers, losers and winners, villains and heroes (and heroines) in a well-told and carefully researched tale.
—New York Times Book Review

David Haward Bain

A detailed narrative of the rise and decline of the Santa Fe Trail as an epochal vein of 19th-century expansion, courtesy of a noted Western enthusiast. Dary (Cowboy Culture, not reviewed), an authority on the Old West, demonstrates a firm grasp of the terrain's history—both before and after its acquisition by the US. During the mid-19th century the Santa Fe Trail's importance grew rapidly (as a venue for trade with Mexico and as a stable and safe route across the politically volatile landscapes of New Mexico and Texas), even as the encroachments of civilization soon changed its character almost beyond recognition. The author devotes separate chapters to the early development of Santa Fe as a strategic center of trade, to the growth of trade in general throughout the region, to the crucial role of the"Prairie schooner" (the Pittsburgh-manufactured Conestoga wagon) in the transport of goods, and to the role of the Trail in the Mexican-American and Civil wars. Dary is skilled at resurrecting the old lives of this landscape and introduces us to local characters, such as Francis Aubry (a brash trader who crossed the Trail in six days to win a $1,000 bet), Matteo Boccalini (who fled the priesthood to live an even more ascetic lifestyle in a solitary outpost along the Trail), William Bent (who established his own fort along the Arkansas River and profited from the Indian trade), and Susan Magoffin (a trader's wife who kept a tart journal of the Trail's privations). Most startling are the accounts of the frequent Indian raids: aggressive tribes like the Apache and Comanche attacked merchant and settler parties without mercy, often abducting those (usuallywomenand children) whom they failed to massacre. Dary seems obsessed with"telling it like it was," even extending to his mournful chapter"The Slow Death of the Trail" (which blames rapid railway expansion in the 1870s). A densely populated account, rich in overlooked elements of the western experiment, executed with fine historical veracity. History Book Club alternate selection

Kirkus Reviews