The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-08-03
MarkIna the Santa Fe Trail.

From the Chicago Inter ocean.
 It wound through strange scared hills,
 down canyons lone
 Where wild things screamed with winds
 for company;
 It's milestones were the bones of pioneers.
 Richard Burton. The Santa Fe trail Is to be marked by the school children of Kansas this sum mer Each school child in tho Suntower state was asked to give penny to a fund 10 buy markers for the famous old trail, and S69 16G responded. This summer these posts will be set and unique mon ument of great historical importance will be established.
 Volumes could be-and have been-writ- ten on the history and romance of the old santa Fe trail which takes us back to antiquity The beginning of it was in 1540, when Francisco Vasquez de Corona do led an expedition of exploration and conquest from Mexico clear up into Kan- sas.
 In l596 santa Fe de San Francisco (the True City of the Holy Faith of St. Fran cis). There, in a plain trimmed by noun tans, the Spaniards and Mexicans slept for nearly two centuries, between wars with the Indians.
 In the first years of the nineteenth een- tury the American trapper md trader be- gan to disturb the peaceful dreams of Santa Fe It's authorities tolerated the trapper because their own people did not know how to trap and because there was usually an opportunity 10 throw the trap per into jail as a spy and seize his beav- CT skins.
 But the Santa Fe authorities made no pretense of toleratlng the trader although the people were glad to buy goods from the American country. McNight, Cham bers, Baird and others who went from St. Louis in 1872 to trade were arrested as spies. Their goods were oontiscated, and they were kept nine years in jail in Chi- huahua Nor did the Mexicans welcome the American soldier as the mortifying experience of Lieut.. Zebublon M. Pike in 1907, attests.
 But the Americans trader of those days, like the tpAditional Yankee, was not to be deterrea 5y considerations of bounda- ries, diplomacy, or the unfriedly attitude of officials. By 1921 such famous traders as Glenn. BeclSnell and stephen Cooper had made successful expeditions to Santa H'e. By 1924 the first wagon trains had left Independence, Mo.
 Thereafter there was q rushing business along the Santa Fe trail. In 1925 the trail was made an authorized road by act of Congress In the next two years 1t was surveyed and marked ont from the west ern frontiler of Missouro near Fort Osage to San Fernando de Taos, near Santa Fe.' Fort Ieayenworth was established to give military protection to the hazardous trade with tho southwest.
 Most intelligent Americans know of the old trail but very few know just where it ran. By the time General Kearny had taken formal possession of Santa Fe, in 1s46. in the name of the United States, it's northern terminus was Kansas City to which point merchandise from the east and south was shipped by steamboat up the Missouri.
 The Santa Fe trail began at Westport (now Kansas City) and followed the Raw river to Lawrence. Thence It wound through the hills to Burlngame and Council Grove, the Arkansas valley being reached at Fort Zarah (now Great Bend). The trail crept up this valley to Bent's Fort lnow Los Animas) and climbed the mountains through Raton Pass. There was a short cut from Fort Dodge to Las Vegas, along the. Cimarron river. In these days the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe practically follows the pass trail.
 The distance from Kansas City to Santa Fe was 500 miles, and round trip con stunned about no days. Day and night in all seasons the caravans pushed their way. Tn spite of strong military escore, the trail was blood-soaked for many years, and was marked by hundreds Of the victims of the murderous Apaches and other tribes. Nearly every mile of the trail has had its ambush, its surprise it's attack and torture The last wagons were sent out in 1865. Since then the trail has been d memory.
 When young nation begins to mark it's historic landmarks 1t Is proof that the days of it's beginnings are over. A neonle who mark their landmarks are proud of the past and confident of the future