The New York herald., 1922-10-15
Centennial of a Great Trail.

travel and freight traffic came into
existence as link between the Mis-
souri, River and the Southwest 100
years ago this month and the towns
of central and western Kansas which
have grown UP along the line of this
famous thoroughfare are celebrating
its centennial. This trail was a nat
ural highway-it has been described
as the best natural road of its extent
in the world-and was IT'S miles long,
smooth, hard and without a bridge in
It's whole length. 1t seems thus fit
ting that fifty years ago when its
use as pioneer trail ceased it should
become the line Of a great railway
and that later it should be an i'm
portant link in one of the transcon-
tinental automobile routes.
Long before October, 1922, the
Santa Fe trail was a travelled way.
Over it CORONADO and his party of
Spanish explorers in the sixteenth
century came from Mexico to the
Missouri Valley in search Of Quiveray
the tabled city of gold. Hunters,
trappers and adventures made use
of it in their travels from the Mis-
souri, Valley to the Rocky Mountains
before either of these regions was
settled, and for centuries Indian
tribes passed over this route in their
migrations and In search of hunting
grounds. In the middle of the eigh-
teenth century 1t was the route taken
| by the French expedition sent out
from Louisiana to trade with Spanish
settlements In the Southwest.
Probably the first white man to
travel the whole length Of the trail
was a French creole, BAPTIsTE LA
LANDE of Kaskaskie, Illinois, who in
1904 undertook an expedition to
! Southwestern Indians and army posts.
| Trade between the Missouri Valley
and Santa Fe, however, really began
in 1922 with the journey Of Captain
BEcKNEII., Missourian. He took
with him about thirty men and $4,000
worth Of merchandise. His success
was so marked that others were en-
couraged to follow his example and
q regular trade was soon established
along the line of the trail. The trade
in this first year amounted to about
$4,000, four years later to 100000
and in 1s43 to s450,000.
Transportation in the first year
was entirely by pack mules which
travelled in caravans OF from fifty to
200, each carrying about 200 pounds
of merchandise. Wagons came into
use in 1924 and in two years COM
pletely supplanted the pack trains.
Each wagon was loaded with about
5000 pounds and was drawn by from
ten to twelve mules or oxen. The
wagons travelled in trains of twenty
or thirty for mutual protection
against Indians and bad white men.
When belated wagon trains in the
autumn were overtaken by cold
weather the traders buried their
stores in huge juglike holes in the
ground and left them there until
the spring. Some of these caches
are still to be seen near Dodge City
and in the Arkansas Valley.
The eastern end OF the trail was
at Westport or Independence, near
the present Kansas City. The route
was attended with little peril for the
first 200 miles. The danger point
was Pawnee Rock, near Great Bend
and around this great stone pillar
on the prairie were fought many
notable conflicts with Indians. This
was the heart of the red mans hunt
ing ground and the grazing land OF
great herds OF buffaloes. The In
dians seemed to resent here more
than at any other place along the
trail the encroachment OF the white
race. The Arkansas River was
crossed by a ford several miles fur
ther on, and then came the arid
waste OF the Cimarron desert In
southwest Kansas, the most trying
part of the trip, and the part which
in course OF time came to be strewr
with the skeletons of oxen and mule;
and the wrecks of wagons.
General ZEBULoN M. PIKE struck
the Santa Fe trail in his early ex
ploration OF the land beyond th'
Missouri and General STEPHEN w
KEARNY's army marched almost IT.
entire length i'm 1S46 on its way t
the conquest of New Mexico. The
gold seekers of 40 Travelled this trail
to California. Later IL was the route
by which the early settlers reached
the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, New
Mexico and the Pacific coast.
or all the great trails Of America
the Santa Fe is the one which is best
remembered. IL was early the nat
ural highway between the Missouri
and the Southwest and a vital link in