The Coolidge examiner., 1933-12-08

Kit Carson would find lots Of
changes, could he come back. Lift
ing hair" as he called Indian scalp
Ing. Is practiced now only In the
beauty shops of towns along the
trail. 1t Is not easy now to trade
beads or cheap firearms for hunks
OF virgin silver in Santa Fe; nor
would the town cheer a mule driver
arriving from Missouri or call a
holiday should a dry goods peddler
| arrive.
How the Trail Altered.
] The ancient tree-lined plaza,
where pioneer freighters ended
their long trip across the plains and
unloaded their big wagons. Is still
the center Of life in Santa Fe. At
evening time, when soft breezes
sigh among the trembling elm
leaves, the local senorItas, dark
eyed and flirtatious, promenade this
ancient plaza and smile as ravish-
ingly as In Kit Carson's romantic
day. But none of them would leave
home now for a red-headed beaver
trapper, even II the trapper had
licked every other rival at the fan
dango.
Originally the trail ran upstream
from Franklin, crossed the Missouri
at Arrow Rock, and stretched west
through what is now Lexington and
Independence. Mo. A rich region
this, where, as settlers multiplied,
a vigorous culture developed, with
its familiar homemade walnut fur
niture, ash hoppers. big soap and
sorghum kettles, looms, and spin
ming wheels.
Today, where Washington Irving
saw myriad prairie chickens, or
"parrokeets," as pioneers called
them, one passes big pens of white
Leghorns. Endless "Old Trail"
garages take the place of wayslde
blacksmith shops. where former pill
grims stopped TO shoe a horse or
set a tire. Where slaves tended
hemp and tobacco, big dairy plants
are busy now. their painted barns
and silos replacing the weather
beaten tobacco sheds of other days.
AS commerce grew, boats pushed
farther up the Missouri. passing
Franklin. By 1881 Independence be-
came the starting point for traffic
across the plains. Plying the river
then was one government-owned
boat used for exploring. the West
ern Engineer.
Birth Of Kansas City.
A few miles up from Independ-
ence Landing, where the Kansas.
long called the Kaw, twists north
into the Missouri, fur traders and
freighters found a fat, shelving
rock. an easy place to land goods.
Near here, by 1888, a new town,
Westport, came into being.
In time 1t became the starting
point for Santa Fe. Gradually, as
merchants and farmers followed the
fur traders. this colony spread
through a gap in the bluffs and
came to be known as Kansas" aft
er the local tribe of Indians. Incor-
porated as the Town of Kansas"
in 1880. its name was changed to
Kansas City in 1889.
Southwest into Kansas the old
trail runs; thence west along the
north bank Of the Arkansas river.
which formed part of the boundary
between the United States and
Mexico until the war of 1S46-4S. A
few miles west of where Dodge City
stands the trail originally crossed
the river at Cimarron Crossing, fol-
lowing the Cimarron valley over
southwest Kansas and on to Las
Vegas, New Mexico. But this road
crosses many miles of waterless
land. and later pioneers blazed a
longer but more watered path. This
latter branch became In time the
main thoroughfare. especially for
wagons. 1t follows the Arkansas
river into Colorado, through La
Junta and Trinidad; thence over
Ration Pass, and to Las Vegas and
Santa Fe. Today the Santa Fe
railway and the popular Santa Fe
motor highway use this same route
or closely parallel it.
From Franklin. Mo-, to Santa Fe,
the old trail is now well marked
by monuments set up by the Daugh-
ters Of the American Revolution.