Santa Fe Trail

The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th century transportation route through central North America. It connected Independence, Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico.  It was pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell. The Santa Fe Trail was a vital commercial highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880. Santa Fe was near the north end of the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro which carried trade from Mexico City.  The Santa Fe railroad, now known as BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe), roughly parallels the original Santa Fe Trail.

The route skirted the northern edge and crossed the northwestern corner of Comancheria, the territory of the Comanches. they demanded payment for allowing people to use the trail.  Comanche raiding farther south in Mexico isolated New Mexico. This made the area more dependent on the American trade.  In general, finished and manufactured goods went west from the Kansas City area and payments in gold traveled east from Santa Fe.  The trade along the trail gave the Comanches a steady supply of horses.  By the 1840s trail traffic along the Arkansas River valley was so heavy that bison herds could not reach important seasonal grazing land. This contributed to their decline which in turn hastened the decline of Comanche power in the region.Pekka Hämäläinen, The Comanche Empire (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008), pp. 159–160 The Trail was used as the 1846 U.S. invasion route of New Mexico during the Mexican–American War.''Pecos National Historical Park; Final General Management Plan, Development Concept Plan, Environmental Impact Statement" (Washington, DC: United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1995), p. 116

After the U.S. took the Southwest ending the Mexican–American War, the trail helped open the region new settlement. It was important for the expansion of the U.S. into the lands it had taken. 

 Historic trail 
The road route is commemorated today by the National Park Service as the Santa Fe National Historic Trail. A highway route that roughly follows the trail's path through the entire length of Kansas, the southeast corner of Colorado and northern New Mexico has been designated as the Santa Fe Trail National Scenic Byway. It is  long and takes about 12 hours to drive the trail today.

 References 

Category:19th century in the United States
Category:1821 establishments in the United States

Category:National Register of Historic Places