Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words. Alright, settle in, because this is a road story, and it starts with one man and a very big idea. Josiah Gregg, born in 1806, was a trader who knew the territory between the United States and New Mexico about as well as anybody alive.

In 1840, he blazed what would come to be called the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail, a shorter route connecting the two. And right here, at this very site, on March 17, 1840, Gregg crossed through on his way back to Arkansas after a trading expedition all the way down to Santa Fe and Chihuahua. He'd been out there doing business, and now he was coming home with something extra in his saddlebag, a route worth sharing with the world.

He shared it in print. In 1844, Gregg published a book called Commerce of the Prairies, and in it he recommended this new trail, which paralleled the Canadian River. Put it right there on the page for anyone with a dream and a wagon.

Now, for a while the trail sat quiet enough. And then came 1849. The gold rush.

Over two thousand California-bound gold seekers traveled the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail that year alone. Two thousand people chasing a dream, all funneling through this corridor of prairie. The largest wagon train of that year was something else altogether.

It came through accompanied by U.S. Army troops, commanded by Captain Randolph B. Marcy, born in 1812.

Marcy wasn't just escorting emigrants. He was surveyin'. Making a careful record of the trail for a proposed national wagon road.

His party crossed this very site on June 9, 1849. Marcy, born in 1812, would live until 1887, long enough to see what became of the road he'd measured so carefully. What became of it, well, that's the bittersweet part.

The trail saw extensive use into the early 1850s, enough that serious people started talking about it as a favorable route for a transcontinental railroad. In the summer of 1853, Lieutenant A. W.

Whipple of the Army Corps of Engineers came through and surveyed a possible railroad corridor along the route. That was a real distinction. Transcontinental railroad talk was not small talk in 1853.

But by the late 1850s, emigrants had shifted south, traveling a more southern road through El Paso. That road was eventually to become the southern railroad route. And the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail, the one Gregg blazed in 1840 and Marcy mapped in 1849 and Whipple surveyed in 1853, fell into disuse.

And then it was abandoned. Here's the thing about a trail, though. You can abandon it on the maps.

You can stop usin' it. But the land remembers. In many places out on the Plains, the wagon ruts are still visible, pressed into the undisturbed prairie sod.

Two thousand gold seekers, one Army captain, one surveying lieutenant, and one trader with a book. All of them left a mark. And some of those marks you can still see, right from where you're standing.

What the marker says

Josiah Gregg (1806-50) blazed the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail in 1840 as a shorter route between the U.S. and New Mexico. He crossed this site on March 17, 1840, while returning to Arkansas from a trading expedition to Santa Fe and Chihuahua. In a book, "Commerce of the Prairies", published in 1844, Gregg recommended the new route, which paralleled the Canadian River. Over 2,000 California-bound gold seekers traveled it in 1849. The largest wagon train of that year was accompanied by U.S. Army troops commanded by Captain Randolph B. Marcy (1812-87), who made a survey of the trail for a proposed national wagon road. Marcy's party crossed this site on June 9, 1849. The extensive use of the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail in the early 1850s caused it to be considered as a favorable route for a transcontinental railroad. Lt. A. W. Whipple of the Army Corps of Engineer surveyed a possible route in the summer of 1853. By the late 1850s, emigrants were traveling a more southern road through El Paso, which was eventually to become the southern railroad route, and the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail fell into disuse and was finally abandoned. In many places on the Plains, the wagon ruts are still visible in the undisturbed prairie sod. (1974)