The Santa Fe Trail was mainly a trade route but saw its share of emigrants, especially during the California Gold Rush and the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush in Colorado . The trail also became an important route for stagecoach travel, stagecoach mail delivery and as a mail route for the famed Pony Express.
When did these travelers start traveling on the Santa Fe Trail?
From the very beginning of the Trail in 1821 when William Becknell departed from Old Franklin, Missouri with a small caravan of pack animals, to the first wagon train in 1822, to the modern day covered wagons, the large eighteen wheelers, tons of trade goods were and still are carried along the Santa Fe Trail in a ...
Who was the first American to travel the Santa Fe Trail?
Between 1821 and 1880, the Santa Fe Trail was primarily a commercial highway connecting Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico. The route was pioneered by Missouri trader William Becknell , who left Franklin, Missouri in September 1821.
Why did people travel the Oregon trail?
Travelers were inspired by dreams of gold and rich farmlands , but they were also motivated by difficult economic times in the east and diseases like yellow fever and malaria that were decimating the Midwest around 1837.
Where was the starting point of the trail for most pioneers?
While the first few parties organized and departed from Elm Grove, the Oregon Trail’s primary starting point was Independence, Missouri, or Kansas City (Missouri), on the Missouri River .
What problems did the travelers face on the Santa Fe Trail?
While some travelers made the trip without incident, the unforgiving climate, illness, mechanical failures, starvation, dehydration, and the potential for violent encounters created an array of challenges to prepare for and overcome. While some struck it rich, others lost their fortunes, their health, or their lives.
Why was the California Trail so important?
The California Trail was just one of a vast network of wagon roads and footpaths that brought Americans from the country they knew to the unfamiliar frontier – and eventually west to California and the Oregon Territory. This was the greatest mass migration in American history.
Who started Santa Fe railroad?
Its founder was Cyrus K. Holliday , a Topeka lawyer and business promoter, who sought to build a railroad along the Santa Fe Trail, a 19th-century trading route that ran from Independence, Mo., to Santa Fe, N.M. The railroad’s main line to the Colorado state line was completed in 1872.
Who were the main users of the Santa Fe Trail?
Traders and the military were the main users of the Santa Fe Trail. When Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, it tried to keep American traders out of New Mexico.
Why did the pioneers go to Oregon?
Why did settlers move to Oregon? Some Americans went to Oregon in the very early 1800s because they wanted to participate in the fur trade . ... People went to Oregon hoping to claim land and to settle in the fertile Willamette Valley. These people hoped to farm in this region.
How did the pioneers travel?
The safest way for the pioneers to travel was with a wagon train . They would pack their most treasured belongings, furniture, and what they needed for the journey into a covered wagon. The wealthiest people brought two wagons with them, which allowed one to act as a moving van and the other as a camper.
Why did the Oregon Trail start in Independence Missouri?
The 2,000-mile Oregon Trail began to be heavily traveled in 1843 by settlers wanting to establish new homes in the northwest , while others split off on the equally long and grueling California Trail to seek their fortunes in the gold fields.
Where did the Santa Fe Trail begin and end?
Covering approximately 800 miles, the Santa Fe Trail extends from Independence, Missouri to present day Santa Fe, New Mexico . The Trail originally began in Franklin, Missouri, but the trail head was moved to Fort Osage and, by 1827, to Independence. The Santa Fe Trail and national park units on it route.
Where was the starting point of the California Trail?
Starting points varied, but most began somewhere along the Missouri River and ran parallel with the Oregon Trail, heading west. Eventually, the California Trail split off from the Oregon Trail and headed south to the numerous paths and “shortcuts” over the Sierra Nevada mountains and into California.
Where does the California Trail start and end?
The California Trail went from western Missouri across the Great Plains into the Rocky Mountains to the gold fields of northern California . It was most heavily used in the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s. The length of the wagon trail from the Missouri River to Sacramento, California was about 1,950 miles (3,138 km).
How did the natives view the Santa Fe Trail?
For American merchants crossing the trail from its start in Missouri to its end in Santa Fe, the trail offered profit and promise. For Native Americans, it meant buffalo corpses, played-out beaver streams, conflict, disease — and often, death .
How did the Santa Fe Trail benefit the New Mexico territory?
How did the Santa Fe trail benefit the New Mexico Territory? The trail allowed settlers an access to New Mexico that was less dangerous as the previous trails . The trail helped to boost trade with the US, therefore boosting the economy. I️t was useful for traders and the military.
What did they eat on the Santa Fe Trail?
For Western Indian tribes, food staples included cornmeal, sunflower-seed meal, acorns, and deer, buffalo and dog , he says. Indian delicacies included buffalo hide shavings cooked with chokecherries.
Why did pioneers travel to California?
Some pioneers sought fortunes in timber, fur, or precious metals. Others hoped for better health in the mild Pacific Coast climate . People came west for these and other reasons. From the 1840s to the 1860s, more than 300,000 people crossed the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains to reach the Pacific Coast.
Who started the California Trail?
While Bonneville was exploring the Snake River in Wyoming, he sent a party of men under Joseph Walker to explore the Great Salt Lake and find an overland route to California. Early settlers began to use the trail in the 1840s, the first of which was John Bidwell , who led the 1841 Bidwell-Bartleson Party.
Why was the Santa Fe railroad built?
Construction of the road’s eastern extension began during autumn 1871, and despite some adversity, the connection between Topeka and Atchison was completed by May 16, 1872. In order to stimulate settlement on its Kansas lands , the Santa Fe railroad offered free or reduced rate transportation to potential buyers.
What happened to Santa Fe railroad?
The railroad officially ceased operations on December 31, 1996 , when it merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway.
How did the Santa Fe railroad change America?
It reached the Pacific in 1887—and helped turn the United States into a single economic powerhouse, linking the industrialized East, the Midwestern heartland and the agricultural glories of the West Coast, all joined in a common market .
