Kansas's Santa Fe Trail

Traversing the Sunflower State from Leavenworth to Dodge City

- MELODY GROVES

Timing, as they say, is everything and that certainly proved true for Missouri trader William Becknell. Once Mexico gained its independence from France in 1821, Mexicans immediately opened the border for trade. Seeing an opportunity, Becknell organized a trading party and headed west, unafraid of being jailed like many other traders before him. Becknell left Franklin, Missouri, in September 1821 with a small group of men and cargo and arrived in Santa Fe on November 16.

The Santa Fe Trail, first established by Indians, then French traders around 1719, and later fur trappers, was a transportation route that opened the U.S. to foreign trade. Travelers faced dangerous plains; hot, waterless deserts; and steep, perilous mountains. Hot, dry summers gave way to bitterly cold winters. Freshwater was scarce, but the intrepid traders proved invincible. From 1821 until 1846, the Santa Fe Trail was a two-way international commercial highway used by Mexican and American traders, most of the trail lying in Mexican territory.

In 1846, when the Mexican-American War began, America's Army of the West followed the Santa Fe Trail to successfully invade Mexico. With the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, New Mexico and other territories were annexed by the U.S. The Santa Fe Trail became a national road connecting the more settled parts of the United States to the new Southwest territories. Trade reached as far south as Mexico City. Commercial freighting along the trail boomed to unimaginable levels, including considerable military freight hauled to supply the Southwestern forts. The trail was also used by stagecoach lines, thousands of gold-seekers heading to the California and Colorado goldfields, adventurers, missionaries, wealthy Mexican families, and emigrants.

First City of Kansas: Leavenworth