Susan Magoffin recorded what happened on the Santa Fe Trail. Susan Shelby Magoffin was a remarkable woman for her time—for any time, when it comes...
Best of the West 2023: Western Preservation
You Can Never Take the Dakota Out of this Girl My Old West Savior columns keep me grounded. I'm a North Dakota girl who now lives in Arizona,...
The Wedding Between a Señorita and an American
Journal of Matt Field on the Santa Fe Trail “The women invariably wore veils, slippers without stockings. When invited to a wedding--the bride was a...
Tamer of Raton Pass
“Uncle Dick” Wootton helped build a nation with his Santa Fe Trail toll road. Well past midnight, everyone in the wagon train was snoring. First...
Life on the Santa Fe Trail
It wasn’t only the Indians who made life precarious for the travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. The country was literally crawling with rattlesnakes,...
Ewing Young
When the free trappers banded together for self-preservation, they usually elected a partisan or captain to act as leader. He was usually a man with...
The Opening and Closing of the Santa Fe Trail 1821-1880, Part 2
At this time St. Louis was a raw, crude, boisterous city of some 4,600 people made up mostly of French, Indians, Spanish, Germans and Americans....
The Opening and Closing of the Santa Fe Trail 1821-1880, PART 1
The Mexican Revolution ended in 1821 and brought about many changes in foreign policy. Up to then Spain didn’t allow her colonies to trade with the...
On the Santa Fe Trail: 1821-2021
The bicentennial of the National Historic Trail is a great reason to hit the road and rediscover why it is the West’s original “Mother Road.” When...
Murphy Wagons Under Spanish rule any French or American trader who ventured into Santa Fe or Taos would be arrested and marched on foot to Chihuahua or even Mexico City and imprisoned. All that was about to change...
The storied Santa Fe Trail opened for business in 1821, a year that coincided with the birth of the Mexican Republic. The Mexican Revolution ...
Stone by Stone
Shirley McClintock has dedicated her life to preserving the history of Council Grove, Kansas.