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...
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...
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,...
Greenhorns on the Santa Fe Trail
By 1824 the Santa Fe trade was in full swing. Joshua Gregg, in his classic tome, Commerce of the Prairies, described some of the action as he...
Fred Harvey and his Harvey Houses
Before the days of railroad dining cars, passengers were forced to eat in the local hash houses wherever the train happened to stop. The food was...
James Ohio Pattie
The first American trappers to enter Arizona, according to the best records, arrived in 1826. The party listed among its members three men destined...
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...
The Army Of The West The “golden prize” for the United States was California and that was the primary mission of General Stephen Watts Kearny’s Army of the West...
The Plains Indians called him the “Horse-chief of the Long Knives,” and the whites have called him, the “Father of the U.S. Cavalry.” The war...
Infamous Buried Treasure Claimed to Have Been Found An anonymous treasure hunter has discovered Forrest Fenn's $2 million treasure trove in the Rocky Mountains.
Ten years after renowned 89-year-old Santa Fe art dealer and True Westerner award-winner Forrest Fenn secretly hid a treasure of gold, gems and rare...
Frank Wattron A relative was raising him and planned to have the lad train for the priesthood so he ran away, drifting to Colorado, Mexico, New Mexico. He arrived in Holbrook with five dollars in his pocket and a deck of cards...
Frank Wattron arrived in Holbrook in 1884, just three years after the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad (Santa Fe) arrived and the name was changed from...