The Old Santa Fe Trail ran from what is now New Franklin, Missouri to what is now Santa Fe, New Mexico. Captain William Becknell is credited with opening the trail to regular travel and trade in 1821. While people and mules had been making trips across the southwest for generations, it was Becknell who laid out a route that allowed freight wagons to make the journey.
Becknell’s first trading trip was remarkably profitable. He left Missouri with $300 in goods to trade and returned with the equivalent of nearly $6000 in silver coins. Investors eager to make a profit funded further trading ventures. Wagons travelled in caravans, led by experienced captains like Charles Bent and Kit Carson. Some caravans were as many as 100 wagons long.
Caravans along the Old Santa Fe Trail usually rested in the heat of the day and traveled only for a few hours early each morning and in the late afternoon. When a caravan reached Santa Fe, there was much celebration by both the locals and the traders.
Learn more about the Old Santa Fe Trail in the Edmund Seymour papers at UW’s American Heritage Center.