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| The Old Spanish Trail
witnessed a brief but furious heyday between 1830 and 1848 as a trade route
linking Santa Fe, New Mexico and Los Angeles, California. During that period,
Mexican and American traders took woolen goods west over the trail by mule
train, and returned eastward with California mules and horses for the New
Mexico and Missouri markets. The Trail left Santa Fe and split
into two routes. The South or Main Branch headed northwest past Colorado's
San Juan mountains to near Green River, Utah. The North Branch proceeded due
north into Colorado's San Luis Valley and crossed west over Cochetopa Pass to
follow the Gunnison and Colorado rivers to meet the Southern Branch near
Green River. From Central Utah in Emery County (Castle Dale, Huntington, Emery
and Ferron), Sanpete county, Sevier County and Carbon County, ( Price, Helper,) the Trail
went southwest to an area now shared by Utah, Nevada and Arizona. It crossed
southern Nevada and passed through the Mojave Desert to San Gabriel Mission
and Los Angeles. Ancient Indian Trails The Trail originated in ancient, native American Indian trade routes. Two of these routes ran north-south along the eastern and western margins of the upper Rio Grande Valley, between the adobe pueblos of present-day New Mexico and Colorado's San Luis Valley. Perhaps the oldest, in use for nearly 1,000 years, later became the West Fork of the North Branch. Between 1598 and 1830, Spanish (1598-1821) and later Mexican (1821-1830), and American (1821-1830) traders connected these native trade routes to complete the Old Spanish Trail. |
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| Early Spanish Expeditions Well-documented Spanish expeditions that led from Santa Fe to central Utah, along the eastern half of the Trail, include Juan Maria Antonio de Rivera in 1765, the Dominquez-Escalante party of 1776, Manuel Mestas in 1805, and the Arze-Garcia party of 1813. But Spanish traffic was fairly constant between 1765 and 1821 to trade with the Ute. |
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| In the 1820s Fur-trapping parties pushed west from New Mexico, following the Gila and Colorado rivers south of the Trail, while others used the Spanish route northwest from Santa Fe to trap the Green River in eastern Utah. These men included: Antoine Roubidoux, Ewing Young, Etienne Provost, William Wolfskill, George Yount, Jose Martin, Jedediah Smith, Kit Carson, and Ceran St. Vrain. * Interesting fact, Antoine Roubidoux was a fur trapper, he is relation to Ron Roubidoux who founded the first Sulphur Horses Registry. |
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| Mexican merchant Antonio Armijo made the first commercial, round-trip journey along a southern variant of the route in 1829-1830. William Wolfskill and George Yount's commercial pack train of 1830-1831 inaugurated consistent use of the entire route from 1830-1848. | ||||
| During the Mexican War From 1846 to 1848, the Americans' Army of the West conquered New Mexico, then blazed a new, southern variant of the route to California, hastening the end of the Old Spanish Trail. Several famous journeys were made along the Trail, from west-to-east, including one by Kit Carson and Lieutenant George D. Brewerton in 1848. After the Mexican War, wagon roads on competing routes largely ended use of the Trail. |
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| Government Mapping Expeditions In the 1850s and 1860s, portions of the Trail's eastern end were mapped by U.S. government expeditions, while the western portion of the trail witnessed Mormons heading to California. U.S. government expeditions included Capt. John W. Gunnison in 1853, and Lieutenant E.F. Beale in 1853. By then commercial traffic had died out, leaving wagon ruts visible. http://museumtrail.org/OldSpanishTrail.asp |
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Old Spanish Trail |
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| The trail takes its name from the old Spanish colonies in northern New Mexico and southern California that were linked by this rugged route. The Spanish outpost of Santa Fe, New Mexico was founded in the early 1600's and the pueblo of Los Angeles, California was founded in 1781. But it was not until 1829 when Santa Fe merchant Antonio Armijo led 60 men and 100 mules northward on the known trails blazed by native peoples that a suitable land passage between these colonies became established and regularly used. On the return trip, Armijo backtracked along the route of the Spanish padres Dominguez and Escalante recorded as they returned to Santa Fe from southern Utah more than fifty years earlier. Portions of both the Northern Route and the Armijo Route pass through the BLM Arizona Strip District. The Old Spanish Trail in northern Arizona and southern Utah passes near the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The Virgin River Canyon Recreation Area on Interstate 15 offers opportunities to enjoy a rugged, colorful, Grand Canyon-like setting deep within the Virgin River Gorge. http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/blm_special_areas/hist_trails/old_span_tr.html | ||||
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Sign Post |
Map | The Diary | ||
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| The Diary of the Franciscan Silvestre Veléz de Escalante and Francisco Dominguez. This diary of their expedition records their route that started out from Santa Fe on July 29, 1776, making a circuit through what is now Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. The diary describes geographic features and mentions passing the ancient cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde in Colorado. A" party of ten, led by Franciscan Fathers Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante departed Santa Fe in late July 1776 and returned to that location on January 2, 1777, as part of a failed effort to link Santa Fe with the new Spanish settlements along the Pacific Coast. The expedition did obtain substantially more knowledge of the regions north, northwest and west of Santa Fe than any previous party, penetrating further into the unknown central Rockies. The manuscript map above, made by expedition cartographer Bernardo Miera y Pacheco, reveals Spain's northernmost efforts to explore the interior of western North America". Silvestre Veléz de Escalante, copied by José Cortés "Memorias Sobre las Provincis del Norte de Nueva Espana," [Notes on the Provinces of the North of New Spain], ca.1799 Manuscript Division. | ||||
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Old Spanish Trail with photos (soon) |
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