First News Winter 2004

Cover Story: Trail Group Receives Funding Status and Seeks Membership
 

  The board's stated purpose is five fold: 1) to increase recognition and appreciation of the multi-cultural heritage in communities within the corridor of the mountain branch. 2) to preserve historic sites and resources for future generations. 3) to enhance the visitor experience by upgrading and improving current sites and factories, and develop additional sites which presently do not have visitor services. 4) to increase visitation and tourism's contributions to the local economy by increasing the number of visitors and their length of stay. 5) to disseminate information about trail and related activities along the corridor of the Santa Fe Trail Mountain Branch.

  The organization has already accumulated promotional materials for public release: a press kit, a newsletter and full color brochure, a new website at www.santafetrailscenicandhistoricbyway.org, an interpretive CD—“Listening for the Sounds of Wheels”, a marketing plan is in place, along with a PBS documentary.

  In order to understand why it is important to preserve and promote the trail for future generations, one must first understand the importance this trail served for its early travelers. From 1821 through 1880, the Santa Fe Trail linked two distant countries by permitting a rich exchange of ideas, languages and materials for trade. This great prairie highway bridged cultures and ushered in changing times. The trail stretched 900 miles, beginning in central Missouri, through Kansas, and toward the Oklahoma panhandle. At that point the route became problematic as the surge of covered wagon convoys faced a virtual waterless route of 50 to 60 miles between the Arkansas and Cimarron Rivers. Due to the lack of water, a more northerly route was developed by the mid-1830s. It began along the Arkansas River west of Dodge City, Kansas, then headed due west toward La Junta, near the site of Bent's Old Fort, then dropped down southwest along the Purgatoire River into Trinidad, crossed Raton Pass, and wound down into Cimarron and Las Vegas, New Mexico. Near Ft. Union, the Cimarron and Mountain Routes merged, becoming a single trail again, for the remaining 90 miles into Santa Fe.

  Although the mountain branch was an additional 100-mile journey, it had more water and was less susceptible to Indian attack, but the climb over Raton Pass was arduous. Up to1880, traffic along the trail dwindled as the locomotive steam engine was now the popular mode for travelers and cargo.

  The Board of the Santa Fe Trail Scenic and Historic Byway Mountain Branch is already considering the future opportunities of multi- state cooperation among Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. The Santa Fe Trail Association has requested the Mountain Branch Scenic Byway host its trail symposium in Trinidad for 2007. The board's fundraising efforts are beginning to pay off with a $6,000 grant from the Colorado Division of Wildlife to add watchable wildlife interpretative signage in the Picketwire Canyonlands and Timpas Grasslands scheduled for completion September 2004. A $25,000 seed grant has been received for operations from the Federal Highway Administration National Scenic Byways Program. The future is promising as organizers plan a hiking and biking trail across Raton Pass with interpretative signage and markers to indicate the wagon wheel ruts still visible along the trail's branch.

  Currently, state highways parallel much of the trail's branch permitting tourists to examine the scattered remnants. Evidence still exists in the form of buildings, historic sites and the natural landmarks that guided early travelers. But the story of the mountain branch is not over. In fact, the Santa Fe Trail Scenic and Historic Byway members are just getting started in their efforts to preserve, protect and interpret trail resources.

  So next time you're near the trail— listen! Listen with your imagination! Can you hear the rumble of freight wagons, the crack of the whip, or look for the early way-stations from days gone by? These were the sights and sounds of the great American spirit, an America on the move from a young backwater country to a great nation. Join with this group of concerned citizens to keep our historic cultural heritage alive for future generations to enjoy.