Along the Santa Fe Trail

The Santa Fe Trail was one of the most important overland trade routes in the nineteenth century. For nearly sixty years, from 1822 to 1880, it carried traders, army troops, and pioneers from the Missouri until it was superseded by the railroad. This book presents two personal, contemporary views of the trail, both of which pay tribute to the trail's role in westward expansion and document what remains today after a century of disuse. Joan Myers's haunting, evocative photographs depict both the landmarks and the vast empty space of the trail. She captures the sense of what these places must have felt like to voyages facing 900 miles of treacherous desert, mountains, and prairie. As he retraces the trail, Marc Simmons remembers trials and courage of those who cut this path. He relates modern sites to the people and events connected with them a century ago. The result is an engaging history and a personal exploration of a romantic legend: the Santa Fe Trail. This book is unique in combining two contemporary visions of the trail with historical references drawn from diaries, journals, and newspaper accounts. Not just another history of the trail, it juxtaposes nineteenth- and twentieth-century experiences, giving history a personal dimension -- Back cover.