The Old Santa Fe Trail

A classic on all the trials and tribulations of the Santa Fe Trail, the Indian deprevations, the Mexican problems, the Fontier Military, the Fur Trappers, Fur Trade, and Mountain Men, Kit Carson, Uncle Dick Wooten, Buffalo Bill Cody, the Bents, Jim Beckwourth.

The Santa Fe Trail was one of the two great overland highways originating in Missouri in the nineteenth century. Several decades before settlers streamed over the Oregon Trail, traders were heading southwest. The caravans carried the wares of Yankee commerce; they returned loaded with buffalo robes and beaver pelts and the rich metals of Mexican mines. The thousand-mile journey “was a perilous cruise across a boundless sea of grass, over forbidding mountains, among wild beasts and wilder men, ending in an exotic city offering quick riches, friendly foreign women, and a moral holiday,” writes Stanley Vestal. Vestal begins where the trail does. He describes outfitting for the trip, the society formed for survival, the hunt for meat, landmarks, and the dangers. He evokes the history and legends surrounding the trail at every point, including figures like Kit Carson, Jedediah Smith, the Bent brothers, and Uncle Dick Wooton.

Contains recipes and food stories from trappers, traders, settlers, various Indian tribes, Mexicans, and military soldiers who traveled the Santa Fe Trail, with instructions on how to prepare such dishes as buffalo, elk, crane, Indian "washtunkala" (jerked meat stew), and "belly washes," such as Injun Whiskey (made with black gunpowder, red pepper, and tobacco juice).

Compared to such famous frontier paths as Lewis and Clark's route and the Oregon Trail, most people know little about the seminal trade route we call the Santa Fe Trail, yet this rough wagon road endured longer than any other American trail west of the Mississippi River. From 1821 to 1880, bold and daring men loaded their wagons with trade goods and set out from Missouri to Santa Fe, in the newly independent nation of Mexico. These merchants, teamsters, and travelers exchanged not only material goods, but also ideas and customs, forever altering the cultural and political landscape for American, Mexican, and Indian peoples along the route. Taking the reader on an imaginative tour from end to end, author Ronald Dulle often stops to explore how wagon trains are organized or what a campsite looks like; to notice the strange food, clothing, and habits of the day; or to imagine the feeling of a rainy day in the saddle. With dozens of stunning color photographs and a fascinating narrative, Dulle helps readers envision the frontier experience and appreciate the myriad material and cultural changes the Santa Fe Trail brought to our growing nation.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.