On the Santa Fe Trail

Marc Simmons, Editor

ISBN 10: 0700603166 / ISBN 13: 9780700603169

Published by University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 1986

About this Item

University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS. 1986. Softcover/Trade Wraps. 1st Printing by Line Number. Book is tight, square, and unmarked. Book Condition: Near Fine; light tip bumps; light toning to extremities of wraps. No DJ. Pictorial card stock wraps. Wraps are not bent or folded; spine is not creased or split; text is secure in binding.149 pp 8vo. This book is a collection of first-hand accounts by 19th-century overlanders, which offers an intensely personal view of that arduous trip. In retrospect, the history of the Santa Fe Trail?crossing forests, prairies, rivers, and deserts?seems overlayed with the gloss of romance and chivalry. It is set off by heroic attitudes and picturesque adventures. And it has left a deep imprint on one region of the American West-Kansas. Kansas claimed the largest share of the trail: from a beginning point at either Kansas City or Fort Leavenworth it angled across the entire state, exiting over four hundred miles later in the southwestern corner. It would be no exaggeration to say that trade and travel on the Santa Fe Trail derived much of its special flavor from the Kansas experience and that, in turn, the presence of the trail went a long way toward shaping the early history of the state. A clean very presentable copy.

Seller Inventory # 013861

Bibliographic Details

• Title: On the Santa Fe Trail
• Publisher: University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
• Publication Date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0700603166
• ISBN 13: 9780700603169
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • Kansas Related
  • The Old West/Outlaws
  • New Mexico Related

About this title

Synopsis

On the Santa Fe Trail, a collection of first-hand accounts by nineteenth-century overlanders, offers an intensely personal view of that arduous trip. In retrospect, the history of the Santa Fe Trail--crossing forests, prairies, rivers, and deserts--seems overlayed with the gloss of romance and chivalry. It is set off by heroic attitudes and picturesque adventures. And it has left a deep imprint on one region of the American West.

The trail crossed parts of five modern states--Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico. From the perspective of the overland trade, those five are forever bound in historical communion. The route began in Missouri and ended, after almost a thousand miles, in New Mexico. But it was Kansas that claimed the largest share of the trail: from a beginning point at either Kansas City or Fort Leavenworth it angled across the entire state, exiting over four hundred miles later in the southwestern corner. It would be no exaggeration to say that trade and travel on the Santa Fe Trail derived much of its special flavor from the Kansas experience and that, in turn, the presence of the trail went a long way toward shaping the early history of the state.

Many participants in this story, overlanders of various kinds, wrote down what they saw and learned on the way to Santa Fe. It is with that in mind that Marc Simmons has here collected a dozen narratives and reports from the middle years of the trail's history--from the early 1840s to the late '60s—that is, just after New Mexico had passed into American hands. It was a period of intense Indian-white conflict and before the establishment of rail lines along the route. The authors of these narratives--among them several teenagers, a Spanish aristocrat, an Indian agent, a German immigrant lady, a government scout, and a young New Mexican drover of the peon class--qualify as plain folk who, without quite intending to, got swept up in the westering adventure. Simmons has written an introduction to the collection and to each of the narratives.

About the Author

Marc Simmons is the author of more than twenty books, including New Mexico: A History, Witchcraft in the Southwest: Spanish and Indian Supernaturalism on the Rio Grande, and Albuquerque: A Narrative History.