The Santa Fe Trail, Yesterday and Today

Description

This is the book that will introduce readers to the Santa Fe Trail, encourage their interest and take them along it. The Santa Fe Trail was developed for commerce. However, where trade goes, so go the people, and that was true of the Santa Fe Trail. The first section describes the commercial nature of the trail. The next section describes its historical development. Then, portions of Joseph C. Brown’s original 1825 notebook with survey notes and maps are included, along with five other early maps. Three guidebooks and three diaries are used to describe the main section of the trail from the Great Bend of the Arkansas River west to where the trail divided to ford the river and cross the desert and the dreaded Jornado, or to continue west along the river to Bent’s Fort and follow the Mountain route. To get the best view one must examine the trail as seen by its early traders and travelers, and to see it as it looks today. That is exactly what the “yesterday and today” pictorial section does. Three artists’ works form the basis for the early view: Josiah Gregg, the 1830s; Lieutenant James Abert, the mid-1840s; and BenWittick, the 1870s. Photos from today are matched with the early sketches, paintings , and photos.