The Santa Fe Trail in Colorado – The Mountain Route

The Santa Fe Trail holds a prominent place in the history of Colorado, a testament to westward expansion and the burgeoning trade between the United States and Mexico. Established in 1821, this vital artery sliced through the landscape, shaping the cultural and economic tapestry of the region. During its early years, over half of what is now Colorado was under Mexican rule, while the remaining portion remained unorganized territory, a vast expanse ripe for exploration and settlement. The southeastern corner of Colorado, with its dramatic topography, inspired the name for one of the trail’s principal paths: the Mountain Route. This route gained particular significance as the iron horse, the railroad, began its relentless march into the state, forever altering the landscape and the lives of those who traversed it.

The Santa Fe Trail in Colorado was not a single, unwavering path, but rather a network of routes that adapted to the terrain and the needs of travelers. The Mountain Route, contrasted against the Cimarron Route, stands out. While the Cimarron Route grazed only a mere 14 miles of Baca County, the Mountain Route etched a much deeper line, stretching 181 miles across the southeastern expanse of Colorado. This route, before crossing into New Mexico, snaked through the present-day counties of Prowers, Bent, Otero, and Las Animas, leaving an indelible mark on the land.

When trade between Missouri and Santa Fe commenced in 1821, the land that would become Colorado was a patchwork of claims and territories. Before the arrival of white settlers, several Native American tribes held dominion over eastern Colorado. The Northern Cheyenne and Northern Arapaho tribes roamed the northeastern reaches of the future state, while the Kiowa, Comanche, and Jicarilla Apache tribes extended their influence into the southeastern regions. In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase saw the United States lay claim to a vast area, encompassing most of eastern Colorado. However, the Purchase failed to clearly define the southwestern boundary with Spain, leading to the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819. This treaty established the border between the United States and Spain, demarcated by the west bank of the Sabine River, the south bank of the Red River, the 100th meridian, the south bank of the Arkansas River, a line from the headwaters of the Arkansas River to the 42nd parallel, and then west to the Pacific Ocean. The Arkansas River effectively bisected eastern Colorado, with the land north of the river falling under U.S. control and the land south under Spanish jurisdiction. Following Mexican independence in 1821, the Arkansas River continued to serve as the border between the United States and Mexico in the eastern portion of Colorado, until the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848.

The area now known as Colorado underwent a complex series of territorial claims and boundary adjustments before achieving statehood in 1876. In 1836, when Texas declared its independence, it asserted a claim to a narrow strip of mountainous territory stretching northward through Colorado to the 42nd parallel. During the early 1840s, Mexico sought to solidify its claims against Texas and the United States by granting land to wealthy citizens in the San Luis Valley, south of the Arkansas Valley, nestled within the Rocky Mountains. The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, signed after the Mexican-American War in 1848, ceded to the United States the majority of Colorado that had not already been acquired through the Louisiana Purchase. From 1848 to 1861, the border between New Mexico Territory and Colorado ran along an east-west line just south of Bent’s Fort. In 1850, the federal government acquired Bent’s claims in Colorado.

President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act into law on May 30, 1854, ushering in a new era for the region. This act established the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, defining the boundaries of Kansas Territory as the Missouri border to the east, the 40th parallel to the north, the 37th parallel to the south, and the crest of the Rocky Mountains to the west. Lands now comprising eastern Colorado were thus incorporated into Kansas Territory until the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention of 1859 shifted the western boundary of Kansas Territory to a point slightly west of the 102nd meridian, a change enacted a mere 18 months before Kansas achieved statehood.

The discovery of gold on the slopes of the Colorado Rockies sparked a surge of immigration into the previously sparsely populated region. In early 1859, George A. Jackson unearthed gold along Chicago Creek, near the site of present-day Idaho Springs. Shortly thereafter, on May 6th of the same year, John Gregory struck a significant gold lode on North Clear Creek, triggering a rush of prospectors who established the mining camps of Blackhawk, Central City, and Nevadaville.

These rich discoveries drew a massive influx of miners to California Gulch, the site of modern Leadville, in 1860. In the three years following the initial discoveries by Jackson and Gregory, an estimated 100,000 people embarked on the pilgrimage to the gold diggings. Of these, approximately half reached the mountains, and half of those who arrived ultimately decided to settle there, undeterred by the hardships and disappointments. This small population of prospectors and settlers, numbering only 25,371 in 1861, coalesced into a community, then a territory, and ultimately, 15 years later, a state. Before the establishment of Colorado Territory, the area encompassed portions of the Nebraska, Utah, Kansas, and New Mexico territories. Alongside the admission of Kansas as a state, Congress formally established Colorado’s current boundaries, creating Colorado Territory in 1861. In 1876, Colorado was admitted to the Union as the 38th state.

The Santa Fe Trail flourished after Mexican Independence in 1821, becoming a vital commercial and cultural link between the United States and Mexico. It also served as a strategic road during the Mexican-American War and the Civil War. Initially, the Cimarron Route was the preferred path for wagon traffic. While pack animals could navigate the Mountain Route, it saw limited use before 1846. This route encompassed several significant landmarks that played crucial roles in the history of the American Southwest.

In the late summer of 1832, a wagon train belonging to Bent, St. Vrain & Company, traveling eastbound from Santa Fe, pioneered the Mountain Route (also known as Bent’s Fort Route) of the Santa Fe Trail. This party departed Santa Fe via Taos, New Mexico, crossed Raton Pass into what is now southeastern Colorado, and reached the Arkansas River near the future site of Fort William (Bent’s Old Fort), located eight miles northeast of present-day La Junta. From there, they proceeded down the Arkansas River, rejoined the Cimarron Route, and reached Independence, Missouri, in November.

Fort William, later known as Bent’s Old Fort, stood on what was then the border between the United States and newly independent Mexico. The rectangular adobe fort faced eastward, with towers at each corner and walls 14 feet high and three feet thick. Constructed by Mexican laborers employed by brothers Charles and William Bent and their partner Ceran St. Vrain, the fort was completed in 1834. It functioned as a trading post from late 1833, even before its completion, until 1849.

William Bent became the sole owner of the fort in 1849. However, Bent’s Old Fort’s prosperity waned due to decreasing trade and increasing hostility from Native Americans. Bent held the Army partly responsible for the decline of his business, citing their presence at the fort before and during the Mexican-American War as a catalyst for increased tensions with and between neighboring tribes. The U.S. Army considered establishing a fort in the area in response to the escalating tensions. Bent attempted to sell his fort to the Army but deemed their offer inadequate compensation for his losses. Concurrent with his attempts to sell the fort, a devastating cholera epidemic ravaged large groups of Native Americans, including the Southern Cheyenne, whom Bent considered his strongest ally in the region. When the epidemic subsided, half of the Southern Cheyenne population had perished.

In August 1849, after sending his employees and family away with the remaining trade goods, Bent set fire to the adobe fort’s wooden substructure and rolled powder kegs into the main rooms to destroy it. Several theories exist regarding his motives for destroying the fort: to prevent the Army from occupying it, to prevent the Ute, Apache, Comanche, and Arapaho tribes from using it against the U.S. Army, and as a reaction to the cholera epidemic. Whatever the reason, he relocated 38 miles down the Arkansas River to the Big Timbers. At the Big Timbers, Bent resumed trading with local Indians. He built three log structures to form a U-shape, with the open side facing the river. However, in the winter of 1852-1853, he constructed a more substantial stone fort with 12 rooms around a central courtyard and 16-foot tall walls. He operated this smaller post from 1853 to 1860. Although he was unsuccessful in selling Bent’s New Fort to the U.S. Army, they leased it as the Upper Arkansas Indian Agency, commissary, and quartermaster storehouse for nearby Fort Wise (Fort Lyon).

Fort Lyon, initially established as Fort Wise, was built less than a mile west of Bent’s New Fort by the Army in 1860. It was named after Henry Wise, the Governor of Virginia. However, in 1861, the name was changed to Fort Lyon in honor of General Nathaniel Lyon, who was killed at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek in Missouri during the Civil War. Fort Wise/Old Fort Lyon served as a crucial military link on the Santa Fe Trail between Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and Fort Union in New Mexico, acting as the "principal guardian of the Mountain Branch." It played a significant role in the Indian conflicts of the region during and after the Civil War. The 1861 Treaty with the Arapaho and Cheyenne was signed here, but it was not honored by either side. Due to its location in the Arkansas River floodplain and subsequent flooding, the fort was relocated to its present location east of Las Animas in 1867. New Fort Lyon was active from 1867 to 1889, before being abandoned as a fort by an act of Congress in 1890. From 1867, New Fort Lyon was part of the Army’s Department of the Missouri, a regional network of forts and military facilities in the Missouri River drainage. This post replaced Old Fort Lyon and helped guard the Santa Fe Trail and, later, the railroad line.

Boggsville, one of Colorado’s earliest surviving agriculture and trade centers, lies approximately two miles south of Las Animas. This small complex, comprising two trading stores owned separately by John W. Prowers and Thomas O. Boggs, served as a stage stop on the Santa Fe Trail. Boggsville was established in 1862 on the west bank of the Purgatoire River, three miles from New Fort Lyon. It was built on 2040 acres of the original four million-acre 1843 Vigil & Saint Vrain, or Las Animas, Mexican Land Grant, which encompassed most of southeastern Colorado. Boggsville served as a hub of commerce and agriculture between 1867 and 1873; it was also the first county seat of Bent County. Thomas and Rumalda Luna Boggs, John W. and Amache Ochinee Prowers, and Kit and Josepha Jaramillo Carson all called Boggsville home. Las Animas City, located on the Arkansas River across from Fort Lyon, was the first town established in southeastern Colorado. It housed the home station for the Barlow and Sanderson Stage Company and later became the county seat for Bent County. It was abandoned after 1873 when the Kansas Pacific Railway extended west to Las Animas.

Raton Pass straddles the Colorado-New Mexico border near Trinidad. While the Mountain Route of the Santa Fe Trail had been in use since the 1830s, its terrain presented numerous challenges for wagon travel. One such obstacle was the treacherous 8,000-foot Raton Pass, notorious for breaking axles. Serving as both a barrier and a gateway, Raton Ridge symbolized the Mountain Route of the Santa Fe Trail. Crossing this pass was difficult until the Army made improvements during the Mexican-American War.

The Mountain Route, with Raton Pass as its centerpiece, played a crucial role in military history. Stephen Kearny’s Army of the West used this route in 1846 on its way to conquer New Mexico. In 1862, Colorado Volunteers surged through Raton Pass en route to Glorieta Pass, where they defeated Confederate troops. However, the pass did not see widespread use until "Uncle Dick" Wootton began improving it in 1865 as part of his toll road. These improvements encouraged many travelers, including stagecoach lines, to opt for the Mountain Route over the Cimarron Route.

The completion of the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad in 1880 led to the trail’s abandonment as a major national route. The railroad closely followed the Mountain Route of the Santa Fe Trail. While the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad initially intended to build over the Cimarron Route southwest to Santa Fe in 1863, the geography of this route, particularly the limited water availability for steam engines along La Jornada, forced the railroad to adjust its plans. The lack of settlement along the Cimarron Route further reduced its appeal. Consequently, the railroad line was laid near the Mountain Route of the Santa Fe Trail. In 1878, Wootton sold his toll road through Raton Pass to the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad.

The Mountain Route, a vital artery of the Santa Fe Trail, remained a significant route for the railroad. Once known as the Raton or Bent’s Fort Route during the trail’s heyday, the Mountain Route was longer and more challenging than the Cimarron Route but was considered safer due to the abundance of water and the reduced risk of Indian attacks. Although the railroad boom rendered the trail obsolete as a wagon road to Santa Fe, it maintained its importance and significantly altered the nature of overland trade. The development and expansion of the railroad network across the United States, especially along the Santa Fe Trail, enabled freighters to transport larger and more frequent quantities of goods to and from the burgeoning territories, boosting profits and facilitating the settlement of these new lands.