What were some of problems difficulties or challenges on the Santa Fe Trail?

What were some of problems difficulties or challenges on the Santa Fe Trail?

There were some hazards attached to this very lucrative business. Disasters could result from dangerous water supplies, prairie fires, and attacks by wild Indians. The Santa Fe trail wound its way through some of the most war-like tribes that could be found in North America.

What challenges did the Santa Fe Trail face?

While some travelers made the trip without incident, the unforgiving climate, illness, mechanical failures, starvation, dehydration, and the potential for violent encounters created an array of challenges to prepare for and overcome. While some struck it rich, others lost their fortunes, their health, or their lives.

What were two challenges of the Santa Fe Settlement?

Challenges included disease, monotony, accidents, weather, and occasional American Indian attacks.

What were the perils of the Santa Fe Trail?

Movies and books often romanticize Santa Fe Trail treks as sagas of constant peril, replete with violent prairie storms, fights with Indians, and thundering buffalo (bison) herds. Trail travelers mostly experienced dust, mud, gnats and mosquitoes, and heat.

What is the main purpose of the Santa Fe Trail?

The Santa Fe Trail was mainly a trade route but saw its share of emigrants, especially during the California Gold Rush and the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush in Colorado. The trail also became an important route for stagecoach travel, stagecoach mail delivery and as a mail route for the famed Pony Express.

Who led the Santa Fe Trail?

William Becknell
Between 1821 and 1880, the Santa Fe Trail was primarily a commercial highway connecting Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico. The route was pioneered by Missouri trader William Becknell, who left Franklin, Missouri in September 1821.

What did they eat on the Santa Fe Trail?

For Western Indian tribes, food staples included cornmeal, sunflower-seed meal, acorns, and deer, buffalo and dog, he says. Indian delicacies included buffalo hide shavings cooked with chokecherries.

What ended the use of the Santa Fe Trail?

End of the Santa Fe Trail Mule and oxen-drawn wagons couldn’t compete with trains for hauling freight or speeding passengers westward. On February 9, 1880 a Santa Fe Railway Company train arrived with considerable fanfare at the Santa Fe railroad depot and effectively ended the Santa Fe Trail.

How many died on the Santa Fe Trail?

Merchants traveled in caravans, moving wagons in parallel columns so that they might be quickly formed into a circular corral, with livestock inside, in the event of an Indian attack. Josiah Gregg reported that up to 1843 Indians killed but eleven men on the trail.

Who used the Santa Fe Trail?

The Santa Fe Trail was a transportation route opened by the Indians as well as European trappers and traders in the second half of the 18th century. It was later used extensively by people from the United States in the 19th century after the Louisiana Purchase.

What were the two routes of the Santa Fe Trail?

The historic trade route of the Santa Fe Trail from Missouri through Kansas to Santa Fe, New Mexico, had two primary branches — the Cimarron Route and the Mountain Route. During the trail’s heydays, both were well-traveled for different reasons.

Can you walk the Santa Fe Trail?

How do I visit or follow the Trail? The Santa Fe National Historic Trail is not a clearly marked nor continuous hiking trail. Instead it is a corridor that passes through communities as well as wild areas and through different states and land ownership. Places To Go will help you discover the many sites you can visit.

What was the danger of the Santa Fe Trail?

On this trail unlike the Oregon trail, there was a serious danger of Native American attacks, for neither the Comanches nor the Apaches of southern high plains tolerated trespassers. In 1825, Congress voted federal protection for the Santa Fe Trail, even though much of it lay in the Mexican territory.

What was the history of the Santa Fe Trail?

A Brief History. From 1821 until 1846, the Santa Fe Trail was a two-way international commercial highway used by both Mexican and American traders. Then, in 1846, the Mexican-American War began, and a few months later, America’s Army of the West followed the Santa Fe Trail westward to successfully invaded New Mexico.

Where can I see the Santa Fe Trail?

Santa Fe National Historic Trail, administered by the National Park Service, crosses the five States of Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. For more information, directions, maps, an places to see and things to do, visit the National Park Service Santa Fe National Historic Trail website or call 505-988-6098.

What was the weather like on the Santa Fe Trail?

Movies and books often romanticize Santa Fe Trail treks as sagas of constant peril, replete with violent prairie storms, fights with Indians, and thundering buffalo (bison) herds. In fact, a glimpse of bison, elk, antelope (pronghorn), or prairie dogs was sometimes the only break in the tedium of 8-week journeys.