The original Santa Fe Trail began in Franklin, Missouri, where the Boone′s Lick road ended. From the end of the Boone′s Lick road, it is another 110 miles until arriving at where the Kansas river merges with the Missouri river, a point which also marks the Kansas state line. Although the trail originally began at Franklin, Missouri, later, the trail head was moved to Fort Osage, Missouri, and then in 1827, the trail head was again moved to Independence, Missouri.

The Santa Fe Trail eventually traversed the areas of what are now the states of Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and New Mexico and covered about a total of 800 miles (900 if you include the traverse from Franklin to Indepencence).

The separate Cimarron trail was amost 400 miles.

Abandoned upon completion of AT&SF railroad

The Santa Fe Trail was pioneered in the early 1800s by William Becknell when he departed from Boone′s Lick county, Missouri, traveled on the Boone′s Lick Road along the north bank of the Missouri river from Saint Charles, Missouri to Franklin, Missouri, a route which was the primary road path for settlers moving west from St. Louis in the 1800s.

Thus, the Santa Fe Trail was established when William Becknell left Franklin, Missouri in September 1821, followed the Missouri river to the Kansas river, where he entered Kansas and continued west across what is now the state of Kansas until arriving at the Arkansas river. He then followed the Arkansas river west into what is now the state of Colorado until arriving near the Rocky Mountains. From this point, he turned southward in the Rocky Mountain and then crossed over Raton Pass into what is now the state of New Mexico.

From this point, the expedition continued along the east side of the mountains until arriving near the location of the the present day Las Vegas, New Mexico. He then turned west and continued until arriving at Santa Fe. The length of the original expedition to Santa Fe was about 934 miles.

Then, after leaving Santa Fe to return back east, he arrived back in Franklin by the middle of January 1822. His return journey avoided the high pass through the Raton Mountains and what would have been a very cold traverse by instead taking a shorter, more direct route, one which followed much of the Cimarron river through western Oklahoma and then into southwest Kansas.

The Cimarron Trail, also known as the Cimarron Cutoff and the Cimarron Crossing was an alternate southern route of the Santa Fe trail which followed the general route of the Cimarron river, bypassed most of Colorado by cutting across the western tip of Oklahoma and then entering New Mexico. This cutoff was indeed shorter than the Mountain route but had less water available and passed through the northern edge of the Comanche lands as well as land claimed by Spanish Mexico.

By 1827, a town was established at Independence, Missouri which began to take on a larger roll as a trail head town. Also, Fort Leavenworth, a US Army installation was constructed as a forward base protection the Santa Fe Trail and was built on the Kansas side of the Missouri river upriver about forty miles from Independence, Missouri.

Large flooding along the Missouri river in 1826 and again even worse in 1928 destroyed Franklin as the trail head for the Santa Fe Trail and increased steamship traffic encouraged upriver traffic and westbound caravans began from a variety of locations, including: New Franklin, Fayette, Lexington and Independence. The length from Lexington to Santa Fe was about 838 miles at this time.

Then, by 1831, Independence grew into a substantial sized frontier town and became the place to go to begin travel west on the Santa Fe Trail, however, the town of Westport, Kansas came to grow into a major river for the trail head starting location. Trail length from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe now decreases to about 800 miles.

Built in 1833 on the Arkansas River in Colorado near the previously Louisiana purchase and the border with Mexico, Bent′s Old Fort served as an outpost on the Santa Fe Trail.

Sometime before 1846, a dispute developed over the ownership of the New Mexico territory, causing travelers on the Santa Fe trail, to stop using the Cimarron Trail and instead began using only the Mountain Route, which instead of crossing the Arkansas River at Fort Dodge to take the Cimarron cutoff, travelers would continue along the north bank of the Arkansas River until arriving at Bents Fort and only there would they would cross the Arkansas River follow the Mountain Route along the Purgatoire River southward.

In May 1846, the US congress declared war against Mexico and about a month later, General S Kearny with his army left Fort Leavenworth and before the summer was done, the US Army had gained control of New Mexico. However, at this time the Comanche Indian raids had made the Cimarron southern route to dangerous so most all travel was diverted through Bent′s Old Fort and the Mountain Route. The trail route from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe was now 844 miles.

With the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, the previous New Mexico territory was no longer claimed by Mexico but was now officially part of the United States. Also, after this treaty, travel on the southern alternate route resumed. The Cimarron route was once again the most preferred route, however, Independence, Missouri had been completely supplanted by by the Town of Kansas (later Kansas City) as the eastern trailhead for the Santa Fe Trail. Too, with the Cimarron Cutoff available, the length to Santa Fee was now 788 miles.

In 1859, Fort Larned was built in central Kansas to provided support for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail while on the trail in Kansas after arriving at the Arkansas river.

With the activities of the proslavery raiders crossing from the slave state of Missouri into Kansas Territory to ensure that Kansas entered the Union as a slave state, The violent period called Bleeding Kansas only exasperated the tensions between the Union and the Confederate states. These conflicts made travel on the eastern park of Kansas unsafe to travel and the trailhead starting point changed from Independence, Missouri to Fort Leavenworth, and then traveled along the Leavenworth military road to connect with the main trail. Too, Indian raid made it unsafe on the Cimarron Cutoff. During this period, the Santa Fe trail from Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe was then 834 miles.

After the Civil War, traffic over the trail resumed its prewar pattern. The trail began or ended in Kansas City and most traffic used the Cimarron Route. Trail length from Kansas City to Santa Fe via the Cimarron Route was now reduced to 788 miles.

From as early as 1863, construction of the Union Pacific Eastern Division (UPEC) railroad west from Kansas City had begun and a period of extensive railroad expansion began in the new state of Kansas. In June of 1866, the rail reached Junction City, Kansas at which point, the Butterfield Overland Despatch stage would travel to Fort Ellsworth, then Fort Zarah after which the wagon road would continue southwestward to Fort Dodge and then Santa Fe.

In June of 1867, the rail arrived at Fort Harker, near Fort Ellsworth, and for several months, Santa Fe travelers began there Santa Fe trail journey at Fort Harker. However, the railroad did not continue in the southwest direction but turned westward and continue building the rail to Fort Hayes, reaching there by October 1867. When the railroad arrived at Fort Hays, Kansas, a wagon road was built from there to Fort Dodge from which it continued on to Santa Fe.

By June 1868, the railroad arrived in the town of Sheridan after which all freight and passengers would travel over a new wagon road down to Fort Lyon, Colorado where it would connect to the old Colorado Mountain Route to continue to Santa Fe. By this time, the trail length from Sheridan to Santa Fe had decreased to 428 miles.

In March 1870, the Kansas Pacific (formerly UPEC) arrived in Kit Carson, Colorado at which location was a 66 mile feeder route to Bent′s Old Fort near Las Animas, Colorado. The distance from Kit Carson to Santa Fe now had dropped to 358 miles.

By early 1873, two separate rail lines had crossed Kansas and arrived in Colorado. Then, in July 1873, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad (AT&SF), a railroad somewhat to the south of the Kansas Pacific railroad, began to compete for the Santa Fe Trail traffic. However, both rail lines end up at Las Animas, Colorado, but they continue on separate rail tracks to La Junta. The Kansas Pacific rail then builds west to Pueblo while the Denver and Rio Grande railroad builds south toward Trinidad, near Raton Pass on the Santa Fe Trail.

In September 1878, all three railroads lines apply to build a rail over Raton Pass in order to connect to and serve the New Mexico Market, however, only the AT&SF railroad acquires the right to continue to build over Raton Pass. Subsequently, the Kansas Pacific railroad was abandoned soon afterward.

The Santa Fe railroad, reached Las Vegas, New Mexico on 1 July 1879 and the first train entered the city three days later. Then, on 9 February 1880, the railroad arrives in Santa Fe, New Mexico and in doing so, caused the Santa Fe Trail to fall into disuse, the era of the Santa Fe Trail is over, and that previously well traveled dirt road path just faded into history and become a relic, one that is now only sought after by historians and tourists.

The Santa Fe Trail had a profound impact on the lives of the indigenous people who lived in the Southern Plains, which included the Arapaho, Cheyene, Comanche, Kiowa and Plains Apache. All of these tribes fought hard in their effort to protect their homeland from these invaders who were disguised as emigrants and traders.

By the 1870s, after intense military pressure and the slaughter of millions of buffalo by the pelt hunters, these plains people were forced to begin a new life on government appointed reservations. A Kiowa warrior and chief known as White Bear, (Satanta) said, I do not want to settle down in the houses you would build for us. I love to roam over the wild prairie. There I am free an happy.

While the building the Santa Fe Trail did much to open the door to the American expansions and development of the Southwest, it signaled an end to the nomadic way of life of the indigenous peoples who had lived here for hundreds if not thousands of years prior to the European arrival.

Most all of the Santa Fe Trail is located upon the Great Plains within the states of Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado and New Mexico. However, there are three small sections of the trail that are in other geological regions.

Traveling westward, the beginning areas of the Santa Fe Trail in Missouri and eastern Kansas are both located within the Central Low Plains of the Interior Lowland.

After crossing from the Interior Lowlands region, the Santa Fe Trail continues across Kansas in a generally southwest direction and arrives at Fort Larned on the Pawnee Fork, a tributary of the Arkansas river. From Fort Larned, the Santa Fe trail continues southwest until reaching the Arkansas river near Fort Dodge.

The trail then turns westward and soon after, the traveler has to choose between two paths, the Mountain Path or the Cimarron Cutoff.

The Santa Fe trail continues west in the Great Plains following the Arkansas River through western Kansas, then continues in the Great Plains along the Arkansas River in Colorado until reaching Bent′s Old Fort on the north bank of that river.

Upon leaving Bent′s Old Fort, the trail continues in a southwest direction towards Trinidad, Colorado, after which, trail begins climbing upwards to Raton Pass, a volcanic arm of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains along the state line. Upon reaching the summit of the pass at 7,834 feet, the Santa Fe trail descents from the Rocky Mountain geographical region back into the Great Plains region of New Mexico.

The Santa Fe Trail continues southward in the Great Plains until Fort Union, New Mexico, where the Cimarron Cutoff route of the Santa Fe Trail merges back with the Mountain route.

After leaving Dodge City and coming to the fork in the Santa Fe Trail, the path to the left, the southward path would take the traveler on a shorter journey to Santa Fe, about one hundred miles shorter than the mountains path. So, the question would remain, why did not everyone take this short cut?

Well, there are several reason that kept many of the the caravans on the northern mountain route but methinks that the primary reason was that there was more water available on the northern route which followed the Arkansas river all the way to Bent′s Old Fort before turning southward.

Second, and not one to forget, were the Plains Indians, indigenous people who were being uprooted from their homeland and who fought back ferociously against the European invaders.

Then, when not far into Kansas, the geographical region changes into the Great Plains, which once it enters this region, does not leave the Great Plains until after crossing south through the New Mexico Western High Plains and then near the end of the Santa Fe Trail in New Mexico, the trail leaves the Western High Plains and enters into the New Mexico Basin and Range Region and it is in this region that it continues all the way to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

By crossing into the Basin and Range Region, the Santa Fe Trail keeps just east of the Rocky Mountains geographical region and continues to skirt the Rocky Mountain around the bottom of the region as the trail approaches Santa Fe, New Mexico.