Take your students on the historic journey from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico over the Santa Fe Trail, America’s first great road of commerce west of the Mississippi. The importance of the Santa Fe Trail comes alive through a dozen hands-on documents, which include a classroom map showing the route of the trail through present day states, an 1844 Table of Distances from Independence to Santa Fe, and a lithograph of Santa Fe in 1883. Historian: James A. Crutchfield. The contents of this Jackdaw feature:

• The Mystery of Santa Fe
• William Becknell and the Santa Fe Trail
• Freighting on The Santa Fe Trail
• Josiah Gregg: Chronicler of Trail Life
• Demise of the Santa Fe Trail

• Map showing path of Santa Fe Trail over present-day states.
• Plan of Santa Fe, c. 1840.
• Engraving of Santa Fe, 1846.
• Advertisment for Josiah Gregg’s Commerce of the Prairies.
• Josiah Gregg’s “Map of the Indian Territory, Northern Texas and New Mexico Showing the Great Western Prairies,” 1844.
• Josiah Gregg’s Table of Distances between Independence, Mo. and Santa Fe, N.M., 1844; Josiah Gregg’s Statistical Table, 1844.
• Plan of Bent’s Fort, 1845.
• Expedition recruitment notice, 1825.
• Illustration depicting wagon train with military escort.
• Pages from Colonel Stephen Watts Kearny’s Laws of the Territory of New Mexico, 1846.
• Illustration showing switchback rails at Raton Pass.
• Lithograph of City of Santa Fe, 1883.