Old Spanish Trail (trade route)
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| Old Spanish Trail | |
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| U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
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| Location: | New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California |
| Added to NRHP: | October 6, 1988 (Utah section), August 22, 2001 (Nevada section) |
| NRHP Reference#: | 88001181 (Utah section), 01000863 (Nevada Section) |
The Old Spanish Trail is a historic trade route which connected the northern New Mexican settlement of Santa Fé with that of Los Ángeles in California. Approximately 1,200 miles (2,000 km) long, it ran though areas of high mountains, arid deserts, and deep canyons. Explored by European travelers as early as 1776, the Trail saw extensive use by pack trains from about 1829 until the mid-1850s.
The name "Spanish" is a misnomer since by 1821 the territory belonged to Mexico. In fact, during the Colonial era the Spanish crown discouraged trade between the provinces and it is unlikely that many contacts existed between New Mexicans and Californios before the Mexican period. Furthermore, it is probable that the trail was traced upon previously used Native American routes. Fur trappers and Mexican merchants are the prime candidates for its first continual use.
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[edit] History
The eastern areas of the Old Spanish Trail, including southwest Colorado and southeast Utah, were explored by Juan Maria de Rivera in 1765. Franciscan missionaries Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante unsuccessfully attempted the trip to California, leaving Santa Fe in 1776 and making it all the way into the Great Basin near Utah Lake before returning via the Arizona Strip. Other expeditions then explored and traded in the region, finding shorter and less arduous routes through the mountains and deserts.
Little evidence exists that round-trips to California occurred before about 1829. Thereafter, regular caravans traveled the Trail, trading Native American slaves and woolen goods from New Mexico for high quality horses in California. John C. Frémont, "The Great Pathfinder," named the route in 1844. Trade continued until the mid-1850s, when a shift to the use of freight wagons made the old route obsolete. Additionally, both New Mexico and California had become U.S. territories as a result of the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, and large numbers of Mormon immigrants were settling in Utah, affecting both trade interests and tolerance for the slavery of American Natives.
Place names used in this article refer to present-day states and communities. Few (if any) settlements existed before 1850, although many of the geologic features along the Trail retain their Spanish designations.
The central route of the Old Spanish Trail ran northwest from Santa Fe through southwestern Colorado, past the San Juan Mountains, Mancos, and Dove Creek. Entering Utah near Monticello, it proceeded north through difficult terrain to Spanish Valley near Moab, crossed the Colorado River, then turned west to cross the Green River. The route then passed through (or around) the San Rafael Swell, the northernmost reach of the Trail. Entering the Great Basin via Salina Canyon, it turned southwest, crossing southern Nevada (near Las Vegas) and the Mojave Desert before reaching Mission San Gabriel Arcángel and El Pueblo de Los Ángeles in California. Alternate routes for this journey existed through central Colorado and through the Arizona Strip.
Although few traces of the early traders remain, the Trail is now commemorated in many local street and road names, and numerous historical markers in the states that it crossed. It is listed as the Old Spanish National Historic Trail by the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service. Portions of US 160 in Colorado and US 191 in Utah are similarly designated.
[edit] National Register of Historic Places listings
In 1988, a building in Utah on the trail was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.[1]
In 2001, the section of the Trail that runs across Nevada from the Arizona border to California (known as the "Mormon Road Historic District") was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ National Register of Historic Places. Retrieved on 2007-05-30. “Period of significance (1750-1849)”
- ^ National Register of Historic Places. Retrieved on 2007-05-30.
[edit] External links
- Map and Bibliography
- Old Spanish Trail Association
- National Park Service: Historic Trail Maps
- Map and History
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