THE YEAR 1829
Eight years after Mexico gained independence from Spain, New Mexico traders traveled over land to establish new commercial relations with frontier settlements in California. During the winter of 1829-1830, Antonio Armijo led a caravan of 60 men & 100 pack mules from New Mexico to Mission San Gabriel in California, east of Los Angeles. They carried locally-produced merchandise to exchange for mules & horses. Items included woolen goods, serapes, blankets, ponchos, & socks, a variety of hides, gamuzas (chamois), buffalo robes, bear, & beaver skins, as well as hats, shawls, & quilts. It tool Armijo's group about 12 weeks to reach California, & six weeks to return. It was during this same period that Antoine Robidoux built his trading post, Fort Uncompahgre, on the south side of the Gunnison River in an area known as Robidoux Bottoms, the great gateway into the Gunnison River River Basin.
Three Trails
The Old Spanish National Historic Trail is composed of three main routes: the Main Route, the Armijo Route, & the Northern Route. Use would depend on peril, weather, or simple opportunistic stops. Mules were the highest valued pack animals as they had incredible strength & endurance, fared better than horses where water was scarce & forage poor, & recovered more rapidly after periods of hardships.
Old Spanish Trail Travel
The Old Spanish Trail's rugged terrain discouraged the use of wagons. It was always a pack route, used maily by men & mules. Traders used different routes from tip to tip, depending on weather & water. Caravans left New Mexico in the later summer or fall & returned from California in the spring. Early winter snows blocked mountain passed & travelers chose their routes accordingly. In the spring, traders worried about late snows & floods. On every trip they worried about water & forage, often racing to beat other caravans to known sources.
FOOLS HILL/WELLS GULCH
This section of the Salt Lake Wagon Road roughly follows the Old Spanish Trail, a route that provides a trade link between Santa Fe, New Mexico & Los Angeles, California, two provinces of Mexico separated by difficult topography & climate extreme. People made use of the Spanish Trail for a variety of purposes, which over time led to the development of several main routes & numerous alternates. Fool's Hill is a segment of the historic Salt Lake Wagon Road. Between 1875 & 1881, freight wagons from Salt Lake City rumbled over this trail, transporting government rations to the Ute Indian Agency south of Montrose. Miners in the town of Ouray also received supplies via the road. Muddy conditions probably made varied routed up the hill a periodic necessity; several rutted tracks remain visible in the distance. Rock cairns can still be found along the route. A keen eye can find these cairns & other remnants of the wagon road paralleling U.S. CO Highway 50.
The North Branch
This route followed well-known trapper & trade routes north through the Rio Grande gorge to Taos & into southern California. It then went west through Cochetopa Pass-largely open during the winter when other passed were snowed in-& up the Gunnison River valley, rejoining the Northern Route near present-day Green River, Utah.
The Railroad & the end of the Trail
Beginning in the mid-1840s, new routes such as wagon roads carried troops fighting in the Mexican-American War, pioneers bound for California, miners joining the gold rush, & still more traders into the West. A few notable Americans used the trail. Military attache George Brewerton kept a detailed account of his trip. John C. Fremont led a U.S. Government-sponsored exploratory survey trip to plan for the advent of the railroad west.
Trail Administration
The Old Spanish Trail was the 15th National Historic Trail to be designated by Congress in 2002. The trail runs through New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, & California. The Bureau of Land Management & the National Park Service co-administer the trail & encourage preservation & public use.
Loading contexts...
