Santa Fe Trail Net
"ALL'S SET" FOR SFTNet
"The Santa Fe Trail Lives On!" Welcome to SFTNet, the latest manifestation of the Santa Fe Trail saga. This service is designed for trail buffs, students, researchers, travelers on the trail--in short, anyone with an interest in historic or contemporary developments along the Santa Fe Trail. What Is The Santa Fe Trail? As many who read this introduction will know, the Santa Fe Trail is an ancient land route of communication between the desert Southwest of what is now the United States and the prairies and plains of central North America. In the Southwest it was also part of a longer route that ran down the Rio Grande into what is now northern Mexico. American Indian peoples used the route to trade the agricultural produce of the Rio Grande Valley and the bounty of the plains, such as jerked buffalo meat and buffalo hides. When the Spanish conquistador Onate came to New Mexico in 1598, he and his soldiers followed this ancient route as they explored the plains and traded with the peoples there. During the next two centuries the Spanish gained an intimate knowledge of the plains and the routes between the Mississippi-Missouri river systems and the Southwest. Then, in 1821, a trader from Missouri, William Becknell, came to Santa Fe along what was to become known as the historical route of the Santa Fe Trail. He opened the Santa Fe Trail as a commercial route between what was then ...
Farmers began to cultivate vast areas of needed crops such as wheat, cotton, and even corn. Document D shows a picture of The Wheat Harvest in 1880, with men on earlier tractors and over 20-30 horses pulling the tractor along the long and wide fields of wheat. As farmers started to accumilate their goods, they needed to be able to transfer the goods across states, maybe from Illinios to Kansas, or Cheyenne to Ohmaha. Some farmers chose to use cattle trails to transport their goods. Document B demonstrates a good mapping of the major railroads in 1870 and 1890. Although cattle trails weren't used in 1890, this document shows the existent of several cattle trails leading into Chyenne, San Antonio, Kansas City and other towns nearby the named ones in 1870. So, farmers began to transport their goods by railroads, which were publically used in Germany by 1550 and migrated to the United States with the help of Colonel John Stevens in 1826. In 1890, railroads expanded not only from California, Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming and Nevada, but up along to Washington, Montana, Michigan, down to New Mexico and Arizona as well. Eastern States such as New Jersey, Tennesse, Virginia and many others were filled with existing railroads prior to 1870, as Colonel John Stevens started out his railroad revolutionzing movement in New Jersey in 1815.
After 1830, the construction of railroads and macadam turnpikes began to bring improved transportation facilities to come American communities, but the transportation revolution did not affect most rural roads until the twentieth century. Antebellum investors, public and private,...
Two railway companies competed in this venture: The Central Pacific company laid track eastward from Sacramento, California and at the same time The Union Pacific company began laying track westward from Omaha, Nebraska and when the two lines met, the transcontinental railway would be complete. Each company wanted to cover more ground than the other – not just out of pride and competitiveness, but ...
There are many ways in which we can view the history of the American West. One view is the popular story of Cowboys and Indians. It is a grand story filled with adventure, excitement and gold. Another perspective is one of the Native Plains Indians and the rich histories that spanned thousands of years before white discovery and settlement. Elliot West’s book, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, offers a view into both of these worlds. West shows how the histories of both nations intertwine, relate and clash all while dealing with complex geological and environmental challenges. West argues that an understanding of the settling of the Great Plains must come from a deeper understanding, a more thorough knowledge of what came before the white settlers; “I came to believe that the dramatic, amusing, appalling, wondrous, despicable and heroic years of the mid-nineteenth century have to be seen to some degree in the context of the 120 centuries before them” .
Imagine a scenic, wild landscape with animals that roam freely, cascading waterfalls, and mountains that seem to scrape the pale blue sky. This is what one thinks when first hearing the name Yosemite National Park. Unfortunately, the reality is completely opposite. Yosemite is now under a federally regulated Class 1 area under the Clean Air Act, which is equivalent to the pollution of Los Angeles (“National Parks Service”). It is a sad comparison to the past John Muir, who first documented Yosemite Valley, to today’s reality. The condition of Yosemite National Park should be introduced to the American public in order to protect its historic beauty and significance, eliminate current pollution, and prevent future repercussions.
Durango Street is a novel by Frank Bonham. He writes about a young boy who lives in an extremely bad neighborhood. His name is Rufus Henry. Rufus was in a correctional camp for stealing a car. In the camp he met a friend named Baby. Baby lived where Rufus's mother had moved. Baby got released a little bit before Rufus and then went on to his home "the flats." Rufus was left out from camp with a parol officer. His parole officer tells him not to get involved with gangs but Rufus knows he has to join a gang to survive. He runs into one of the local gangs The Gassers, and gets into a little fight with them and the leader Simon Jones. He gets away in good condition, but knows that The Gassers are goin to be looking for him. So he finds his friend Baby and joins the gang The Moors. Rufus gets beat up into the gang, and soon after takes over. He beats up the leader Bantu. Rufus the takes contorl of the gang. The rival gang knows about this, and then beats up Rufus's little sister. Rufus then gets back at them and beats up the gang and blows up there car. He then meets up with a man named Alex Robbins. The man is a social worker who "sponsors" or helps gangs. They have meetings every week and talk about The Gassers and ideas they have. Alex suggests to go to the local football team (TheMaurders) and watch them train. Little did Alex know is that Rufus has an obsession with their star running back Ernie Brown. Ernie is actually Rufus's father, but no-one knows except Rufus and his mother. Simon Jones steals Rufus's book of Ernie Brown that he keeps in secret and in provate. Simon then reads it in front of everyone how Ernie is really Rufus's father. This makes things with the gangs very hostile. The Moors then meet these two girls named Nonie and Jannet. They talk with the gang and convince them to throw a graduation dance. The gang rounds up some money and has the dance. The Gassers try to ruin it by setting off smoke bombs in the ventalation systems, but the dance is not spoiled but turned out great. After the dance Rufus and Alex talk about Rufus going back to school, and they end off with a nice smile.
The branch was originally intended to carry the route south and connect to San Diego and the rest of southern California. But after the Southern Pacific was acquired by the "Big Four", who founded the Central Pacific, not only did the Southern Pacific reach southern California, it also stretched out to the southeastern United States. In 1883 the Southern Pacific had provided a connection between Southern California and the city of New Orleans in Louisiana. The western end of the "Sunset Route" began on December 31, 1869 in the newly built city of Lathrop, California. It continued south through the valley which was easy building for the Southern Pacific. Rail traffic crept all the way to what is now East Bakersfield by 1874; November 8, 1874 to be exact. Trains reached Modesto on November 8, 1870. In 1872 the rails passed through Merced, Fresno, and Tulare by the end of the year. During the eastern expansion of the Southern Pacific, there was yet another gold spike ceremony when the railroad reached Tucson, Arizona in 1880. In the following year of 1881, the Southern Pacific Railroad joined the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe, better known as the Santa Fe, in Deming, New Mexico to complete the second transcontinental railroad. A few years later, in 1885, the Southern Pacific railroad leased all track and equipment from the Central Pacific, although the official merge
By 1857 a concord coach was able to complete the fifty-mile run from Portland to Salem in a single day (Schwantes, 183). California Stage Company was one of the largest organizations of its kind in the United States, established direct and regular service between Portland and Sacramento in 1860 (Schwantes, 183). Wells, Fargo and Company of San Francisco utilized a far-flung network of stagecoach and freight lines in the 1860s and 1870s to serve mining regions in the interior Northwest (Schwantes, 183). Ben Holladay, the stagecoach king, laid the foundation for his transportation empire in 1862 when he gained control of stagecoach and freight wagon lines that extended from Salt Lake City to the booming mining camps and supply center of Boise City, Walla Walla, and Virginia City, Montana. Holladay sold h...
Railroads first appeared around the 1830’s, and helped the ideas of Manifest Destiny and Westward expansion; however, these were weak and didn’t connect as far as people needed, thus causing them to be forced to take more dangerous routes. On January 17th, 1848, a proposal was sent to Congress by Asa Whitney to approve and provide federal funding...
The acquisition of these additional lands brought with it the difficulty of overland travel for trade and national defense. An efficient means of cross country transportation became more imperative, particularly if the U.S. wanted to hold on to the lands it had recentl...
...rmy moved westward they were walking the path that the Navajos, Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches had already traveled in the last decade, making it easier for the U.S to defeat Mexico in 1847.
Throughout the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, the United States economy changed dramatically as the country transformed from a rural agricultural nation to an urban industrial gian, becoming the leading manufacturing country in the world. The vast expansion of the railroads in the late 1800s’ changed the early American economy by tying the country together into one national market. The railroads provided tremendous economic growth because it provided a massive market for transporting goods such as steel, lumber, and oil. Although the first railroads were extremely successful, the attempt to finance new railroads originally failed. Perhaps the greatest physical feat late 19th century America was the creation of the transcontinental railroad. The Central Pacific Company, starting in San Francisco, and the new competitor, Union Pacific, starting in Omaha. The two companies slaved away crossing mountains, digging tunnels, and laying track the entire way. Both railroads met at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869, and drove one last golden spike into the completed railway. Of course the expansion of railroads wasn’t the only change being made. Another change in the economy was immigration.
As I sat down with the narrator in his dorm on a Sunday afternoon—not the most appropriate time for ghost stories—he told me this well known ghost story from New Mexico. The storyteller is an 18-year-old male freshman majoring in international relations who is from Bethesda, Maryland. He is biracial with an American father and a Taiwanese mother. Born in California and raised in Colorado, the storyteller is a converted Christian. The teller was in the Boy Scouts, which is where this story comes from:
The Transcontinental railroad could be defined as the most monumental change in America in the 19th century. The railroad played a significant role in westward expansion and on the growth and development of the American economy (Gillon p.653). However, the construction of the transcontinental railroad may not have occurred if not for the generous support of the federal government. The federal government provided land grants and financial subsidies to railroad companies to ensure the construction. The transcontinental railroad contributed to the formation of industry and the market economy in America and forever altered the American lifestyle.
During the 1600s to 1700s, the Spanish were settling Texas. They did this by building missions and presidios throughout the land. The purpose was to keep the French out and to change the Indians' ways of life. Some of these missions failed and some succeeded. All in all they were closed after years of trying to change the Indians.