The Old Santa Fe Trail: the Story of a Great Highway

The history of the expansion of the frontier of America is particularly marked by the famous-perhaps legendary-trails upon which pioneers in their 'prairie schooners' or cattlemen driving their great herds crossed the vast continental interior. All roads tell their own stories, not by virtue of being routes of passage, but because of the personalities of those who travelled them and the events that took place on or about them. So it is that these highways have encapsulated their own place in the making of a nation. This wonderful book chronicles one of the most famous trails from its earliest days when the Spaniard Coronado trod its dusty path to the Indian Wars of the later nineteenth century. Many of the most famous Westerners make their appearance with in its pages-explorers, scouts, trappers, Indian fighters, lawmen, outlaws, ranchers and military men-together with renowned tribes of native American Indians led in their struggles by equally famous leaders. This book is a treasure trove of American Western history filled with anecdotes, evocative illustrations and substantial first hand account passages by those who made history.