Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, the trail served as a vital commercial highway until 1880, when the railroad arrived in Santa Fe.

Santa Fe was near the end of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro which carried trade from Mexico City.

By the 1840s, trail traffic through the Arkansas Valley was so numerous that bison herds were cut off from important seasonal grazing land.

[4] After the U.S. acquisition of the Southwest that ended the war, the trail was integral to the U.S. opening the region to economic development and settlement.

The Santa Fe Trail was one of many transportation routes opened by the Indigenous people of North America as well as European trappers and traders in the second half of the 18th century.

Traders and settlers crossed the southwest of North America by the route connecting Independence, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Other French traders and trappers made trips on the trail from St. Louis, such as Auguste Pierre Chouteau and Jules de Mun in 1815, who were arrested by Spanish authorities in Santa Fe.

Manufactured goods were hauled from Missouri to Santa Fe, which was then in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Mexico.

[5] Settlers seeking the opportunity to hold free land used wagon trains to follow various emigrant trails that branched off to points west.

The trail connected interior port cities along the Mississippi and Missouri and their wagon train outfitters to western destinations.

Beginning in 1826, prominent aristocratic families of New Mexicans, such as the Chávezes, Armijos, Pereas, and Oteros, entered into the commerce along the trail.

In 1837, the forces of Rio Arriba (the upper Rio Grande, i.e., northern New Mexico) rebelled against Pérez's enforcement of the recent Mexican constitution, new revenue laws taxing Santa Fe commerce and entertainment, and the large grants of New Mexico land to wealthy Mexicans.

They were subjected to harsh and austere treatment during a tortuous forced march to Mexico City, where they were tried, convicted and imprisoned for their insurgent activities.

[8] In 1842, Colonel William A. Christy wrote Sam Houston, president of Texas, requesting support for an overthrow scheme by Charles Warfield dependent on armed forces.

He proposed deposing the governments in the Mexican provinces of New Mexico and Chihuahua and returning half of the spoils to the Republic of Texas.

After Warfield headed toward the Rockies with a companion, McDaniel led a robbery in April 1843 (in present-day Rice County, Kansas) of a lightly defended Santa Fe Trail trading caravan.

Local merchants and citizens at the U.S. end of the Santa Fe Trail demanded justice and a return to the stable commerce which their economy depended on.

New Mexico Governor Manuel Armijo led Mexican troops out of Santa Fe to protect incoming caravans.

[6] In 1863, while railroad legislation underwent continual revisions, entrepreneurs grew more interested in the American Southwest, leading to the construction of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.

In Kansas, the AT&SF roadbed roughly paralleled the Santa Fe Trail west of Topeka as it expanded between 1868 and 1874.

The railroad's sale of its land granted by congress fostered growth of new towns and businesses along its route, which generated railway traffic and revenues.

The trail was a challenging 900 miles (1,400 km) of dangerous plains, hot deserts, and steep and rocky mountains.

Segments of this trail in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[20] In Colorado, Santa Fe Trail Mountain Route – Bent's New Fort is included on the National Register.