The Old Santa Fe Trail

River, surrounded by a rich expanse of foliage, lies Independence, t

ble woods; in summer engaged in hunting the deer, elk, and bear, and in winter in trapping. It is a well-known fact that the Big Blue was

the Spanish government. In 1821, however, the rebellion of Iturbide crushed the power of the mother country, and established the freedom of Mexico. The embargo upon for

the Missouri River was the Independence; she passed Franklin on the 28th of May, 1819, where a dinner was given to her officers. In the same and the following mon

navigation-for it enabled them to shorten the distance which their wagons had to travel in going across the plains-and they began to look

oats settled and defied all efforts to remove the headquarters of the trade from there for several years. Independence, however, being the county seat and the larger place, succeeded in its claims to be the more suitable locality, and as

cky Mountains; they also employed wagons drawn by mules, and loaded with goods for the Indians with whom their agents bartered, which also on their return trip transported the skins and pelts of animals procured from the savages. The articles

Indians. After having reached a fifty-mile limit from the State line, each trader had control of his own men; each too

s apiece, and very large animals more. Thousands of wagons were also sent out from Independence

e surrounding country, who killed their meat, cured it, and transported it to the town where they sold it. Their wheat was also ground at the local mil

eral thousand men, including the teamsters and packers on the Trail. The wages paid varied from twenty-five to fifty dollars a month and rations. The price charged for hauling freight to

o eat was in constant demand; mules and oxen were sold in great numbers every month at excellent pri

es making hundreds of wagons, he made all the ox-yokes used in the entire traffic; fifty thousand annually during the '50's and unti

s plainly marked on the outside. The wagons were heavily covered and tightly closed. Every man belo

ver in a hurry; then forty or fifty yoke of oxen were hitched to one wagon and it was quickly yanked through th

between Westport and Kansas City. Independence lost control of the overland commerce and Kansas City commenced its rapid growth. Then came the discovery of gold in California, and this gave an increased business westward; for thousands of men and t

ew of the old landmarks when it was t

ri Commonwealth, published there under the date of July, 1850, which I found on file in the Ka

some days since, t

ch left this city o

t instant. The st

d are each arrang

dies are beautiful

view of using them

consists of six mu

by eight men, armed

fastened in the s

in a holster below

is belt a small Col

that these eight m

harge one hundred

reload. This is eq

ient times, and fro

y are, either for of

vages, we have no f

he m

contractors have e

at Council Grove

iles from this city

number of men to c

mals, grain, and

end to make a sort

mence a farm. The

imilar settlement

eir stages will s

f every

venture, and the stories told of that era of the border have

the slow journey across the great plains are among the living; like the clumsy and forg

ison, Topeka, and Santa Fe track, as the cars thunder rapidly toward the city of Great Bend, in Kansas, three miles east of that town. Let the tourist as he crosses Walnut Creek look out of his window toward the east at an an

increased to once a week; after a while to three times, until in the early '60's daily stages

llars, the allowance of baggage being limited to forty pounds; all in excess of that cost half a dollar a pound. In this now seemingly large sum was included the board of the travell

constant fear of meeting the wily red man, who persistently hankered after the white man's hair. Then there was the playfulness of th

al days longer. The animals were changed every twenty miles at first, but later, every ten, when faster time was made. What sleep was taken c

ifty or more; and there the animals and drivers were changed, and meals furnished to t

partake or go hungry: biscuit hard enough to serve as "round-shot," and a vile

ee composed of the saints may know what, the meals were excellent. The most delicious brook trout, alternating with venison of the black-tailed deer, elk, bear, and all the other varieties of game

well, and at once began to deplore the changed condition of the country since the advent of the railroad, declaring it had ruined their family with many others. I could not disagree with her view of the matter, as I looked on the debris of a former relative greatness all around me. I recalled the f

s in grim contrast with the old temple and church on the hill; a

beautiful valley, save when broken by the passage of "The Flyer" of the Atchison, Topeka, and San

nts of those committed to his care during the tedious journey; for he was not changed like the driver, but stayed with the coach from its starting to its destination. Sometimes fourteen individuals w

d about eight times in making the trip to Santa Fe; and some of them were comical fellows, but full of nerve and endurance, for it required a man of nerve to handle eight frisky mules through the rugged passes of the mountains, w

ch had to sit still and shake with the freezing branches of the tall trees around them. A summer hailstorm was much more to be dreaded, however; for nowhere else on the earth do the hailstones shoot from the clouds of greater size or with greater velocity than in the Rocky Mountains. Such an even

d night in a stage-coach; after that, however, one gets used t

en an animal gave out before a station was reached. In such cases, however, no deduction was made from the fare, that having been collected in advance, so it cost you just as much whether

the various forts on the great plains, the stage had to rely on the courage and fighting qualities of its occupants, and the nerve and the good judgment of the driver. If the latter understood his duty thoroughly and was familiar with the methods of the savages, he always chose the cover of darkne

eem no nearer than when they were first observed. The reason for this seems to be that every atom of vapour is eliminated from the air, leaving such an absolute clearness of atmosphere, such an indescribable transparency of space through which

. They assumed all manner of fantastic, curious shapes, sometimes ludicrously distorting the landscape; objects, like a herd of buff

le of wind and hail. The mules refused to face it, and quickly turning around nearly overturned the stage, while we, with the driver and conductor, were obliged to hold on to the wheels with all our combined strength to prevent it from blo

ly a third of a century ago, when I and another man were the only occupants of the coach, we entertained quite a friendly feeling for our driver; he

med in his boasting. We at once took a dislike to him, and secretly wished that he would come to grief, in order to cure him of his boasting. Sure enough, before we had gone half a mile from the station he incontinently tumbled the coach over into a sandy arroya, and we were delighted at the accident. Finding ourselves free from any injury, we went to

h, making the sand dunes resound with echoes of their infernal yelling, and shaking their buffalo-robes to stampede the mules, at the same time firing their guns at the men who were in the coach, all of whom made a bold stand, but were rapidly getting the worst of it, when fortunately

City, who was a driver and messenger thirty-five years,

plains sixty-five

61, I was employed

over what was know

Larned to Fort Ly

o station between.

tance, camped out,

in four or five d

ed a great deal of

wind-swept desert o

t used to that; onl

ad a way of manag

obstreperous; all

hat quieted them qu

y does

-chips, to boil our

e steak, smoked for

ntil the animals w

ted on our lo

would travel for a h

never for a moment

aw fifty thousand t

y out or in. The I

and claimed to own

take out only the

to dry upon the pra

o the intestines. T

they could eat or

so much meat waste

lains were not at al

their villages, wh

em, and they would

ce, and set before

buffalo. In July o

nworth, Jr., was cr

d to see Satanta, t

r28 was among the I

army officer, whil

he colonel said he

ta would

ival of the coach i

e Comanches and th

The Comanches had

ing on the bank of

s now located. The

ors, and the Comanc

nce; I think there

dians gathered the

ral tribes-Comanches

es, and

ht of their camp, t

they were making, t

not know then wheth

themselves, or bec

were determined to

ief, all would be

e whence the noise c

ked him whether Sa

. When he told us

a scalp-dance, our

s in consequence o

some danger of los

n, and the situation

ce of Satanta, who

, facing the dancer

m; the chief stood

ew seconds, then t

dians had known him

und-he was at least

asped the colonel'

ood back for anothe

, offered his ha

artily, then he gaz

many years ago,

ght. I never saw

ifest so much joy a

of the colone

red some of his you

ugh the night, whic

He then had the c

where we could see a

age. We had six tr

t was a great sight

o'clock at night

d we saw thousands

g for their dead wa

we must eat somet

t, cooked buffalo a

best that he had, w

sugar from our coac

until morning; then

ta and the other ch

about eight miles

fast, they remainin

to come back and take his quarters at either Fort Larned or Fort Dodge. They told him they were afraid their agent was s

ations were restful and kindly disposed toward the whites during his administration; any one could then cross the plains without fear of molestation. In 186

fluential Indians of the various tribes visited Colonel Boone at his new home, and begged that he would come back to them and be their agent. He told the chiefs that the President of the United States would not let him. Then they offered to sell their horses to raise money for him to go to Washington to tell the Great

or something to eat. The teamsters, thinking them to be hostile, believed it would be a good thing to kill one of them anyhow; so they shot an inoffensive warrior, after which the train moved on to its camp and the t

long war, causing hundreds of atrocious murders and the destruc

r or conductor in charge of the coach runn

month to make the

miles. On account

scort of soldiers t

s of the Trail; a

utual safety, besid

ed several times du

calls for our sc

w us for miles, and

for myself, I had n

utraged creatures,

heir jus

ccasion when we wer

r escort killed a

out two miles from

y surrounded the c

fight one officer

scort chased the ba

them, and got