The Cimarron Route of the Santa Fe Trail

You are near the Cimarron Route of the Santa Fe Trail, the busiest branch of the great trade road between Missouri and Mexico. It opened in eighteen twenty-two, when William Becknell led the first wagon train to Santa Fe after the new Mexican government lifted Spain's old ban on trade with the Americans.

The Cimarron Cutoff was shorter than the mountain route and crossed gentler ground, so it carried most of the trail's traffic. But it was dry and dangerous, cutting across the Oklahoma panhandle with little water and exposure to raids.

For more than half a century, armed caravans of traders rolled through here each spring, until the railroad reached New Mexico in eighteen eighty and ended the wagon era.