Transportation in the West
1821, November 13 - the Santa Fe Trail was opened from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe by trader William Becknell (he actually left from Franklin, Missouri). He was met by don Pedro Ignacio Gallego (alcalde of Abiquiu who on orders from the New Mexico governor, Facundo Melgares was to find raiding Navajos and Comanches). He had 146 troops, 125 additional Spanish troops gained along the way and several hundred pueblo Indians. They met at Puertocito de la Piedra Lumbre (a small gap in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains known today as Kearny Gap about one mile south of Las Vegas, NM). They had to use French to communicate. The Americans were taken to the small village of San Miguel de Bado where a Frenchman lived who also spoke Spanish. Two of the traders with Becknell could also speak French. The Santa Fe Trail was a major route between the United States and New Mexico until it was replaced by the railroad on February 9, 1880. It had two branches the Mountain Branch and the Cimarron Cutoff.
1829-30 - The Old Spanish Trail was a 700 mile route linking New Mexico to California, combining information from many explorers, it was opened when Santa Fe merchant Antonio Armijo led a trade party of 60 men and 100 mules to Los Angeles, California in 86 days. The trail saw extensive use by pack trains from about 1830 until the mid-1850s.
1836 - The first use of the Oregon Trail. Although the Oregon Trail was used by fur traders and trappers between 1811 and 1840, it wasn't until the "Great Migration of 1843" that it was used by wagon trains of settlers from the East to the Willamette Valley in California.
1846 - (Brig. General) Colonel Stephen Watts Kearny (Kar-nee) and his Army of the West with nearly 1,700 soldiers and Missouri volunteers in 1,556 wagons, with 12 cannons and 4 howitzers arived in Las Vegas, NM. from Levenworth, Kansas. The Mormon Battalion was mustered into volunteer service on July 16, 1846 as part of the Army of the West under General Kearny. When he reached Las Vegas, New Mexico he informed them that they were no longer under Mexican sovereignty and that he had replaced Armijo as their governor. He also pledged to respect their Catholic religion. General Kearny was told that there were 600 Mexican soldiers under the leadership of Governor Manuel Armijo were waiting for him outside of Santa Fe in Apache Canyon. As it turned out the Governor turned around and fled to Chihuahua, Mexico. (Kearny had sent James Magoffin, a Santa Fe trader and Captian Phillip Saint George Cooke to Santa Fe to secretly negotiate the surrender of the town.) The American army peacefully entered Santa Fe on August 22. Kearney named the newly established fort Fort Marcyafter William L. Marcy the secretary of war at the time (who later became Secretary of State).
1850, July 1 - The first four-year contract of the overland mail route for carrying mail monthly from Independence, MO to Santa Fe went into effect. New water-tight, beautifully painted stages were used using six-mule carriages with elliptical springs and iron axles. The cost was $250 and one could only bring 40 pounds of luggage. A stage was started at each end at the same time taking about two weeks to make the trip.
1850's - Additional army troops were stationed to guard the lines of communication from raids of Navajos and Apaches. Forts were established along well-travelled routes for protection: Ft.Union, Ft. Filmore, Ft. Craig, Ft. Stanton, Ft. Fauntleroy and Ft. Wingate.
1858, Sept. - John Butterfield began the Overland Mail Company which carried mail and passangers from St. Louis, Missouri to San Francisco, California in about 24 days. One coach leaving San Francisco and the other leaving St. Louis at about the same time. One of the passengers on the first route west was a New York Herald special correspondent named Waterman Ormsby. The route passed through southern New Mexico. There were other stagecoach lines in the U.S. as well.
1865 - "Uncle Dick" Wooton leased land from Lucien Maxwell, owner of the Maxwell Land Grant, and obtained franchises from the territorial legislatures of Colorado and New Mexico to build a 27-mile toll road over Raton Pass in New Mexico. He charged $1.50 for a team and wagon; 25 cents for a horse and rider; a nickel a head for livestock; posses and Indians were free.
1869, May 10 - First transcontinental railroad completion of at Promontory Point, Utah between the Central Pacific RR and the Union Pacific RR connecting Council Bluffs, Iowa with Sacramento, California.
1878, Feb. - Construction crews of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (AT&SF) and the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RG) narrow gauge confronted each other at Raton Pass for the right-of-way through New Mexico. The AT&SF men won the battle and continued on through the state to meet the Southern Pacific Railroad in Deming in 1881. The Santa Fe Branch of the D&RG railroad finally reached Santa Fe in February, 1880 from Espanola, but came no further. Jurisdiction conflict with the AT&SF meant that the D&RG railroadcould only build as far south as Espanola, 35 miles from Santa Fe. The Texas, Santa Fe & Northern Railroad Company was created to build a narrow gauge line to fill the gap. (Later purchased by the D&RG railroad)
It was called the Chili Line and it eventually terminated at what is now Tomasitas Restaurant in the Santa Fe railyard. Branches of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RG) can still be ridden on the tourist lines of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad between Antonito, Colorado and Chama, New Mexico and the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad from Durangoto Silverton, CO.
1880 - AT&SF reached Albuquerque; Santa Fe, the original destination of the railroad, found itself on a short branch from Lamy, New Mexico to downtown Santa Fe. The grade from Lamy to Santa Fe was too great so that the AT&SF had to build a spur track from Lamy. There was a Fred Harvey hotel, the El Ortiz (1896), located in Lamy next to the tracks for the convience of the railroad passengers. Later in 1992 a group of businesspeople purchased the track to continued freight service in the area naming the railroad the Santa Fe Southern. Passenger service was added later on and it eventually evolved into a "tourist excursion railroad." It ceased operation in 2014.