El Camino Real de Terra Adentro, The Santa Fe Trail and The Old Spanish Trail

January 15, 2019 Rene Harris New Mexico History Museum

The El Camino Real de Terra Adentro

· Official "road" connecting New Mexico with Chihuahua and points south to Mexico City

· 1,500 miles long

· Used by military, missionaries and supply caravans

· 1600s – caravans were sent roughly every 3 years

· Exports - sheep, wool, hides, pine nuts, El Paso brandy, some Indian blankets, and slaves for the mines in Chihuahua

· Imports – ironware, boots, shoes, cloth and clothing, chocolate, sugar, tobacco, liquor, paper and a few books

· There were annual trade caravans by the mid-1700s

· Goods were transported by pack mule trains/atajos (arrieros were the packers in charge)

· The mule trains were escorted by the military and the merchants always travelled in groups

· There was a Chihuahuan merchant monopoly on trade when it was switched from the Church to secular control. That left a big trade imbalance in New Mexico.

The Santa Fe Trail

· Pre-1821 trade between Spanish New Mexico and the U.S was illegal

· Mexican independence and Missouri statehood changed that

· 1821 – William Becknell encountered NM troops that were hunting wild horses and trading with the Comanches

· He was welcomed in Santa Fe by Gov. Melgares - he made a big profit and was encouraged to return (He said that his $3,000 load of goods made $60,000.)

· The Santa Fe Trail becomes primarily a wagon route

· It was commercial not an immigration trail like the Oregon Trail

· It had a Mountain route vs. the Cimarron Cut-off

· It was 800-900 miles long

· By 1824, the Santa Fe market was saturated causing the traders to head south to El Paso, Chihuahua and further south

· The Benefits: it began to reverse the trade imbalance, better and cheaper goods from the U.S. could be obtained, NM would buy goods for resale further south, there was a demand hard currency instead of barter, and customs duties on U.S. goods would go to the NM treasury

· Intities:

*Non-Hispano merchants:

William and Charles Bent, Cerain St. Vrain, W.H. Moore, Henry Connelly,

Andres and John Gold, Levi Speigelberg, Lucien Maxwell, Henry Birmbaum

*Hispano New Mexican merchants more concentrated in Rio Abajo

Felipe Chavez, Manuel Antonio Otero, Rafael and manuel Armijo, Jose

Leandro Perea, Mariano Yrizarri

*Firms:

Chick and Armijo, Otero and Sellar, Browne and Manzanares, Tully and

Ochoa

*Ricos will branch into wholesale and retail stores, farms and sheep raisers,

lending money – by 1860s many will turn to freighting and supplying army

posts

The Old Spanish Trail

· In 1829 Antonio Armijo left Abiquiu and arrived at San Gabriel mission near Los Angeles

· The OST linked Mexican provinces of New Mexico with California

· The trail is an estimated 700 miles long

· It uses annual mule caravans (not wagons)

· New Mexico wool, blankets, serapes, and textiles are traded for California horses and mules

· It is a trade route, but some NM migration occurred to California

· It waned after 1848