Youth on the Santa Fe Trail

Young people, little known and well known, like Kit Carson, Uncle Dick Wootton, Josiah Gregg, Susan Shelby Magoffin, Francis Parkman Jr., and others come to life in this anthology of their adventures on the Santa Fe Trail. The Santa Fe Trail was the road to the southwestern part of the continent becoming a part of our sea-to-sea nation as envisioned by Thomas Jefferson. Trade with the northern provinces of Mexico in the early 19th century opened a road that led to the Mexican War and the United States acquisition of California, New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of other western states. Between 1826, when Kit Carson took the trail west, until 1867 when Jose Librado Gurule worked on the trail traveling west to east for his patrón, adventurous young people took great risk and traveled the trail for varied reasons. Some traveled with family, some for health reasons, some to make a living, some to study the Indians while they remained untouched by white ways. The characters who have given us such poignant and comprehensive looks at what the country was like and how the trip affected them have provided an opportunity for us to travel back to their time and sense what the trip was like. This gift is of great value to the young people of today who love action figures and stories of adventure. These true stories can give them a non-fiction sense of what real heroes were like--basically, just like themselves.

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