That Broad and Beckoning Highway: The Santa Fe Trail and the Rush for Gold in California and Colorado

Oliva, Leo. Soldiers on the Santa Fe Trail. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1967.

Oliva’s Soldiers on the Santa Fe Trail is central to understanding the military situation and relations with Native peoples along the trail both for developments in the 1840s leading up to the California gold rush and, in the 1850s, impacting the Colorado gold emigration. The background to the establishment of various military posts on the trail – whether ephemeral, obscure, doomed, and permanent, such as Fort Larned – is especially valuable. Note: This item is not cited in the text of this study.

Olsen, Michael, “The UU Bar Ranch Case: A History of the Traces, Trails, Roads, and Highways Connecting Rayado, New Mexico, and the Crossing of Ocate Creek,” Wagon Tracks: Santa Fe Trail Association Quarterly 19:4 (August 2005): 7-16. Accessed online January 28, 2013 at http://www.santafetrail.org/publications/wagon-tracks/online.html.

Socolofsky, Homer. Historical Atlas of Kansas. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1988.

Spring, Agnes Wright. “Rush to the Rockies, 1859, Colorado’s Gold Rush of 1859.” Colorado Magazine 36 (April 1959): 82-121.

Spring’s account of the “Rush to the Rockies, 1859,” is more detailed and revealing of early parties who went to Colorado, especially the Russell and Lawrence expeditions, than of later developments. She reprints many original accounts, such as that of Russell, which first appeared in the Leavenworth Times, October 19, 1859. She traces an especially intriguing connection between the Lawrence Party and the Santa Fe Trail, the route that party took to Colorado. In 1857 a U.S. Army contingent under the command of Major General John Sedgwick had followed the Santa Fe Trail, beginning at Fort Leavenworth, up the Arkansas to Fountain Creek [Pueblo], then north to Cherry Creek. The expedition’s guide was a Delaware Indian from Kansas, Fall Leaf. He returned to his reservation near Lawrence, displaying a gold nugget brought from Colorado. Spurred by this evidence of gold, the Lawrence Party contracted with Fall Leaf to lead them to the gold diggings in 1858. In the event, Fall Leaf did not guide them, but they did take the Santa Fe Trail in May 1858.

Taylor, Morris F. First Mail West: Stagecoach Lines on the Santa Fe Trail. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1971.

Taylor has never been surpassed in the study of the development of mail and stage coach routes from Missouri and eastern Kansas to New Mexico and then Colorado. His coverage is detailed, accurate, and exhaustive. He carries the story from 1849 to 1880. Taylor is especially important for his consideration of the development of mail and stagecoach lines in Colorado beginning with the gold rush in 1859 and continuing on into the 1860s. For example, after much planning and some false starts, Slemmons, Roberts and Company inaugurated express mail and coach service between Cañon City and Kansas City in 1861. Taylor notes, “Bent’s Old Fort was the division point where connections could be made for all points in New Mexico and for Kansas City and all eastern lines. . . . In Santa Fe connections could be made for western Texas and Arizona, and from Canon City express coaches ran to California Gulch and Denver City.” (81)

Walker, Henry Pickering. The Wagonmasters: High Plains Freighting from the Earliest Days of the Santa Fe Trail to 1880. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966.

While Walker’s study covers a broad swath of Santa Fe Trail history, encompassing all of the trails crossing the high plains during much of the 19^th century, his chapter, “Slow Freight To Denver,” provides a concise and inclusive summary of trading activity stimulated by the Colorado gold rush. Again, he covers all the trails involved – Santa Fe, Smoky Hill, and Overland (Platte River Road) – but he discusses traders, trading houses, goods and merchandise in greater detail than almost any other secondary source. He notes, of the lack of goods and provisions in Denver in the spring of 1859, “It was a hand-to-mouth existence for Denver, but back in the Missouri Valley, alert merchants were making plans for a more systematic supply.” (181)

West, Elliott. The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, & the Rush to Colorado. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998.

West’s title says it all – he is concerned about the conflict that erupts between Native peoples and the westward migration of Americans on the plains of western Kansas and eastern Colorado during and as a result of the Colorado gold rush of 1859. His perspective was innovative for its time and has remained relevant – he is interested in the environmental, cultural, economic, military and political aspects of this “contest,” and places special emphasis on how the Cheyenne and Arapaho in particular were impacted and changed or adapted. His summary of the role of the Santa Fe Trail in this story, plus his overview of 1859 gold rush guidebooks and the spreading grip of the U. S. Army though the establishment of forts in the region from 1859 is especially valuable. For example, he notes, “A few guidebooks were guilty of appalling incompetence or outright fraud.” (128)

Wheat, Carl I. Mapping the Transmississippi West, 1540-1861. San Francisco: Institute of Historical Cartography, 1957-1963. Volume 4: From the Pacific Railroad Surveys to the Onset of the Civil War, 1855-1860. [1960]

This six-volume comprehensive study of hundreds of maps of the American West is one of the central references for understanding any given development or event falling within its time frame. Volume 4 includes maps relevant to the role of the Santa Fe Trail in the 1859 gold rush. Most pertinent is Chapter XXXIX, “The Pike’s Peak Gold Rush of 1859,” although Chapter XXXV “The Maps of 1858” also can be consulted. Wheat’s discussion and evaluation of maps found in 1859 gold rush guidebooks is especially important. For example, he says of W. B. Horner’s guide to The Gold Regions of Kansas and Nebraska, “This is a well-balanced and well-prepared guide, though it nowhere appears that the author ever trod the soil of the Kansas gold fields.” (170) Note: This item is not cited in the text of this study.

White, David. “Gold Seekers, Pike’s Peak, 1858-1865: Perspective,” in News of the Plains and Rockies, 1803-1865 (Spokane, WA: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1996-2000, 7: 219-227.

Volume 7 in White’s News of the Plains and Rockies is devoted in part to a review, or in some cases a reprinting, of manuscript sources for “Gold seekers, Pike’s Peak, 1858-1865.” Those sources of importance for the role of the Santa Fe Trail in the Colorado gold rush are assessed below in this annotated bibliography. However, White’s introduction, or “Perspective” is valuable for its overview of the gold rush emigration during these years, and its discussion of the nature, reliability, and publishing history of many 1859 guidebooks.

Willard, James F. “Sidelights on the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush, 1858-59.” Colorado Magazine 12 (January 1935): 3-13.

Willard asks the important question, “Why did Pike’s Peak emigrants chose one route west over another,” for instance, the Santa Fe Trail over the Smoky Hill Trail? He then analyzes the perspectives of the various newspapers published in Missouri Valley towns, which published “testimonials” from their own correspondents and unsolicited letters from emigrants. He writes, perceptively, “I have a great deal of sympathy with the emigrant who reached the great bend of the Missouri in the spring of 1859, and who had the problem of deciding which route to take to the mines. He was met by clamorous advisers who were certain of the advantage of the route beginning at their town, and, if he read the papers offered him, his confusion would only be worse confused.” (4) Note: This item is not cited in the text of this study.

Wyman, Walker D. “Kansas City, Mo., a Famous Freighter Capital.” Kansas Historical Quarterly 6 (February 1937): 3-13. Accessed online August 27, 2012 at http://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-historical-quarterly/13286.