The arrival of Missourian William Becknell's party at Santa Fe in 1821 ushered in the era of the annual "Santa Fe trade" between the United States and the Mexican settlements to the south and opened the famous route known as the Santa Fe Trail. Of even greater significance, but largely overlooked today, is the fact that it also opened a road from the United States connecting with a major Mexican high way, for Santa Fe was the terminus of the 1,600-mile Camino Real, the "King's Highway," stretching southward to Chihuahua and the interior cities of Mexico. Over this Royal Road between Santa Fe and Chihuahua lumbered the caravans of the Santa Fe traders, who exchanged American dry goods and hardware for Mexican silver and mules. Over it, too, traveled Colonel Doniphan's Missouri Volunteers, bent on establishing the boundary of Texas at the Rio Grande. Indeed, without this main artery of travel, the history of both the United States and Mexico might have been vastly different. This book tells the exciting story of the Chihuahua Trail, of the volume and value of the frontier commerce, its peculiar trade practices, the risks of the road, and the government controls exercised by both countries. But, more than that, it tells of the traders themselves and their influence on the government and citizenry of New Mexico, an influence strong enough to destroy that province's will to resist when the Mexican War broke out in 1846, and of their role in the war and their importance in making New Mexico into an American territory. Max L. Moorhead was professor of history at the University of Oklahoma and editor of the Santa Fe trader Josiah Gregg's classic account COMMERCE OF THE PRAIRIES, published by the University of Oklahoma Press. Mark L. Gardner is the editor of BROTHERS ON THE SANTA FE AND CHIHUAHUA TRAILS: EDWARD JAMES GLASGOW AND WILLIAM HENRY GLASGOW, 1846-1848.

A study of the classic north-south highway connecting Santa Fe and Chihauhau, pioneered by Onate in 1598.

Jackson brings to life this important route which the Spanish extended north into present-day New Mexico in 1598.

This is a survey of the major historic trails of New Mexico and other parts of the American Southwest. These trails were used by Indians, prospectors, soldiers, buffalo hunters, immigrants, and cattle and sheep drovers, and, unlike other, more famous Western trails, were used as a network of two-way trade routes instead of one-way avenues for westward migration. Introductory chapters highlight prehistoric Indian trails, Spanish exploration, and Pecos as a microcosm of the old Southwest. Each subsequent chapter covers an individual trail, describing its history and some of the people who used it. A chronology of New Mexico's history and trail system is included, as are maps of the most important trails.

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Royal Road of the Interior, is the earliest Euro-American trade route of cultures and commerce in the United States. It spanned about 1,800 miles from Mexico City, where the road originated, to Santa Fe, in New Mexico. For three centuries, this Spanish colonial road followed a network of ancient Native American footpaths and trails that followed the wide expanse of the Rio Grande valley. There were parajes, or campgrounds, along the way for travelers, and early Spanish settlements were established too. Some of the towns and villages are now modern cities, such as Las Cruces, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe. Mexico City, as the former capital of La Nueva España, New Spain, is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Center. In 2000, El Camino Real was officially designated as a national historic trail, administered by the US Department of the Interior. In 2005, the El Camino Real International Heritage Center was erected near Socorro, New Mexico. This is an interpretive learning center that presents the history and heritage of the Royal Road in the region as an integral part of Spain's global network of roads and maritime trade routes.