Although the branch of the Santa Fe Trail through Colorado was known as the Mountain Route, it passes largely over the level plains of the southeastern part of the state. It wasn’t, however, called the Mountain Route for nothing. As the Trail pushed west into Colorado, caravans used to day after day of level Kansas prairies got their first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains ahead. A man-made landmark awaited them as well: Bent’s Fort, a trading post whose towering adobe ramparts and amenities like a billiard table and library must have seemed at first like yet another prairie mirage to trail-worn travelers. Artist Doug Holdread’s painting on the banner of our Bent’s Fort chapter page depicts the Big Timber area on the Arkansas River east of the fort. A popular stopping place for caravans, it was one of the first large stands of trees travelers encountered after the prairies of Kansas, and would eventually be the site of Bent’s second trading post.
As the road to Santa Fe angled southwest, the mountains on the western horizon became the caravans’ constant companions. The Trail edged ever closer to the outliers of the Rockies, and mountains with names like the Sangre de Cristos and Spanish Peaks hinted to travelers that they were edging ever closer to Hispanic New Mexico.
At the southern edge of Colorado, the mountains skirting the western edge of the Trail finally threw themselves squarely across it, forcing the heavily laden Santa Fe freighters to labor up rocky Raton Pass. Once across, the Mountain Route would push south to rejoin the Cimarron Route on the road to Santa Fe.
|
