Old Spanish Trail Historical Overview
Chicago Valley - Emigrant Pass
The Old Spanish National Historic Trail passes through Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. It opened a land route across 19th century Mexico between the Tierra Adentro, the fabled, yet isolated place that would become New Mexico, and California’s missions and burgeoning settlements. When he left Abiquiu, New Mexico for California in 1829 with 40 men and 200 pack mules, Antonio Armijo blazed a trail between the two colonies that had frustrated explorers for over a century. The Abiquiu party’s woolen blankets and tanned hides were welcomed in textile-starved California. In return, the horses and mules Armijo and his followers on the trail brought east would become the working stock for miners, American and Mexican military, and farmers from northern Mexico to the east coast of the United States.
source - BLM
OST/Mormon Wagon Road Virtual Tour
About the Old Spanish Trail
American Indian groups
Spanish colonial interest
In late summer of 1826
A major variation of the Old Spanish Trail
The major reason for travel
There was considerable legal trade
Some of the vast fur trade
Hispanic New Mexican families
Americans and other foreigners
With the American takeover of California
Over the years a number of military groups
Overall, use of the Old Spanish Trail
Revised and adapted from: Draft National Historic Trail Feasibility Study and Environmental Assessment July 2000 OLD SPANISH TRAIL New Mexico · Colorado · Utah · Arizona · Nevada · California United States Department of the Interior - National Park Service
