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Overall, use of the Old Spanish Trail
Overall, use of the Old Spanish Trail, especially the eastern half, diminished after 1848, as travelers began using other trails such as the California Trail and routes through Arizona. While later wagon roads, and eventually highways, often replicated segments of the Old Spanish Trail, other sections received limited, often local use after about 1850. The establishment of the Intercontinental Railroad in 1869 and other rail routes also resulted in the gradual displacement of many old trails as immigration and commercial routes.
Jefferson Hunt (1849) and Parley Pratt (1851) joined the routes taken by Frémont (1844) and later by Wheeler (1866), on the recombined Northern Route as it ran southward from Utah into present-day Arizona. Apparently, almost all the travelers used the California Crossing of the Muddy River just inside the Nevada border. From there, the Armijo Route ran due south, then turned west to intersect or parallel variants of the Northern Route(s) used by Wheeler (1873), A. Pratt (1849), Chandless (1856), and Dalton (1857). All the routes converged in the Yermo/Daggett area, just outside Barstow, and continued along the Mojave River and over Cajon Pass into the San Bernardino/Los Angeles area.
or the "Camino de Nuevo Mexico." Sometimes, Anglo-Americans used those designations, but not often. The name “Old Spanish Trail” has come into common use and is now considered the appropriate name for the trail.
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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
