America's Byways: Santa Fe Trail

	Santa Fe Trail
	PROGRAM
	Summary
	Program Preview
	Video Tape
	Credits

	HISTORY
	Introduction
	A Castle on the Plains
	Raton Pass
	An Ancient Santa Fe Trail
	Amache
	Healing the Wounds
	Exploring on Your Own
	Further Down the Road
	References

	WAYSIDE EXCURSION
	A History of the Santa Fe Trail
	Manifest Destiny
	Governor Carr

	TRAVEL
	Chambers/Visitor Centers
	Weather/Road Conditions
	Map

	RESOURCES
	Santa Fe Trail Timeline
	America's Byways Timeline
	Teacher's Guide


Fisher Peak, Trinidad	Great Divide Pictures LLC

Santa Fe Trail

Further Down the Road

Further Down the Road: Questions for the Middle School Student

Many people who wrote about the prairie were overwhelmed by its vastness. People wrote of both the beauty and the peril presented the endless sea of grass. What in today’s natural world might leave us similarly overwhelmed?

What constitutional rights were bypassed or denied by President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066?

The Homestead Act encouraged Americans to move west and farm the empty prairies. While 160 acres in Ohio made for a very prosperous farm, the same was not true on the western prairie. What factors made life on 160 acres more difficult as the homesteaders moved farther west? How did these factors lead to the Dust Bowl tragedy of the 1930s?


Santa Fe Trail map	Great Divide Pictures LLC


	HIGHLIGHTS


	Wagon caravan Courtesy, VCI Entertainment The route, later named the Santa Fe Trail, is a grueling 900-mile journey.

	Arid land Courtesy, Library of Congress, LC-USF34-028410-D During the 1930s, hot, dry winds blow away top layers off soil, leaving miles of scarred earth.

	Pioneers Courtesy, VCI Entertainment The Santa Fe Trail heads west across Kansas from Independence, Missouri, then branches south to follow the “Cimarron Trail” and the Arkansas River along the ”Raton Trail” into Colorado.