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I WRITTEN BY
A
Linda Thompson
Level: T Word Count: 4,484 Words
100th word: Americans page 4
Content Area Building Background
Vocabulary:
Rtheeasde twheo rldisst .m Wehaant ?do KBenfoore wrealdeindg ga ebook, it is important to tap into what
your child or students already know about the topic.
continental This will help them develop their vocabulary, increase
their reading comprehension, and make connections
customs across the curriculum.
empire
expedition 1. Look at the cover of the book.
passage What will this book be about?
railroads 2. What do you already know about the topic?
routes
3. Let’s study the Table of Contents.
territory What will you learn about in the book’s chapters?
transcontinental
4. What would you like to learn about this topic?
trappers Do you think you might learn about it from this
book? Why or why not?
5. Use a reading journal to write about your
knowledge of this topic. Record what you already
know about the topic and what you hope to
learn about the topic.
6. Read the book.
7. In your reading journal, record what you learned
about the topic and your response to the book.
8. Complete the activities at the end of the book.
Written by Linda Thompson
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ward S. Curtis Collection: pages 7, 27; Courtesy National Museum of Natural History, The Smithsonian Institution James
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19, 28, 29, 36; Courtesy Nebraska State Historical Society: page 31; Courtesy Ering and Reilah Jones: pages 23, 27,
42; Courtesy Rohm Padilla: 4-5, 12-13, 14-15, 24, 41; Courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services: page 15; Courtesy U.S.
Geological Survey: page 17; Courtesy U.S. Military Photo Archives: page 19.
Edited by Jill Sherman
Cover design by Nicola Stratford, bdpublishing.com
Interior layout by Jen Thomas
Library of Congress PCN Data
Thompson, Linda
Traveling the Santa Fe Trail / Linda Thompson.
ISBN 978-1-62169-837-1 (hard cover)
ISBN 978-1-62169-732-9 (soft cover)
Also Available as:
ISBN 978-1-62169-941-5 (e-Book)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013936386
Rourke Educational Media
Printed in the United States of America,
North Mankato, Minnesota
rourkeeducationalmedia.com
[email protected] • PO Box 643328 Vero Beach, Florida 32964
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
TRADE ROUTES FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA . . . . . 4
Chapter 2
THE HISTORY OF THE SANTA FE TRAIL . . . . . . . . . . 9
Chapter 3
THE HEYDAY OF THE TRAIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter 4
THE MEXICAN WAR
AND THE LEGACY OF THE TRAIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Biographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Websites to Visit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Show What You Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Chapter 1
Trade Routes From Sea
to Shining Sea
Only 20 years after it became independent, the United
States gained a region that doubled the country’s size . And
barely 50 years later, it reached across immense
plains and towering mountain ranges to touch
the Pacific Ocean . How it grew so fast in N
A OREGON
such a short time is still an amazing
E TERRITORY
tale . One thing that promoted this C ESTABLISHED
1846
O 1818
growth was the strong desire of
people to trade with each other . C
I
F
When the year 1803 began, the
I
LOUISIANA
C CEDED BY
United States of America had only A MEXICO PURCHASE
UNITED
1803
17 states and one large territory P 1848
STATES
surrounding the Great Lakes . Most PRIOR TO
1803
of the five and a half million Americans
lived along the eastern edge of a huge
GADSDEN
undeveloped continent . Georgia PURCHASE TEXAS
was the southernmost state and the 1853 ANNEXED
1845
western border of the country was the
Mississippi River . But by the end of 1803, President Thomas
CEDED BY
Jefferson had purchased the vast and unknown Louisiana SPAIN
1819
44
Territory . More land was quickly acquired . In 1846, defining
the boundary with Canada made the Pacific Northwest part of
the United States . By 1848, the country had added Florida and
California, as well as Texas and the Southwest . In 1853, with the
Gadsden Purchase, which included southern Arizona and New
Mexico, the continental United States looked as it does today in
size and shape, not counting Alaska .
In less than 100 years the shape of the continental United States had expanded from
the Atlantic Ocean, across mountains and plains, to the Pacific Ocean.
OREGON
TERRITORY
ESTABLISHED
1846
1818
LOUISIANA
CEDED BY
N
PURCHASE
MEXICO
UNITED A
1803
1848
STATES E
C
PRIOR TO
O
1803
C
I
T
GADSDEN
N
PURCHASE TEXAS A
1853 ANNEXED L
T
1845 A
CEDED BY
SPAIN
1819
5
5
The first paths across North
America were formed by
migrating animal herds and
the Native Americans who
followed and hunted them.
The challenge of exploring all of this newly acquired
territory was immense . But Americans were equal to the
challenge . By 1869, a transcontinental railroad linked the
3,500 miles (5,633 kilometers) or more of wilderness between
the two coasts . The land suddenly became more accessible
to explorers, settlers, and people bringing supplies and mail .
And there were nearly six times as many Americans as when
the century had begun . People had not only explored
and settled much of the new land, but had made
it easier to transport goods and communicate
with each other from sea to shining sea .
A Southwest Native American
drawing of a deer.
6
Long before the railroads came, a network of trails had
begun to connect the far-flung parts of the continent . These
trails were begun by the many tribes of Native Americans who
had inhabited the country for more than 10,000 years before
Europeans and others arrived . Native Americans tended to follow
trails made by animals such as deer, elk, and buffalo . These trails
marked the most convenient routes across mountains, rivers,
and prairies . Later, explorers and settlers used these routes to
travel to the West . One of the oldest was the Santa Fe Trail, which
ran from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, a
distance of about 900 miles (1,450 kilometers) .
Horses could not go far without water so their main routes followed the rivers.
7
Unlike the later Oregon and California trails, the Santa
Fe Trail was not created by settlers heading west, but
by merchants seeking to trade . For many years it linked
Mexico and the United States, which were not always on
the best of terms with each other . Yet even when those
countries were at war, this artery of trade remained open .
Men, women, and children risked their lives to make the
long and difficult journey from a familiar world into a
foreign one, and some chose the strange new world as their
home .
Some trappers and frontiersmen partnered with Native Americans for help getting
around areas that they did not know.
8
