Independence and the Santa Fe Trail -- Independence MO
N 39° 05.059 W 094° 25.173
15S E 377222 N 4327092
A National Park Service sign at some historic Santa Fe and Oregon TRail ruts near the National Frontier Trails Museum in Independence MO.
Waymark Code: WMGPWE
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 03/29/2013
Views: 3
You can still see the faint outlines of the grassed-over trail ruts left by travelers on these historic emigrant and trade trails just a few hundred feet away from the National Frontier Trails Museum in Independence MO.
A sign explains what you are seeing. It reads as follows:
"INDEPENDENCE AND THE SANTA FE TRAIL
Independence bustled with people, wagons, and animals preparing for a journey on the Santa Fe Trail from the 1830s to the 1860s. During those yeras, Independence boomed as the eastern terminus of the Santa Fe Trail, a 900-mile overland trade route between the United States and Mexico. TRade caravans, full of commercial goods, headed out from the courthouse square, six blocks north of here, to the sound of "all set!"
"One after another, the laden wagons rolled from the crowded square, shouts, cheers, and yells -- away they wind like an Oriental caravan, amnd the little hamlet, just now so full of life and animatrion, is deserted and lone." -- Richard L. Wilson, 1841
[map of the Santa Fe Trail]
The Santa Fe Trail carried thousands of large freight wagons across the vast Western prairies. Starting in 1821, trail traffic moved in both directions and expanded to include stagecoach, mail, and military freight services. Railroads ended the trail's usefulness in the 1880s.
DISCOVERING TRACES OF THE TRAIL
Take this paved 1/3-mile loop trail to see swales, grassed-over wagon ruts, made by the thousands of freight wagons and animals that passed this way more than 150 years ago. These swales are among the few that have survived urban development in the Kansas City area." [end]
Group that erected the marker: National Park Service
URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link]
Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary:
315 W Pacific Ave
Independence , MO
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Visit Instructions:
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