The Old Santa Fe Trail

The Old Santa Fe Trail

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Title: THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL
Author: COLONEL HENRY INMAN
Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7984] [This file was first posted on
June 9, 2003]
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Language: English

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THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL
The Story of a Great Highway
By COLONEL HENRY INMAN
Late Assistant Quartermaster, United States Army
With a Preface by W. F. "BUFFALO BILL" CODY

PREFACE.

As we look into the open fire for our fancies, so we are apt to study the
dim past for the wonderful and sublime, forgetful of the fact that the
present is a constant romance, and that the happenings of to-day which
we count of little importance are sure to startle somebody in the future,
and engage the pen of the historian, philosopher, and poet.
Accustomed as we are to think of the vast steppes of Russia and Siberia
as alike strange and boundless, and to deal with the unkown interior of
Africa as an impenetrable mystery, we lose sight of a locality in our
own country that once surpassed all these in virgin grandeur, in
majestic solitude, and in all the attributes of a tremendous wilderness.
The story of the Old Santa Fe Trail, so truthfully recalled by Colonel
Henry Inman, ex-officer of the old Regular Army, in these pages, is a
most thrilling one. The vast area through which the famous highway
ran is still imperfectly known to most people as "The West"; a
designation once appropriate, but hardly applicable now; for in these
days of easy communication the real trail region is not so far removed
from New York as Buffalo was seventy years ago.
At the commencement of the "commerce of the prairies," in the early
portion of the century, the Old Trail was the arena of almost constant
sanguinary struggles between the wily nomads of the desert and the
hardy white pioneers, whose eventful lives made the civilization of the

vast interior region of our continent possible. Their daring compelled
its development, which has resulted in the genesis of great states and
large cities. Their hardships gave birth to the American homestead;
their determined will was the factor of possible achievements, the most
remarkable and important of modern times.
When the famous highway was established across the great plains as a
line of communication to the shores of the blue Pacific, the only
method of travel was by the slow freight caravan drawn by patient oxen,
or the lumbering stage coach with its complement of four or six mules.
There was ever to be feared an attack by those devils of the desert, the
Cheyennes, Comanches, and Kiowas. Along its whole route the
remains of men, animals, and the wrecks of camps and wagons, told a
story of suffering, robbery, and outrage more impressive than any
language. Now the tourist or business man makes the journey in palace
cars, and there is nothing to remind him of the danger or desolation of
Border days; on every hand are the evidences of a powerful and
advanced civilization.
It is fortunate that one is left to tell some of its story who was a living
actor and had personal knowledge of many of the thrilling scenes that
were enacted along the line of the great route. He was familiar with all
the famous men, both white and savage, whose lives have made the
story of the Trail, his own sojourn on the plains and in the Rocky
Mountains extending over a period of nearly forty years.
The Old Trail has more than common interest for me, and I gladly
record here my indorsement of the faithful record, compiled by a brave
soldier, old comrade, and friend.
W. F.