THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL, COLONEL HENRY INMAN [well read books .txt] 📗
- Author: COLONEL HENRY INMAN
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And Is One Of The Notable Features Of The Rugged landscape.
Pike'S Peak, Far Away To The North, Intensely White And Silvery In the
Clear Sky, Hangs Like A Great Dome High In the Region Of The Clouds,
A Marked object, Worthy To Commemorate The Indefatigable Efforts Of
The Early Voyageur Whose Name It Bears.
In This Wonderful Locality, Both Pike'S Peak And The Snowy Range Over
Two Hundred miles From Our Point Of Observation Really Seem To The
Uninitiated as If A Brisk Walk Of An Hour Or Two Would Enable One To
Reach Them, So Deceptive Is The Atmosphere Of These Elevated regions.
About Two Miles From The Crest Of The Range, Yet Over Seven Thousand
Feet Above The Sea-Level, In a Pretty Little Depression About As
Large As A Medium-Sized corn-Field In the Eastern States, Uncle
Dick Wooton Lived, And Here, Too, Was His Toll-Gate. The Veteran
Mountaineer Erected a Substantial House Of Adobe, After The Style
Of One Of The Old-Time Southern Plantation Residences, A Memory,
Perhaps, Of His Youth, When He Raised tobacco In his Father'S Fields
In Kentucky.[76]
The Most Charming Hour In which To Be On The Crest Of Raton Range Is
In The Afternoon, When The Weather Is Clear And Calm. As The Night
Comes On Apace In the Distant Valley Beneath, The Evening Shadows
Drop Down, Pencilled with Broad Bands Of Rosy Light As They Creep
Slowly Across The Beautiful Landscape, While The Rugged vista Below
Is Enveloped in a Diffused haze Like That Which Marks The Season Of
The Indian Summer In the Lower Great Plains. Above, The Sky Curves
Toward The Relatively Restricted horizon, With Not A Cloud To Dim
Its Intense Blue, Nowhere So Beautiful As In these Lofty Altitudes.
The Sun, However, Does Not Always Shine Resplendently; There Are
Times When The Most Terrific Storms Of Wind, Hail, And Rain Change
The Entire Aspect Of The Scene. Fortunately, These Violent Bursts
Never Last Long; They Vanish As Rapidly As They Come, Leaving In
Their Wake The Most Phenomenally Beautiful Rainbows, Whose Trailing
Splendours Which They Owe To The Dry And Rare Air Of The Region, And
Its High Refractory Power, Are Gorgeous In the Extreme.
In 1872 The Atchison, Topeka, And Santa Fe Railroad Entered the
Valley Of The Upper Arkansas. Twenty-Four Years Ago, On A Delicious
October Afternoon, I Stood On The Absolutely Level Plateau At The
Mouth Of Pawnee Fork Where That Historic Creek Debouches Into The
Great River. The Remembrance Of That View Will Never Pass From My
Memory, For It Showed a Curious Temporary Blending Of Two Distinct
Civilizations. One, The New, Marking The Course Of Empire In its
Restless March Westward; The Other, That Of The Aboriginal, Which,
Like A Dissolving View, Was Soon To Fade Away And Be Forgotten.
The Box-Elders And Cottonwoods Thinly Covering The Creek-Bottom Were
Gradually Donning Their Autumn Dress Of Russet, And The Mirage Had
Already Commenced its Fantastic Play With The Landscape. On The Sides
And Crests Of The Sparsely Grassed sand Hills South Of The Arkansas
A Few Buffaloes Were Grazing In company With Hundreds Of Texas Cattle,
While In the Broad Valley Beneath, Small Flocks Of Graceful Antelope
Were Lying Down, Quietly Ruminating Their Midday Meal.
In The Distance, Far Eastwardly, A Train Of Cars Could Be Seen
Approaching; As Far As The Eye Could Reach, On Either Side Of The
Track, The Virgin Sod Had Been Turned to The Sun; The "Empire Of
The Plough" Was Established, And The March Of Immigration In its
Hunger For The Horizon Had Begun.
Half A Mile Away From The Bridge Spanning The Fork, Under The Grateful
Shade Of The Largest Trees, About Twenty Skin Lodges Were Irregularly
Grouped; On The Brown Sod Of The Sun-Cured grass A Herd Of A Hundred
Ponies Were Lazily Feeding, While A Troop Of Dusky Little Children
Were Chasing The Yellow Butterflies From The Dried and Withered
Sunflower Stalks Which Once So Conspicuously Marked the Well-Worn
Highway To The Mountains. These Indians, The Remnant Of A Tribe
Powerful In the Years Of Savage Sovereignty, Were On Their Way,
In Charge Of Their Agent, To Their New Homes, On The Reservation
Just Allotted to Them By The Government, A Hundred miles South Of
The Arkansas.
Their Primitive Lodges Contrasted strangely With The Peaceful Little
Sod-Houses, Dugouts, And White Cottages Of The Incoming Settlers On
The Public Lands, With The Villages Struggling Into Existence, And
Above All With The Rapidly Moving Cars; Unmistakable Evidences That
The New Civilization Was Soon To Sweep The Red men Before It Like
Chaff Before The Wind.
Farther To The West, A Caravan Of White-Covered wagons Loaded with
Supplies For Some Remote Military Post, The Last That Would Ever
Travel The Old Trail, Was Slowly Crawling Toward The Setting Sun.
I Watched it Until Only A Cloud Of Dust Marked its Place Low Down
On The Horizon, And It Was Soon Lost Sight Of In the Purple Mist
That Was Rapidly Overspreading The Far-Reaching Prairie.
It Was The Beginning Of The End; On The 9Th Of February, 1880, The
First Train Over The Atchison, Topeka, And Santa Fe Railroad Arrived
At Santa Fe And The Old Trail As A Route Of Commerce Was Closed
Forever. The Once Great Highway Is Now Only A Picture In the Memory
Of The Few Who Have Travelled its Weary Course, Following The Windings
Of The Silent Arkansas, On To The Portals That Guard The Rugged
Pathway Leading To The Shores Of The Blue Pacific.
Chapter XXIV (Footnotes)
[1] The Whole Country Watered by The Mississippi And Missouri Was
Called florida At That Time.
[2] The Celebrated jesuit, Author Of _The History Of New France_,
_Journals Of A Voyage To North America_, _Letters To The Duchess_, Etc.
[3] Otoes.
[4] Iowas.
[5] Boulevard, Promenade.
[6] Notes Of A Military Reconnoissance From Fort Leavenworth,
In Missouri, To San Diego, In california, Including Parts Of The
Arkansas, Del Norte, And Gila Rivers. Brevet Major W. H. Emory,
Corps Of Topographical Engineers, United states Army, 1846.
[7] Hon. W. F. Arny, In his Centennial Celebration Address At Santa Fe,
July 4, 1876.
[8] Edwards, _Conquest Of New Mexico_.
[9] I Think This Is Bancroft'S Idea.
[10] _Historical Sketches Of New Mexico_, L. Bradford Prince, Late
Chief Justice Of New Mexico, 1883.
[11] D. H. Coyner, 1847.
[12] He Was Travelling Parallel To The Old Santa Fe Trail All The Time,
But Did Not Know It Until He Was Overtaken By A Band Of Kaw Indians.
[13] Mcknight Was Murdered south Of The Arkansas By The Comanches
In The Winter Of 1822.
Chapter XXIV (Footnotes)[14] Chouteau'S Island.
[15] _Hennepin'S Journal_.
[16] The Line Between The United states And Mexico (Or New Spain,
As It Was Called) Was Defined by A Treaty Negotiated in 1819,
Between The Chevalier De Onis, Then Spanish Minister At Washington,
And John Quincy Adams, Secretary Of State. According To Its
Provisions, The Boundary Between Mexico And Louisiana, Which Had Been
Added to The Union, Commenced with The River Sabine At Its Entrance
Into The Gulf Of Mexico, At About The Twenty-Ninth Degree Of North
Latitude And The Ninety-Fourth Degree Of Longitude, West From
Greenwich, And Followed it As Far As Its Junction With The Red river
Of Natchitoches, Which Then Served to Mark The Frontier Up To The
One Hundredth Degree Of West Longitude, Where The Line Ran Directly
North To The Arkansas, Which It Followed to Its Source At The
Forty-Second Degree Of North Latitude, Whence Another Straight Line
Was Drawn Up The Same Parallel To The Pacific Coast.
[17] This Tribe Kept Up Its Reputation Under The Dreaded satanta,
Until 1868--A Period Of Forty Years--When It Was Whipped into
Submission By The Gallant Custer. Satanta Was Its War Chief,
One Of The Most Cruel Savages The Great Plains Ever Produced.
He Died a Few Years Ago In the State Prison Of Texas.
[18] Mcness Creek Is On The Old Cimarron Trail To Santa Fe, A Little
East Of A Line Drawn South From Bent'S Fort.
[19] Mr. Bryant, Of Kansas, Who Died a Few Years Ago, Was One Of
The Pioneers In the Trade With Santa Fe. Previous To His Decease
He Wrote For A Kansas Newspaper A Narrative Of His First Trip Across
The Great Plains; An Interesting Monograph Of Hardship And Suffering.
For The Use Of This Document I Am Indebted to Hon. Sol. Miller,
The Editor Of The Journal In which It Originally Appeared. I Have
Also Used very Extensively The Notes Of Mr. William Y. Hitt, One Of
The Bryant Party, Whose Son Kindly Placed them At My Disposal, And
Copied liberally From The Official Report Of Major Bennett Riley--
Afterward The Celebrated general Of Mexican War Fame, And For Whom
The Cavalry Depot In kansas Is Named; As Also From The Journal Of
Captain Philip St. George Cooke, Who Accompanied major Riley On
His Expedition.
Chapter XXIV (Footnotes)[20] Chouteau'S Island, At The Mouth Of Sand Creek.
[21] Valley Of The Upper Arkansas.
[22] About Three Miles East Of The Town Of Great Bend, Barton County,
Kansas.
[23] The Old Santa Fe Trail Crosses The Creek Some Miles North Of
Hutchinson, And Coincides With The Track Again At The Mouth Of
Walnut Creek, Three Miles East Of Great Bend.
[24] There Are Many Conflicting accounts In regard To The Sum
Don Antonio Carried with Him On That Unfortunate Trip. Some
Authorities Put It As High As Sixty Thousand; I Have Taken A Mean
Of The Various Sums, And As This Method Will Suffice In mathematics,
Perhaps We Can Approximate The Truth In this Instance.
[25] General Emory Of The Union Army During The Civil War. He Made
An Official Report Of The Country Through Which The Army Of The West
Passed, Accompanied by Maps, And His _Reconnoissance In new Mexico
And California_, Published by The Government In 1848, Is The First
Authentic Record Of The Region, Considered topographically And
Geologically.
[26] _Doniphan'S Expedition, Containing an Account Of The Conquest
Of New Mexico_, Etc. John T. Hughes, A.B., Of The First Regiment
Of Missouri Cavalry. 1850.
[27] Deep Gorge.
[28] Colonel Leavenworth, For Whom Fort Leavenworth Is Named, And
Who Built Several Army Posts In the Far West.
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