Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail Gregg Route, 1840
Amarillo, Potter County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Southwest of this marker are dim traces of overland trail to connect river ports of Fort Smith and Van Buren, Ark. with Santa Fe, a trade and travel center since 1609. This road was pioneered by Josiah Gregg, a Santa Fe trader who first passed this point on March 15, 1840. Many goldseekers later used his route--from the summer of 1849, when worldwide "fever" drew them to California. The Gregg Route, in the days before barbed wire, regularly was traveled by military parties, hunters, and traders. (1964)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Faint traces of an old overland road still cross the land southwest of this marker—the route that linked the Arkansas river ports of Fort Smith and Van Buren with Santa Fe, a trade center since 1609. It was pioneered by Santa Fe trader Josiah Gregg, who first passed this spot in March 1840. A decade later, gold seekers bound for California poured along the same road, which in the days before barbed wire carried soldiers, hunters, and traders across the open plains.
Why it matters
The Gregg Route is a tangible strand of the great westward migration, carrying commerce and gold-rush dreams across the Panhandle plains.
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Related people
- · Josiah Gregg
Related events
- · California Gold Rush
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail Marcy Route, 1849
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Faint ruts still visible on the Panhandle horizon mark the Fort Smith–Santa Fe Trail, the overland road linking the Arkansas River ports to New Mexico. The route won national fame in June 1849 when Captain R. B. Marcy escorted a party of some 500 Arkansans across it toward the California gold fields, and it was later surveyed as a possible transcontinental railroad line before the Civil War redirected the rails northward. Used until 1888 for gold-seekers, mail, and stagecoaches, the trail is a rare landscape record of westward migration.
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