Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail
Vega, Oldham County, Texas
Marker Inscription
What came to be known as the Fort Smith - Santa Fe Trail was first blazed in 1840 by Josiah Gregg, a trader seeking a route to Santa Fe along the south side of the Canadian River. In 1849, Gregg's route was closely followed by a military escort led by Capt. Randolph B. Marcy (1812-1857). Marcy's group traveled from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Santa Fe with about 500 pioneers heading for California. The party entered Oldham County on June 13th, and on June 14th ascended to the Llano Estacado near this site. Reaching the top, Marcy found the plains "as boundless...and trackless as the ocean...a desolate waste of uninhabited solitude." Eighty-five days after leaving Fort Smith, the party reached Santa Fe. After passing the plains, Marcy remarked, "I have never passed a country where wagons could move along with as much ease and facility, without expenditure of any labor in making a road, as upon this route." Marcy advocated the trail as a prospective route for a transcontinental railroad, which was built after the Civil War. Later, as the country entered the automobile age and the interstate highway system was developed, U.S. Highway 66 (Route 66) and Interstate 40 were laid close to the trail. (1992)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
First blazed in 1840 by trader Josiah Gregg seeking a southern route to Santa Fe along the Canadian River, this path was followed in 1849 by Captain Randolph Marcy, who guided some 500 California-bound emigrants west from Fort Smith, Arkansas. Cresting onto the Llano Estacado near here, Marcy found the plains "as boundless and trackless as the ocean," yet praised the ground as ideal for wagons and championed the route for a future transcontinental railroad. In time the automobile age laid U.S. Highway 66 and Interstate 40 close along the same corridor.
Why it matters
This trail links the earliest overland pushes toward Santa Fe and California with the railroads and Route 66 that later followed the same path, one continuous thread of American westward movement.
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Related people
- · Josiah Gregg
- · Randolph B. Marcy
Themes & tags
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