Trading Caravan Style

The Spring of 1824 found all the Missouri traders bound for Santa Fe agreeing to travel in one well-defended caravan as protection against hostile Indian raiders.   The results were impressive - Indian raiders kept away, and goods worth $35,000 brought a return of $190,000 in gold, silver, and furs.  This caravan style of trade became the norm from then on except for a temporary halt during the Mexican war.  Even larger caravans made the annual trek, eventually expanding to include Taos and market in the state of Chihuahua.

By 1831 the caravan contained 100 wagons and 200 men.  Congress authorized payments to the Osage and Kansa Indians to ensure safe passages.  Occasionally military escorts were dispatched to help fend off the Comanche who would attack the wagons and run off with precious livestock.

Nature was an even greater danger.  Rockslides often made the mountain route a nightmare.  The shorter Cimarron Cutoff had it own horrors -intense heat, mirages, and clouds of choking alkali dust.  Overnight spring rains turned  streams into mile wide torrents and transformed dusty flatland in hip deep oceans of mud.

The New Mexican welcome wore thin as well.  The governor of Santa Fe and his poorly paid subordinates were empowered to charge traders whatever custom duties the traffic would bear.  Traders never knew until they left Santa Fe how much profit they would be allowed to take with them.  Bribing and smuggling were very common.  The Americans, for the most part, were determined to give up as little as possible for what one bitter skinner called "the sole use and benefit of his obesity, the Governor".

Next time - Things get rowdy in Santa Fe
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Today in Pioneer History: On June 28, 1868, the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing to African Americans citizenship and all its privileges, is officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution.