Old Spanish Trail (trade route)

History

A usable route linking New Mexico to California was opened in 1829–30 when Santa Fe merchant Antonio Armijo led a trade party of 60 men and a caravan of mules to Alta California. Armijo's group combined information from many explorers, incorporating parts of Jedediah Smith's routes of 1826 and 1827 and Rafael Rivera's route of 1828 to the San Gabriel Mission through the Mojave along the Mojave River. Armijo documented his route in a report to the governor, published by the Mexican government in June 1830.

After this date, traders generally used the trail for a single annual round trip. In 1830, resumed hostilities with the Navajo made the Armijo route west to the Colorado River Crossing of the Fathers impractical, so a new route north of the river was found using fur-trader and trapper trails through Ute lands. This route ran northwest to the Colorado and Green rivers, crossed to the Sevier River, followed it westward over mountains to the vicinity of Parowan, Utah, then passed southward to the Santa Clara River, linking with Armijo's route to California.

Commerce usually consisted of one mule pack train from Santa Fe bringing hand-woven Indian goods such as serapes and blankets to California, where horses and mules were traded for these woven products. The trading party left New Mexico in early November to take advantage of winter rains and arrived in California in early February; the return party left California in early April to cross before water holes dried and rivers rose.

Description of the trail route

The Armijo Route of the Old Spanish Trail was established by Antonio Armijo's expedition in 1829–1830. Leaving Abiquiu on November 7, 1829, the expedition traveled northwest and west of Santa Fe, following the Chama River and the Puerco River, then crossed to the San Juan River basin. From the San Juan they entered the Four Corners area, passed north of the Carrizo Mountains to Church Rock east of present-day Kayenta, then ran to Marsh Pass and north through Tsegi Canyon into canyon country.

At the Colorado River they forded at the Crossing of the Fathers above present-day Glen Canyon Dam. Continuing west to Pipe Spring and on to the Virgin River above present-day St. George, Utah, the expedition followed the Virgin to the mouth of the Santa Clara River, then crossed southward over the Beaver Dam Mountains at Utah Hill Summit to the Virgin River again, which they followed for three days down to the Colorado River. They traveled west parallel to the river over difficult terrain in the Black Mountains to avoid Boulder Canyon, reaching the riverside oases of Callville Wash and Las Vegas Wash.

From Las Vegas Wash the expedition passed southwestward to Eldorado Dry Lake, the spring at Goodsprings Valley, through Wilson Pass, across Mesquite Valley and California Valley, through Emigrant Pass to Resting Springs, then along the Amargosa River to Salt Spring. From Salt Spring they crossed a two-day waterless stretch up Salt Creek to Laguna del Milagro, then to Ojito del Malpais on Soda Lake, and after another waterless day reached the Mojave River and the Mohave Trail leading upriver.

Historic preservation and commemoration

A portion of the Old Spanish Trail inside Arches National Park gained National Register of Historic Places status in 1988. Thirteen years later, the segment crossing Nevada from the Arizona line into California was listed as the Old Spanish Trail/Mormon Road Historic District.

In California, the Mojave National Preserve and Mojave Trails National Monument protect sections that run through the Mojave Desert. The trail became the fifteenth national historic trail in December 2002, after Congress passed Senate Bill 1946 and President George W. Bush signed it into law. Though few physical traces of the original route survive, the trail is remembered through local street and road names, numerous historical markers, and designated portions of US 160 in Colorado and US 191 in Utah.