THE OLD SPANISH TRAIL

This trail was a route from Santa Fe, New Mexico, northwest to about Castle Dale, Utah then southwest to Los Angeles, California. A trade route was needed to move goods and information between the settlement at Santa Fe and the coast of California where the mission system was being built. Rivera was shown a trail by the local Native Americans which became part of this historical trail. It took Antonio Armijo 84 days to travel from Abiquiu, New Mexico, to Los Angeles in that first pack train in 1829-30. Escalante and Garces had travelled through the area. In 1829 Jedediah Smith explored and laid out the trail that was to become a major thoroughfare for mule trains and, later, wagon trains. John C. Fremont returned back east on the OST (as it is referred to in some modern documents).

The route was determined largely by terrain and available water sources. The pack animals, as well as the men and women travelling the trail, needed water and feed, so the general idea was to get to the widely separated springs as quickly as possible.
Mr. Steiner has adopted a corridor concept for much of the trail. Especially between Las Vegas, Nevada, and Blue Diamond there is evidence of multiple trails paralleling each other. Some of these may be due to the difficulty of wagons to follow precisely the trail worn by the former mule trains. Some may have come about due to weather conditions, i.e. washouts which certainly must have occurred from time to time, so that a damaged area would have to be skirted around before rejoining the "main" trail.

The National Park Service has made an effort and, thanks to concerned citizens, redoubled efforts to study the importance of preserving as much of this part of America's Southwest heritage as possible. I shall look into the National Historic Trail Study of 1999-2000 and add more information here soon.

GPS coordinates are being used to help plan many parts of this preservation including providing off-road usage in areas away from the trail.
A most important event will be held this summer: the sesquicentenial anniversary of the Mormon Trail. Look for more information here and elsewhere.

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