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480

• When  traders  moved  west  from  Missouri  on  the  Santa  Fe  Trail,  they  traveled  out  of  the  tall  grass  prairie
  and  onto  the  buffalo  grass-covered  plains.  In  this  area,  there  were  buffalo  herds,  Plains  Indians,  and  limited  water  sources.  On  William  Becknell’s  first  trip  in  1821,  he  brought  a  pack  train  of  horses.  He  followed  the  Arkansas  River  west  into  present-day  Colorado  and  then  crossed  the  Sangre  de  Cristo  Mountains  into  New  Mexico.  This  became  known  as  the  Mountain  Route  or  the  Bent’s  Fort  Route.
  
  In  1822,  William  Becknell  took  his  second  trip  with  farm  wagons.  Because  of  the  heavy  load  of  his  wagons,  he  took  a  different  route.  Becknell  crossed  the  Arkansas  River  and  moved  the  caravan  toward  the  Cimarron  River.  Between  the  two  stretches  of  the  rivers,  it  was  difficult  to  find  reliable  water.  Mexican  traders  called  this  area  the  Jornada,  meaning  “a  day’s  journey.”  This  part  of  the  Santa  Fe  Trail  became  known  as  the  Cimarron  Route,  and  later  the  Cimarron  Cutoff.  Cimarron  is  a  Spanish  word  for  wild  and  unruly.
  
  The  Cimarron  Crossing  of  the  Arkansas  River  was  the  half-way  point  of  the  journey  between  Independence  and  Santa  Fe.  In  the  earlier  years  of  the  trail,  the  Arkansas  River  crossing  was  the  international  boundary  between  United  States  and  Mexico.  After  the  Mexican  War  in  1846-1848,  you  didn't  enter  another  country  when  crossing  the  Arkansas  River.  The  United  States  now  owned  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  the  trail  territory.  The  Mountain  and  Cimarron  Routes  joined  together  at  Fort  Union  in  New  Mexico  before  they  entered  into  the  city  of  Santa  Fe.
  
  The  GPS  coordinates  connect  this  route  summary  with  Stop  480  -  Morton  County  Historical  Society  Museum.

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