Welcome to the North Branch of the Old Spanish Trail

We are a clearing house for research on the North Branch of the Old Spanish Trail. The years were between 1829 and 1848 when annual caravans traveled between the Pueblo of Santa Fe and the San Gabriel Mission in Alta California.  The North Branch was one of many routes that facilitated commerce in the region.  One must look to the state actors in this drama to have an understanding of the times.

With the Louisana Purchase of 1803, the United States was able to double it’s size with territory stretching from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains.  The lower border of the United States became the Arkansas River, stretching from the reaches of present Lake County in Colorado to present day Oklahoma and Arkansas.

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Primary Sources

In the study of history, the eye witness provides the highest quality information on an historical event.  The story of the Old Spanish Trail takes place in the 19th Century, a time of improving literacy and a desire to promote ones personal legacy. Many the sources were explorers, settlers, and seekers of adventure in the American Southwest.

Thomas “Pegleg” Smith

Thomas Long “Pegleg” Smith was born on October 10, 1801 at Crab Orchard in Kentucky.  Running away from home at the age of fifteen, Smith ended up working on a flatboat on the Mississippi River.  Smith met Antione Robidoux on the Wabash River in 1817, this one event brought him into the Santa Fe and fur trade . . . . Continue Reading

 

 

John Warner

Born in Connecticut 1807, John Trumbull Warner (aka Juan Jose Warner) became one of the foundational American settlers of Alta California before the Mexican War.  It was the fall of 1830, that Warner left Connecticut for a milder climate seeking improvement of his health. As a result he landed in St. Louis later that fall. That coming spring moved him to join a trading expedition with the goal of reaching Santa Fe. By July 4, 1831, firmly planted in New Mexican territory, Warner became exposed to the atmosphere of of New Mexico. On September 6th he joined a party of eleven men, including . . . . Continue Reading

 

 
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