Before Mexico declared its independence, trading between the United States and Mexico was illegal. Many people were arrested because they would smuggle goods in to Santa Fe to try to make a profit. After Mexico declared its independence trading was allowed between Santa Fe and the United States. On September 1, 1821 William Becknell and four other explorers made a trip loaded with goods from Franklin, Missouri to the west. There they met some Mexican soldiers who took them to Santa Fe to trade their goods. The trip was 1, 203 miles long. It was also hard but the trading was good. Becknell returned with a lot of money and stories of Santa Fe and the people who lived there. After Becknell made his journey many travelers followed him and traveled to Santa Fe to make money. This became important because the Santa Fe Trail became a busy highway where trade occurred. In twenty years 150 people and 80 wagons had traveled the Santa Fe Trail.
The Santa Fe Trail became the highway connecting Santa Fe with eastern trade centers. The trail also connected with other trails such as the Cimarron Cutoff and the Camino Real Trail. This allowed travels to go to other cities. The Santa Fe Trail made
the travel to these cities shorter. These trails later became the starting blocks of many highways we travel today. Some of these highways are US 60 and US 24 from Franklin
Missouri to Kansas City, I-35 from Missouri and Kansas to what was known as the Oregon Trail near Dodge City Kansas, US 56 from Dodge City to Oklahoma to Springer, New Mexico, and I-25 to Santa Fe.
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Bibliography: www.42explore2.com/santa fe.htm http://gorp.away.com/gorp/resource/ustrail/santafe www.bicknell.net/sftrail.htm www.santafetrailks.com/ www.santafetrailresearch.com/