To tell the story of Chicago’s railways, you really need to tell the story of America.  Sitting comfortably?  Then we’ll make a start. 

Horses were long felt to be introduced by the Spanish colonists but new research suggests horses may have a much longer history on the North American continent so, for the sake of this blog, we are listing horse power as an indigenous means of transport.  Neither settled nor nomadic tribes and nations existed in isolation and movement of people, goods and information occurred for a variety reasons, including hunting, trade, warfare, and ceremonial purposes.  

Visiting Chicago (see Blog 120) has already introduced us to the development of extensive trail networks and navigable waterways created long before the arrival of other peoples from other continents, with other cultures and technologies.  But Chicago has also introduced us to the concept of the ‘route appropriation’ practised by these incoming trappers, traders and settlers, who adopted these pre-existing routes for European style immigration, trade and warfare and social and ceremonial uses.  What (English speaking) Europeans would consider to be ‘just’ foot paths, bridle ways or packhorse routes were converted into wagon trails, then railroads, then repurposed and resurfaced for the internal combustion engine and, more recently, retrofitted as hiking trails for recreation.    

Successful European use of this long distance trade route is usually credited to one William Becknell from Missouri, but he was by no means the first European to attempt trading with this northern outposts of the Spanish/Mexican empire.  Santa Fé was very isolated, separated from Mexico City by 1,700 miles of inhospitable terrain, and must have seemed a tempting business proposition to new Americans from eastern Missouri, a mere 850 miles away across significantly easier country. 

But despite this geographical isolation from the bulk of Spanish Mexico, early attempts at American trade with Santa Fé were unsuccessful due to locally stationed Spanish soldiers who seemed keen to capture mercantile visitors and drag them over the mountains to prisons in Mexico City.  One can imagine that, despite the travel issues, an excuse to get back to the capital must have been quite attractive. 

The images below show the sort of buildings which these traders might have seen before they were unceremoniously captured and sent south.

Images centre and lower rows: typical Santa Fé architecture and wood detailing of the Spanish colonial period

William Becknell set out in September 1821.  It seems he was in debt and probably desperate and/or foolish, but he was certainly lucky. When he arrived in Santa Fé he found that Mexico had thrown off the Spanish yoke some years before and was very happy to trade with new partners. It seems that the town’s inhabitants were very willing to pay high prices for his goods. 

Like many long distance trade routes, the Santa Fé trail has more than one route (the Silk Road across central Asia is another classic example of this phenomenon).  Encouraged by the success of his initial trip, Becknell upgraded from pack horses to wagons, loaded up and set off again in 1822.  He amended his route to accommodate his now much wider, wheeled, freight carriers, but the resultant need to cross the Cimarron Desert, where water was scarce, proved to very hazardous.  A second route was developed, therefore, over the Raton Pass in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (a southern outlier of the Rockies) on the borders of Colorado and New Mexico.  This Mountain Route is longer and much steeper but has plentiful water supplies. 

Above: Sante Fé route map: Raton Pass on the Mountain Route outlined in red; note the references to springs on the shorter Cimarron Route. With thanks to https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/safe/shs1.htm

Commercial traffic along the Sante Fé trail boomed and became a two way international trade route for Mexicans and Americans alike.  It also played a part in troop movements connected to the Mexican-American war in the 1840s and, following the resultant adjustments in borders, the Trail became a significant national link in connecting the new south west territories with the more established states in the north east.  As well as trade goods and military supplies, the trail carried stage coaches, emigrants, missionaries and thousands of fortune seekers heading for the Colorado and California gold fields.

The wagon illustrated above is presumably far smaller than covered wagons used by Europeans moving west or for trade, but it does give a hint of the fragility of the transport using the Sante Fé Trail. Both photographs taken at the Santa Fé History Museum.

Eventually the Santa Fe rail road reached Chicago (in 1887) and Los Angeles (in 1893).  It was the second of America’s great trans-continental railroads. 

Images above: constructing the Santa Fe rail road

In the 1960s, car and air transport was in the ascendancy, to the detriment of some of the great railways of the world.  In response to this situation, the United States Congress established the National Railroad Passenger Corporation to run the intercity passenger services which had formerly been operated by the private railroads.  Amtrak started delivery of that service in 1971, including the ‘Southwest Chief’ service from Los Angeles to Chicago, via Albuquerque.  

Meanwhile, that 1880 track extension to link Santa Fé to the main route, still has a rather quaint branch line feel to it.  It is operated by Rail Runner (aka the New Mexico Rail Runner Express), which is a commuter rail system, serving the metropolitan areas of Albuquerque and Santa Fe. 

Thanks to both companies we can now claim to have travelled from Santa Fé to Chicago by train using, in part, the route of the old Sante Fé Trail. What follows is a photographic record of that journey, stitched together from two seperate journeys from Santa Fé to Albuquerque and from Albuquerque to Chicago.

Stage 1 Santa Fé to Albuquerque:

Stage 2 Albuquerque to Raton Pass

Above: Albuquerque station - waiting for the Southwest Chief.

The journey north eastwards through New Mexico towards Colorado and Kansas is a slow progress. The landscape of Mediterranean type open scrub and small trees (above) eventually gives way to the beauty of the great plains (below). These photographs do not do justice to the rolling majesty of the open prairie.

Stage 3 Leaving New Mexico and overnight to Kansas City

Stage 4 Through the great grain lands and over the Mississippi into Illinois

Chicago here we come.