2024-01-15 13:02:00
By 1866, the Santa Fe Trail started to become shorter due to the arrival of railroads. As the Junction City Union reported in 1867: “A few years ago, the freighting wagons and oxen passing through Council Grove were counted by thousands, the value of merchandise by millions. But the shriek of the iron horse has silenced the lowing of the panting ox, and the old trail looks desolate.”
Two railroad companies, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and the Kansas Pacific (also known as the Union Pacific Eastern Division) helped shorten the trail. On February 9, 1880, the Santa Fe Railroad reached Santa Fe, New Mexico and the trail was used by locals or fell into disuse.
The Kansas Pacific started in 1855 as the Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western Railroad. It was renamed Union Pacific Eastern Division (completely different company than the northern Union Pacific) in 1863.
The arrival of the Union Pacific Eastern Division into Junction City in 1866 made the city the shipping point of the Santa Fe Trail. Trail travelers took the train to Junction City and then went west via wagon trains over the Butterfield Overland Dispatch route to Fort Ellsworth. They then went to Fort Zarah (east of Great Bend) where they resumed the main trail.
In October 1867, the Union Pacific Eastern Division reached Hays City (now Hays). After Hays City, trail travelers used wagon trains going southwest to Fort Dodge via the Fort Hays-Fort Dodge Wagon Road with the Cimarron or Dry Route being abandoned after 1868. In 1869, the Union Pacific Eastern Division was reorganized the Kansas Pacific.
The start of the 1870s saw the Kansas Pacific reach Kit Carson, Colorado in March 1870 with trail travelers going southwest to Santa Fe through Fort Lyon, Colorado. In 1873, a second railroad, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe reached Newton, Kansas and started west towards Santa Fe. Even though chartered in 1859, construction started in 1868 due to funding issues.
By 1872, the Santa Fe Railroad reached Dodge City, Great Bend, and Larned. Unlike the Kansas Pacific the Santa Fe Railroad followed the original trail with the rails being laid over the wagon ruts in some places.
The Santa Fe reached the Colorado border in December 1872 and old Granada, Colorado in July 1873. Most Santa Fe Trail wagon traffic was via the Granada-Fort Union Wagon Road with some traffic continuing to Santa Fe through Trinidad, Colorado.
To stay competitive with the Santa Fe Railroad the Kansas Pacific built a line from Kit Carson to Las Animas in October 1873. Until 1875, there were two routes to Santa Fe trail travelers could use. The Santa Fe Railroad reached Las Animas, Colorado in September 1875 with the majority of traffic went through Trinidad, Colorado that the Granada-Fort Union Wagon Road was abandoned.
By the end of 1875, both railroads built to La Junta in southeastern Colorado.
The Santa Fe Railroad reached Trinidad in September 1878 and gained the rights to build over the Raton Pass. This ended the Kansas Pacific’s dream of reaching Santa Fe, New Mexico and they abandoned the route between Kit Carson and La Junta. On July 4, 1879 Santa Fe Railroad trains entered Las Vegas, New Mexico.
For a little over a year Las Vegas, New Mexico served as the railhead and the eastern terminus for the Santa Fe Trail. Via a spur route paid for by Santa Fe County voters the first Santa Fe Railroad train entered Santa Fe, New Mexico on February 9, 1880.
Thus ended the fifty-nine years of freighting by wagon over the Great Plains and into the American Southwest.
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