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The Wagon Mound is a butte that was a major landmark for pioneers along the Cimarron Cutoff of the Old Santa Fe Trail, a well-known settlement route connecting St. Louis, Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is located just east of Wagon Mound, New Mexico, a village named after the butte.
One branch of the Santa Fe Trail, known variously as the Cimarron Route, the Cimarron Cutoff, and the Middle Crossing (of the Arkansas River), ran through the Cimarron Desert and then along the Cimarron River. [10]: 144, 148 Lower Cimarron Spring on the riverbank was an important watering and camping spot. [11]
It is located about 12 miles (19 km) south of Ulysses, on the west side of United States Route 270. [3] In the 19th century it was an important watering spot on the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail, where migrants on the trail often camped. The spring is now dry, primarily due to irrigation lowering the water table in the area.
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico.Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, the trail served as a vital commercial highway until 1880, when the railroad arrived in Santa Fe.
The Santa Fe Trail was one of the major routes by which the American West was settled. It had two major branches: the Mountain Branch, which skirted north of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and crossed southward at Raton Pass, and the Cimarron Cutoff, which ran a more direct route south of mountains but across desert that was also populated by hostile Native Americans.
Rayado is located where the mountain branch of the Santa Fe Trail intersects with the Cimarron Trail to Fort Leavenworth. [3] Rayado is at 6,509 feet (1,984 m), along State Route 21 at the extreme southeast corner of Philmont Scout Ranch. One mile to the south is a classic southwestern butte, [4] called Kit Carson Mesa.
Becknell made a third profitable trip to Santa Fe in 1824. The following year in 1825, he helped map the trail for surveyors hired by the U.S. Congress. For his efforts in opening up an improved route for regular traffic and military movement, William Becknell became known as the Father of the Santa Fe Trail
In 1822, William Becknell was the first to traverse the Santa Fe Trail by wagon, pioneering the alternate route called the Cimarron cut-off which passed through the National Grassland. Middle Spring was one of the three reliable sources of good water along more than 150 miles (240 km) of the Cimarron Cutoff trail. [5]