The Original Indian Trails

Traveling west of Independence, Missouri, the vast prairie began seemingly impossible, clear to the Rocky Mountains.
This was Indian Country, inhabited by Plains Tribe Indians and millions of buffalo, as well as a few heady trappers and fur traders or mountain men as they were referred to.

As the Indians followed the buffalo and other game, the rivers became their highways. Traveling by foot or canoe, a river could always be retraced to the starting point. The Original Trails to the west were established Indian Trails.

Bands of Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Sioux, were nomadic. Traveling from one place to the other in order to take advantage of the migrating bison.

The most northerly of the Indian Trails followed the Missouri River to the headwaters at Yellowstone. Winding across the Continental Divide to the Pacific Ocean by following the North Fork of the Columbia River.

The middle route named the Big Medicine Trail left the Missouri River south of Council Bluffs, following the Platte River and into Wyoming then up Sweetwater River and crossing the Continental Divide at South Pass. Then going along the Green River and on to the Pacific Ocean, by way of the South Fork of the Columbia River.

A southern route the Indians used went up the Kansas River, the Smoky Hills then overland a few miles to the Arkansas, to the Rio Grande and to southern New Mexico, following the Gila River, connecting up with the Colorado River.

From early 1820 to the Gold Rush of California in 1849 these Indian Trails were used the most by American Pioneers.

American Pioneers used the southern route the most. Word spread quickly that the New Mexican frontier was wide open at The Spanish Trading Post of The Santa Fe Trail, with the prospect of attaining sudden riches was too hard to resist for the pioneers. By late spring of 1825 the number of men engaging in trade to Santa Fe, New Mexico was overwhelming. Nothing could hold back the caravans carrying goods for trade. The Old Indian Trail became the first permanent link between East and West.

• The Dominguez-Escalante Expeditions Journal:

Through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico in 1776

• I Walked to Zion:
- Young Pioneers on the Mormon Trail

• The Gathering of Zion:
- The Story of the Mormon Trail

• National Geographic's Guide to:
- Lewis and Clark Trail

• Hiking Historic Trails
- Utah's Favorite Hiking Trails

• Scenic Driving - Travel guides
- Scenic Driving in Utah

• Historical reading
- The Old Spanish Trail

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