The Spanish Route - National Historic Trail

The Old Spanish Trail was primarily a horse and mule pack route between Los Angeles, California and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Parts of the route went through the present-day states of California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico.

The Old Spanish Trail was a popular byway between 1830 and 1848 as a trade route linking Santa Fe, New Mexico and Los Angeles, California.
During that period, Mexican and American traders took goods west over the trail by mule train, and returned again with California mules and horses for the New Mexico and Missouri markets.

From central Utah, The Old Spanish Trail trended southwest through the Escalante Valley to an area now shared by Utah, Nevada and Arizona. Some of the towns of historical significance were Beryl, New Castle, and Enterprise, Utah. The Old Spanish Trail continued southward through Washington County in Utah, The Arizona Strip, and, southern Nevada, passing through the Mojave Desert to San Gabriel Mission and into Los Angeles.

Well-documented Spanish expeditions that led from Santa Fe to central Utah, along the eastern half of The Old Spanish Trail, include Juan Maria Antonio de Rivera in 1765, the two Fathers Dominquez - Escalante and their party of 1776 came through the Escalante Valley, near Beryl Town and New Castle, Utah. Manuel Mestas in 1805, and the Arze-Garcia party of 1813 were later.

The Old Spanish Trail traffic was common between 1765 and 1821 for trading purposes.
In the 1850s and 1860s, portions of the The Old Spanish Trail were mapped by U.S. government expeditions on the eastern side.
The western portion of The Old Spanish Trail saw Mormons heading to California. This is not the same trail however; as The Mormon Trail

• 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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