On September 1, 1821, William Becknell left Missouri on the expedition that helped open commercial trade between the United States and Santa Fe, then part of Mexico. His journey became foundational to what later became known as the Santa Fe Trail.
Becknell and his companions traveled across difficult plains and frontier country carrying goods intended for trade. Their successful arrival in Santa Fe demonstrated that American merchants could profit from an overland route into the Southwest.
One of Becknell’s later expeditions produced a legendary frontier ordeal. While attempting to establish a shorter wagon route, his party crossed the arid Cimarron Desert and ran out of water. Accounts describe the men surviving by drinking fluids from their hunting dogs and mule ears. Near death, they killed a buffalo swollen with water and drank from its stomach, giving them enough strength to reach safety and establish the Cimarron Cutoff.
The Santa Fe Trail became far more than a trade road. It linked Missouri, the Southwest, and Mexico economically and culturally, while also foreshadowing the wider U.S. expansion that would transform the region.
