Question of the Day - 10 October 2022

The year 1776 was auspicious for reasons beyond the issuance of the Declaration of Independence and its adoption by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, whereby the 13 American colonies cut their political connections to Great Britain and launched a full-scale revolution. 

On the other side of the continent, two members of the Franciscans, one of three orders within the Catholic Church founded by Francis of Assisi, were establishing both ends of what came to be known as the Old Spanish Trail. Exploring and surveying the northern hinterlands of Spain's colony of Mexico, Father Silvestre Escalante blazed the eastern end of the trail from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the southwestern corner of Utah. From the west, Father Francisco Garces traveled toward him through California and Arizona. (Of course, all those state names came later.) Garces reportedly encountered Southern Paiute near what's now Las Vegas, but didn't enter the valley. 

But it wasn't until 1829, more than 50 years later, that 25-year-old Antonio Armijo, a Mexican trader, set out from Santa Fe on the Old Spanish Trail, by then established at 2,700 miles. An experienced scout in the party, Rafael Rivera, discovered a shortcut along the route by way of southern Nevada's Big Springs, thereby making him the first non-Native to set foot on the land that Armijo named Las Vegas.

As far as what remains of the original trail, the Old Spanish Trail Association (OSTA) has been active in preserving portions of it since 1994. The Old Spanish National Historic Trail was established by Congress in 2002 and traversing those 2,700 miles of mountains, deserts, rivers, and coastal valleys in six states, it's considered the most arduous trail in the U.S.

Mostly, that's because it's unmarked and detailed maps are pretty much non-existent. You can see several general maps of the Trail, encompassing the entire trip from Santa Fe to Los Angeles, on the OSTA website.  

The National Park Service has "certified" nine sites "as having significant importance to the Old Spanish Trail." Three are in California: El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, Juan Matias Sanchez Adobe (in Montebello), and Mission San Gabriel Archangel (San Gabriel). The sites in Delta and Grand Junction, Colorado; Green River and Moab, Utah; and Taos, New Mexico. None, as you can see, is in Nevada. More are expected to be added in the near future, but again, none that we know if along the southern tip of the Silver State.  

There are a few places where you can follow the trail. One is in Amargosa Canyon near Tecopa, off CA 127 between Pahrump and Baker; along the three-mile trail are interpretive signs maintained by the Bureau of Land Management.

More indicative of the trail is the portion known as the Old Spanish Trail Heritage Loop in remote Utah, near a tiny town called Elmo about 80 miles northwest of Green River. Getting to it requires a rugged high-clearance four-wheel-drive 4WD; it's inaccessible during and after rain and snow. 

From what we can tell, any remnants of the trail around Las Vegas are now covered in the asphalt and concrete of the major thoroughfares and highways.