Following the Santa Fe Trail: A Guide for Modern Travelers

by Marc Simmons

Book Overview

Indispensable readers guide and traveling companion scrupulously revised and updated from the 1984 edition. From Franklin, Mo., to Santa Fe, N.M., via both the Cimarron Cut-off and the Mountain... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0941270386
• ISBN13: 9780941270380
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: Ancient City Press
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent travelers guide to the SF Trail today

All those planning on exploring the Santa Fe Trail should have this book with them. It is an excellent guide, filled with detailed maps, very specific driving instructions, and a great deal of background information on the sites referred to. The book begins with a brief introduction, which includes information on general histories, other guidebooks, trail ruts, various markers and the groups that placed them, and a bibliography. Then Simmons gets into the specifics of the trail, beginning at Franklin, MO, proceeding through Kansas, and covering both the Mountain Branch and the Cimarron Cut-Off separately before continuing through New Mexico to Santa Fe (with brief side trips to Taos and Albuquerque included). Simmons is interested in all remnants and markings of the trail and pinpoints even the most forlorn DAR marker. But it's his willingness to expose just about all that can be noted by the modern traveler (even sites on private property, though he is careful about warning against trespassing) that makes this guide book so valuable. This is the Second edition, published in 1986 after a careful note-taking retracing of the trail in 1985; probably a new edition is needed to update further changes made during the last 20 years (if it hasn't been done already). Highly recommended.

With directions, maps, anecdotes, historical information

Now in a revised and updated third edition, Marc Simmons and Hal Jackson's Following The Santa Fe Trail: A Guide For Modern Travelers is written specifically to assist modern travelers who enjoy following the wagon tracks of pioneers. Following The Santa Fe Trail is packed with directions, maps, anecdotes, historical information, and everything else necessary to follow the trail of history. Now that the Santa Fe Trail has been designated a National Historic Trail under the National Park Service,it is bringing more public interest than ever to this fascinating pathway that transcends the generations. If the Santa Fe Trail perks your interest to, then Following The Santa Fe Trail is a must-read!

Santa Fe Trail Redux

Marc Simmons is the pre-eminent author on Santa Fe Trail lore and this updated version of his "Following the Trail" is better than ever! He has captured those significant, visible elements of the SFT that make it impossible to follow the Trail without this book. The pictures and maps are explicit and easy to follow. His stories and anecdotes bring the Trail to life.If you're an SFT buff be sure to also read his book: "The Old Santa Fe Trail", a collection of essays; and his new book: "Spanish Pathways" on the history of Hispanic New Mexico.Jim Ryan