Santa Fe Trail Bicentennial
In 2021 the Santa Fe Trail celebrated its bicentennial. Consider including the Santa Fe Trail in your Kansas Day activities. Resources are provided here to help plan your unique event.
The Santa Fe Trail was once the most important route between the Missouri River and Santa Fe. Traders, freighters, the military, and gold seekers heading to Pikes Peak all used the Santa Fe Trail at some point between 1821 and 1880, and two-thirds of the Trail's the route lay in Kansas.
Enrichment Activities
- Cruising Through Kansas: Make a Covered Wagon
- Try a Taste of the Santa Fe Trail
- Tumbling Prairie Dogs
Lesson Plans
- Wagon Design - Intermediate grades
- Read Kansas!: I-6 Trade and Migration on the Overland Trails - Grade 4
- Read Kansas!: I-7 Experiencing the Trails - Grade 4
- Curating a Santa Fe Trail Collection - Intermediate grades
- Curating a Santa Fe Trail Collection - Middle and High School
- Lost Spring Game - Intermediate grades
- The Total Toll Game - Intermediate grades
Virtual Classroom Nearpod.com lesson
Videos
What do we know about the Santa Fe Trail? series - Intermediate grades
- What Can We Learn About Commerce on the Santa Fe Trail at the Kansas Museum of History? (7:24)
- Mr. Mahaffie, what can you tell us about people on the Santa Fe Trail? (3:40)
- Mr. Mahaffie, what can you tell us about animals on the Santa Fe Trail? (3:50)
Learning about the Santa Fe Trail with Primary Sources, series - Intermediate, Middle, and High School
- What can I Learn about the Santa Fe Trail from Artifacts? (3:48)
- What can I Learn about the Santa Fe Trail from Archeology? (1:39)
- What can I Learn About the Santa Fe Trail from the Landscape? (2:07)
- What can I Learn About the Santa Fe Trail from Archival Materials? (4:49)
Resource Recommendations
- Santa Fe Trail Adventures by Dave Webb
- Along the Santa Fe Trail: Marion Russell's Own Story by Marion Russell/Adapted by Ginger Wadsworth
- Commerce of the Prairie by Josiah Gregg, Published in 1844 and 1845.
- Santa Fe Trail Map by Frank A. Cooper
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