AURA

Coronado touts his hero for heading east on the Santa Fe Trail before the pioneers went west on it, but probably only because the history books and movies have done such a good job touting how the pioneers went west on it. Fact is: the ones who are the rightful touters are the Indians since, as far as people are concerned anyway, it started out as an east-west Indian trade route: Pueblo (Southwest) Indian pottery was traded for Quiviran (Kansas) buffalo garments. That’s what I learned when looking into native foods and crafts. I’d say it was only natural the Indians would point him east on it to get rid of him. The Cimarron Cutoff route of the Trail would have taken him through the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma going towards Kansas.

For centuries after Coronado, the Spanish and French used it until it became popular with U.S. citizens driving west in wagon trains, then railroad trains (1880), then their precious cars. Coronado’s trek paved the way for bits of what came to be automotive folklore: Route 66. And Route 66 provided the path for an equally long stretch of the present Interstate.

Same’s true of the Camino Real (Royal Road) that linked Mexico City to Santa Fe. Though Coronado followed it north, it also was an old Indian trade route, parts of which still exist. Big surprise, huh? It’s the same earth as before. Coronado tells us the expedition took off from the Spanish port called Compostela, 500 miles northwest of Mexico City, and then headed north through Cananea along the San Pedro River of southeast Arizona by Tombstone, along old Indian trails past what is now Saint Johns, Arizona, and then east to Santa Fe etc.