Matt Field on the Santa Fe Trail

A collection of journals and articles by the 19th-century journalist, Matthew C. Field as he joined a company of tourists and merchants heading west on the Sante Fe trail in 1839. Field recorded his journey and impressions on the trail and on the return journey along the Cimarron Route.

---

In 1839 a journalist for the New Orleans Picayune, Matthew C. Field, joined a company of merchants and tourists headed west on the Santa Fe Trail. Leaving Independence, Missouri, early in July ""with a few wagons and a carefree spirit,"" Field recorded his vivid impressions of travel westward on the Santa Fe Trail and, on the return trip, eastward along the Cimarron Route. Written in verse in his journal and in eighty-five articles later published in the Picayune, Field's observations offer the modern reader a unique glimpse of life in the settlements of Mexico and on the Santa Fe Trail.