Welcome to the official site of the Santa Fe Trail Association!
The Santa Fe Trail Association is composed of people of all ages and walks of life who are bound together by an interest in the fascinating saga of the Trail, and an interest in preserving its many physical traces and landmarks that still exist upon the face of the American West. While many of them live in the immediate vicinity of the Trail, the SFTA is proud to claim members from all over the United States.
In 1821, the Santa Fe Trail became America’s first great international commercial highway, and for nearly sixty years thereafter was one of the nation’s great routes of adventure and western expansion. Mindful of this, the Santa Fe Trail Association (SFTA), a non-profit association with a 501 (c)(3) status, was created in 1986 to help protect and preserve it. The U.S. Congress likewise recognized the significance of the Trail to American history by proclaiming it a National Historic Trail in 1987.
"Leaving Independence," by Charles Goslin
The goals of the SFTA focus on preserving, exploring, educating, and celebrating the Trail’s nearly two centuries of existence on America’s landscape. Members can attend symposiums and lectures on trail history, participate in educational outreach programs, explore and map trail sites, help erect markers and other interpretive projects, and a host of other fun and rewarding activities.
The Association works in close partnership with the National Park Service and other local, state, and federal agencies on the preservation and interpretation of the Trail through its status as a historic component of the National Trails System.
The SFTA also publishes a quarterly journal, Wagon Tracks, which is nationally recognized as the premier periodical devoted exclusively to Santa Fe Trail-related scholarship and news. To preview several articles from Wagon Tracks, click here.
Because the Santa Fe National Historic Trail extends for nearly 1,200 miles across five states, its route is divided into ten geographical segments represented by individual chapters of the SFTA. These cover the Trail along its length from Franklin, Missouri, all the way to Santa Fe, New Mexico. We invite you to visit a chapter in your area. Just click here.
From its inception, the motto of the SFTA has been “The Santa Fe Trail lives on!” We welcome you to our Internet window on the Trail. We hope that it will open new vistas to you for your exploration of this living historic landscape, which can still capture the imagination with its powerful and compelling historical presence after nearly two hundred years.
