Fort Union National Monument / Santa Fe Trail

Two objects share this rest area. The granite is one of the stones Mary Prince, the territory's DAR regent and the wife of a former governor, ordered in 1910 in Salida, Colorado, granite, paid for partly by the territorial legislature; nineteen of the set still stand along the route. The state panel beside it reads oddly here: its Santa Fe Trail face says the Mountain Branch here approaches Raton Pass, which lies about a hundred miles north. Its other face covers Fort Union, west of the interstate up NM-161.

What the plaque says

Santa Fe Trail 1822 — 1879 Marked by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Territory of New Mexico 1910 Official Scenic Historic Marker Fort Union National Monument 1851-1891 Once the largest post in the Southwest, Fort Union was estab- lished to control the Jicarilla Apaches and Utes, to protect the Santa Fe Trail, and to serve as a supply depot for other New Mexico forts. The arrival of the railroad and the pacification of the region led to its abandon- ment in 1891. Official Scenic Historic Marker Santa Fe Trail The difficulty of bringing cara- vans over rocky and mountainous Raton Pass kept most wagon traf- fic on the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail until the 1840's. Afterwards, the Mountain Branch, which here approaches Raton Pass, became more popular with traders, immigrants, gold- seekers, and government supply trains.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Union National Monument — 8.9 mi
  Three forts in one prairie valley where the two branches of the Santa Fe Trail met: a log post, a star-shaped earthwork, and an adobe supply town that fed the army's wars.
• Montezuma Castle — 28 mi
  The railroad's turreted resort at the Las Vegas hot springs, burned twice in its first years, empty for most of a century, and now home to an international school.

More markers nearby

• Santa Fe Trail — 1.4 mi
• Fort Union Arsenal — 9.2 mi
• Watrous — 10.0 mi
• Wagon Mound — 13 mi