Old Spanish Trail (Armijo’s Route)

One man's gamble opened the route. On January 8, 1830, Santa Fe merchant Antonio Armijo led the first pack train across the Las Vegas Valley—roughly sixty men and a hundred mules, bound for Los Angeles. His success linked the Mexican provinces of New Mexico and California, and traders who followed carried woolen goods west and drove back herds of horses and mules. One traveler called it the longest, crookedest, most arduous pack-mule route in the history of America. Armijo stitched older Native and trapper paths into one trade road that lasted until the Mexican War ended in 1848.

What the plaque says

On January 8, 1830, the first pack train to pass from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Los Angeles crossed Las Vegas Valley. Antonio Armijo, a merchant in Santa Fe, commanded the train and roughly sixty men. The successful completion of the journey opened a trade route between the two Mexican provinces of New Mexico and California. Following the “longest, crookedest, most arduous pack mule route in the history of America,” Armijo’s party and others brought woolen goods to Los Angeles and returned to Santa Fe driving herds of valuable mules and horses. Later termed the Old Spanish Trail, this route was the principal means of transportation between the two Mexican territories, until the end of the Mexican War in 1848.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Mead National Recreation Area — 9.8 mi
  The largest reservoir in the country — and its most legible drought gauge
• Hoover Dam — 11 mi
  The 726-foot Depression-era colossus that tamed the Colorado and made Las Vegas possible
• Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Historic Park — 14 mi
  The 1855 adobe fort where Las Vegas began — a mile and a world away from the neon
• The Mob Museum — 14 mi
  Organized crime, told in the downtown courtroom that first exposed it

More markers nearby

• Arrowhead Trail – Henderson — 7.6 mi
• Rafael Rivera — 9.4 mi
• The Morelli House — 14 mi
• Las Vegas Mormon Fort (Nevada’s Oldest Building) — 14 mi