The Old Spanish Trail 1829-1850

This was a trade road, and trade ran both directions. From 1829 to about 1850, caravans carried New Mexican woolen goods west to California and returned to Santa Fe driving herds of horses and mules, some bought, many stolen in raids on California ranchos. The trail had a darker traffic too. Utes and others raided the Southern Paiute along the route for slaves, women and children sold in the New Mexico settlements, and many bands fled the trail to escape them. The route prospered barely two decades before wagons made it obsolete. Its scars still cross the desert.

What the plaque says

Stretching for 130 miles across Clark County, this historic horse trail became Nevada’s first route of commerce in 1829 when trade was initiated between Santa Fe and Los Angeles. The trail was later used by the wagons of the “49ers” and by Mormon pioneers. Concrete posts marking the trail were erected in 1965.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spring Mountain Ranch State Park — 4.5 mi
  A spring-fed green oasis under the red Wilson Cliffs — and a roll call of colorful owners
• Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area — 9.2 mi
  The Mojave wilderness that begins where Las Vegas ends — striped sandstone cliffs and a 13-mile scenic loop
• Mount Charleston & the Spring Mountains — 18 mi
  A nearly 12,000-foot sky island 35 miles from the Strip — alpine forest above the Mojave
• Las Vegas Strip — 20 mi
  Four and a quarter miles of engineered spectacle — the most famous street in America (and it isn't in Las Vegas)

More markers nearby

• Potosí — 1.7 mi
• Old Spanish Trail (Mountain Springs Pass) — 3.6 mi
• The Old Spanish Trail 1829-1850 — 5.9 mi
• The Last Spike — 18 mi