Southern Emigrant Trail

An American wagon train at Maricopa Wells in 1857.

The Southern Emigrant Trail should not be confused with the Applegate Trail, which is part of the Northern Emigrant Trails.

Southern Emigrant Trail, also known as the Gila Trail, the Kearny Trail, and the Butterfield Stage Trail, was a major land route for immigration into California from the eastern United States that followed the Santa Fe Trail to New Mexico during the California Gold Rush. Unlike the more northern routes, pioneer wagons could travel year round, mountain passes not being blocked by snows, however it had the disadvantage of summer heat and lack of water in the desert regions through which it passed in New Mexico Territory and the Colorado Desert of California. Subsequently it was a route of travel and commerce between the eastern United States and California. Many herds of cattle and sheep were driven along this route and it was followed by the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line in 1857-1858 and then the Butterfield Overland Mail from 1858 - 1861.

In October 1846, General Stephen Watts Kearny and his dragoons with their scout Kit Carson found the route. One month later, Colonel Philip St. George Cooke and the Mormon Battalion followed portions of Kearny’s route while establishing the first wagon road. This wagon road became known as Cookes Road, or Sonora Road, until the discovery of gold brought a flood of Americans westward in 1849. From this date on, it was called the Southern Emigrant Trail.

Tied in with the Santa Fe Trail and the San Antonio-El Paso Road, the Southern Emigrant Trail route ran from Mesilla, New Mexico to Los Angeles, California. From Messilla it passed westward to Tucson, Arizona, then turned northward to the Pima Villages and Maricopa Wells where it turned westward to the Gila River following it to the ferries on the Colorado River near what became Fort Yuma, crossed the Colorado Desert to Vallecito, then northwest into the Peninsular Ranges crossing Warners Pass to Warner's Ranch. From Warner's the road then ran either northwest to Los Angeles, (via Temecula, La Laguna, Temescal, Chino and San Gabriel) or west southwest to San Diego via Santa Ysabel.^{[1] [2] [3]} From either of these towns the traveler could continue north by land to the gold fields on the coast via the El Camino Real or over the old Tejon Pass into the San Joaquin Valley and then north by what would later become the Stockton - Los Angeles Road or via the El Camino Viejo. Alternatively they could take ships to San Francisco from San Diego or San Pedro.

References