The Road to Santa Fe by Hobart Ebey Stocking (1906-?) - 1971

xii+372 pages with fifty-seven illustrations, twenty-seven maps and index. Octavo (8 1/4' x 5 1/2") bound in original publisher's yellow cloth with brown lettering to spine and pictorial Longhorn to cover in original pictorial jacket. First edition. The Santa Fe Trail was a transportation route opened by the Spaniards at the end of the 18th century and used afterwards by the Americans in the 19th century, crossing the southwest of North America connecting Independence, Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. The French explorer Pedro Vial pioneered the route in 1792 and the Santa Fe Trail was established in 1822 to take advantage of new trade opportunities with Mexico, which had just won independence from Spain in the Mexican War of Independence. The trail was used to haul manufactured goods from the state of Missouri in the United States to Santa Fe, which was in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Mexico. Condition: Page ends soiled, insect damage to head heal and edges, some underlining, previous owner's name to front end paper. Jacket quarter inch chip from spine head, light soiling else good in a very good jacket.