Richmond Chapter 4: Trails and Early Transportation

This chapter was about the early trails that crisscrossed Kansas. When writing about the Santa Fe trail, Richmond included some comments made by William Becknell (The Father of the Santa Fe Trail) and Josiah Gregg, (the first historian of the Santa Fe trail). The comments were very graphic when describing the hardships of the trail. My students would enjoy reading these accounts. Gross things get their attention.

Richmond goes on to tell of the route of the Santa Fe trail through Kansas. I could see my students creating a travel brochure encouraging people to travel the trail. They could collect pictures, maps, and other information about the stops along the trail. This would be a great place to include “comments” (primary sources) of those who have traveled the trail. Plus, it is a lesson in persuasion.

In his coverage of the Oregon-California trail, Richmond includes a drawing of a “wind wagon”. This would be a great visual to show students and to discuss the ingenuity of the time. Again, the diary entry that is given is a great source of information. Students could use these primary sources to plan what they would need on their own journey. Perhaps another activity would be to have students create a board game using the situations they read about in a diary such as this.

Obviously, my students would be interested in hearing about the importance of Leavenworth to this time. Richmond gives examples of how Leavenworth was an important town of that time.