Marc Simmons

Two things to note before reading, and subsequently relying upon, Marc Simmons' Following the Santa Fe Trail: A Guide for Modern Travelers: (1) The book is pushing 30 years old now and I'm not aware of any revisions since the 1986 edition, and (2) this shouldn't be a hindrance since the Santa Fe Trail hasn't moved for over a hundred years and, for the most part, the modern landmarks Simmons references are still recognizable.

I live in the Kansas City area, a prominent jumping off point for show more U.S. westward expansion during the 19th century, and from my own in-town experience I'm sure a competent map reader would have little trouble following the Santa Fe Trail via Simmons' 1980s instructions. There's also the occasional historical marker pointing the way. With the rural towns, I'm less familiar. Still, a modern guide for the 21st century adventurer would be even better. I'm envisioning a wiki-type phone app with user photos that interfaces with Google Maps. I think I even remember seeing a website for a geocaching tour.

I guess a dusty old wagon trail, nearly wiped clean from the earth, just isn't that popular with the kiddos these days. Here's hoping that interest in the Santa Fe Trail undergoes a renaissance as its 200th anniversary arrives in 2021. show less

Marc Simmons' Kit Carson and His Three Wives came recommended from the afterword of another remarkable book on the famed American legend, Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides. Simmons writes like Sides, maybe even a shade better, which is to say both are masters of gathering multiple accounts, sometimes disputed and often contradictory, and weaving together a narrative that's more like a campfire story than some dry retelling of historical events.

My reading obsession of the moment is the show more biography of Kit Carson, and by extension the history of the Santa Fe Trail and America's westward expansion throughout the 19th century. Carson was a remarkable man who lived during interesting times. For a country still so relatively young the opportunity to be a part of the inevitable change and upheaval was seemingly just over the horizon. Also, the more I read about Carson the more I can't help but feel a kindred connection to a man whose travels paralleled some of my own. I'm no Kit Carson by any stretch, but there are notable similarities. Carson grew up in Franklin, Missouri; I grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, about 120 miles to the west. At sixteen years of age and bored with his apprentice life, Carson departed for Santa Fe and the great frontier. "Jumping off" was the popular saying of the time. I left for Albuquerque, New Mexico in my early twenties, eager to see a new part of America. My own jumping off experience wasn't as exotic as by horse or wagon train, but the part about starting a new life was every bit as real. The one other great similarity we share, the one I take the most pride in and history suggests Carson did as well, is we both met and married the loves of our lives in that far away land of New Mexico.

Much has been written on Christopher "Kit" Carson's trailblazing life and of his fortuitous junctions with history—the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails, the Mexican-American War, The Battle of San Pasqual, the Battle of Valverde, and the Navajo campaign, etc. In contrast to those portrayals of glory and honor, Simmons' book is a look at the man as a husband and a father. 19th century historical accounts are hard enough to get right; painting a complete picture of one's private family life during that time is downright impossible. Simmons points out what is known, what is contradictory, and occasionally allows for speculation. This incomplete picture only adds to the mystique and legend. It's a cruel irony of history that the very accomplishments Kit Carson is known for are the very ones that stripped him away from his family for months and years at a stretch. show less

An excellent book that was extremely well-written, insightful, and very informative. Plus, mine is signed!

A rather biased book, imho, given his frequent lauding of the 'accomplishments' of the Spaniards in general in colonizing what he calls, several times, barren wilderness. I suspect that those already living in the area might have disagreed that the Spaniards were discovering anything, and certainly resented the idea that they were to humbly convert to the religion of and pay tribute for the priveledge to their conquerers.

adding notes
p. 21 "Their case exemplifies one of the imponderables in show more the human condition." Nice point, but I no longer recall to what he was referring...

p. 65 "Hidalgo-mania" reminds me of the Tiempo de Picaros episode of EMdT (http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/programa/emdt-6-280315/3066559/)

p. 97 "out of raw wilderness" -but there were people already living quite well there, so not quite so "raw" as to white eyes!!

p. 98 stimulating their immune systems for the love of the Church... show less