William Becknell - Trailblazer

Trailblazer

In 1821 William Becknell was a man facing substantial debt. He had bought out the Boone family interest in the aforementioned salt works around 1818. Then in 1820 Becknell ran unsuccessfully for the Missouri Legislature and borrowed money to finance the campaign. The Panic of 1819 also took its toll on his business activities by limiting the amount of further credit and hard currency available. Owing creditors more than $1,200 dollars ($20,000 in today's money) Becknell found himself jailed briefly until a friend posted bail. The judge in the case gave Becknell until early 1822 to pay his creditors or face more jail time.

It was against this background that William Becknell left Franklin, Missouri in September 1821. According to an advertisement Beckwell placed in the Missouri Intelligencer newspaper his intent was "for the purpose of trading for horses and mules and catching wild animals of every description." Becknell and his group were not the only ones to leave in search of a convenient trade route to Santa Fe, but they were the first to arrive, in mid-November 1821. Becknell's timing was near perfect. Mexico had recently shaken off rule by the Spanish, and with it a ban against trade with outsiders. The people of Santa Fe were very eager for the variety of goods Becknell's train of pack horses offered and were willing to pay high prices, some cotton cloth and calico bringing the then-unheard of sum of three dollars a yard. After a month of trading Becknell and his party left Santa Fe on December 13 with their saddlebags overflowing with silver, having converted their three hundred dollars in goods to approximately six thousand dollars in coin.

Arriving back in Missouri in January, 1822, Becknell almost immediately began planning his next voyage to Santa Fe. For his second journey he chose to haul trade goods by wagon instead of pack horse, and had to slightly alter his original route to accommodate them. The wagon train left Franklin in May, 1822 and after considerable hardship, including nearly dying of thirst in the parched Cimarron Desert, arrived in Santa Fe forty-eight days later. The second trip proved to be even more profitable than the first. Taking an estimated $3,000 dollars in goods to Santa Fe, Becknell's party returned with a profit of around $91,000 dollars. Some of that would be paid out as dividends to shareholders who had helped fund the trip, with even the smallest investor reaping great returns. Becknell would make a third profitable trip to Santa Fe in 1824, and the following year helped map the trail for surveyors hired by the U.S. Congress. For his efforts in opening up a route for regular traffic and military movement William Becknell became known as the Father of the Santa Fe Trail