Of all the trails of the Old West, none has quite the mystique of the Santa Fe Trail. It was a commercial trail; a road of commerce. It wasn't a "people trail," like the Oregon, California, or Mormon trails. It had the same kind of landmarks, but since it was a road used by traders far more than emigrants, it should not generate the haunting alchemy of the other wagon roads. But it does. Standing the deep ruts of the Santa Fe Trail leaves a feeling impossible to describe. It brings up visions of the great lumbering wagons filled with tons of trade goods; of five to six yoke of oxen straining to get the wheeled behemoths to the destination; of the cussing, sweating, whip-cracking teamsters exhorting their breasts to the limits of their power. But mostly it conjures up visions of the Indians circling the wagons, bent upon their destruction and the annihilation of the traders and the Santa Fe trade. While Indian trouble on the Oregon Trail was more myth than reality, the red menace on the Santa Fe Trail was so real that it took the U.S. Army more than two decades to drive Indians from their ancestral lands. Images of the Santa Fe Trail adds to that mystique. Here, in 114 photographs, Gregory M. Franzwa captures feeling in a dossier of crisp, dramatic shots. There is artistic composition here, obviously, but no impressionism. The trail and its landmarks are depicted in stark reality, exactly as today's traveler would see them. Most of the pictures were made in the spring of 1988, while Franzwa was a member of the National Park Service's team charged with preparing an extensive study on the Santa Fe Trail. Some of these photographs depict the team at work, aided by some of the dozens of local landowners and other experts who helped out along the way. But all of them help the reader understand the Santa Fe Trail experience; that powerful lure that drew the people of Missouri to the Southwest, and consequently drew the Southwest to the United States. Cover