Finding the Traces

Now that our team has visited 8 high potential route segments of the Old Spanish National Historical Trail, we've discerned patterns that may help you to identify the actual trace alignments of any trail system. After completing historical text and map analysis, and then following with consulting residents of the area who might well know the history of such networks and exactly where they passed to get clues for where to start looking, we get on the ground. Oftentimes we bring in consultants like Alpine Archaeology who are already working on locating segments of the trails for various federal projects, or we may bring in an expert like Corky Hawk - a volunteer for the BLM, or author John Ramsay, who've spent countless hours on the ground locating these subtle networks. We utilize their years of training and on-the-ground research to know where to start looking. And we hike.

The trails in most flat areas are often extinct as archaeological repositories or discernible traces. In the case of wagon roads, which are natural locations for highways because the use is very similar, just more evolved, the trails themselves have almost always been evolved into highways and roads. Add to that vegetation changes, livestock grazing, the expansion of agriculture, and the development of communities... and the trails become figments of memories that are lost in time.

However, in locations where gradient becomes an issue - where in historic times the only choice was to go up and over because explosives and transportation engineering was not in existence yet - we often find intact traces of both packtrails - which often go straight up a hill or steep drainage wall - and wagonroads, which follow the contour of the land much more closely and therefore tend to wind around and over rather just up and over the obstruction, whatever it may be.

The telltales signs of these historic networks include curbs of rocks moved from the path to ease use; vegetation changes; winding and sometimes improved grades at wagon roads; small areas of cuts into the earth (often on the north side of the trail so as to facilitate passage in winter); small valleys along a linear feature, and/or the differentiation of paths - "spiderwebbing" or "trees" - which indicate passengers may have had to make adjustments in the direction of their travel because of flooding, erosion, or other reasons. Sometimes erosional features, like the famous "wagoneater" at Wells Gulch in Colorado, remain as repositories for potential archaeological examination. Walking up to it, you can imagine the stress of trying to resolve this steep grade once you are on a crash course with a giant hole in the ground.

We have discovered after taking thousands of photos of these sites that many times these networks can be seen in black and white photos more clearly than in color. We offer these photos as examples of the different kinds of trail segments you might find on your trace.

packtrail

wagonroad
The wagon road is the subtle feature marked with rocks coming down from the middle towards the left side

curbs

vegetation changes

improved grades

path indentation

differentiation of paths
there are two traces coming up this rise. one from the center of the right side of the photo to the center-right top of the hill, and several coming down from the left-center of the hill into and around the "wagoneater" and the trace leading out of it towards the center of the photo. both have discernible erosional features.

erosional features

inside the "wagoneater" - its bigger than a person!