As Far as the Eye Could Reach: Accounts of Animals along the Santa Fe Trail, 1821–1880

by Phyllis S. Morgan, Marc Simmons (Foreword), Ronald Kil (Illustrator)

Travelers and traders taking the Santa Fe Trail’s routes from Missouri to New Mexico wrote vivid eyewitness accounts of the diverse and abundant wildlife encountered as they crossed arid plains, high desert, and rugged mountains. Most astonishing to these observers were the incredible numbers of animals, many they had not seen before—buffalo, antelope (pronghorn), prairie dogs, roadrunners, mustangs, grizzlies, and others. They also wrote about the domesticated animals they brought with them, including oxen, mules, horses, and dogs. Their letters, diaries, and memoirs open a window onto an animal world on the plains seen by few people other than the Plains Indians who had lived there for thousands of years.

Phyllis S. Morgan has gleaned accounts from numerous primary sources and assembled them into a delightfully informative narrative. She has also explored the lives of the various species, and in this book tells about their behaviors and characteristics, the social relations within and between species, their relationships with humans, and their contributions to the environment and humankind.

With skillful prose and a keen eye for a priceless tale, Morgan reanimates the story of life on the Santa Fe Trail’s well-worn routes, and its sometimes violent intersection with human life. She provides a stirring view of the land and of the animals visible “as far as the eye could reach,” as more than one memoirist described. She also champions the many contributions animals made to the Trail’s success and to the opening of the American West.

240 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2015

Reviews

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A far better read than most "publish or perish" or doctoral theses. Apparently researched in depth using memoirs of eyewitnesses of the time, a clear picture of what we have destroyed and lost in the animal kingdom of the US is presented with clarity. Specific animals are targeted in this piece, and the "before" is well demonstrated with much for the reader to learn, and the how and why of the depopulation with or without the need of relocation of each is equally depicted.
This is an excellent study piece for the ecologically minded, whether as required reading or personal enrichment. I found it to be a page-turner for me, and I learned a great deal that I did not realize I wanted to know.
Sally Martin gives this lecture a remarkably pleasant experience in the audiobook format.
I received this book free from the author, publisher, or narrator in exchange for an honest review.

[Thomas Isern · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have reviewed this work in my weekly feature, Plains Folk. A snippet from the middle of the review: "Growing up along the Santa Fe Trail in central Kansas, and then living alongside it in the Flint Hills, I feel like I’m pretty much in tune with the wildlife to be found along this historic highway across the plains. Still, those of us who think we know this ground and its creatures are challenged by writers like Garrard and Lane to imagine another world in the same place—a world that was like an American Serengeti, where the droves and cries of immense wildlife populations were both frightening and sublime."

[Doug Hocking · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delightful, entertaining and educational account of animals on the Santa Fe Trail. The author draws heavily on the standard firsthand accounts bringing them all together to focus on one species at a time. She adds relevant new material to increase our understanding of each creature. For an author of Westerns, this is a way to understand oxen, mules, burros and horses as they participated in the march west. What was it like to experience prairie dog towns and the buffalo hunt? The answer is here.