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U.S. Landmark Books #13
THE SANTA FE TRAIL
Special edition, no DJ, Green hardboards have a scuff and crease on front
181 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1951
About the author
Samuel Hopkins Adams
158 books8 followersFrom the book jacket of "Sunrise to Sunset", (c) 1950
At seventy-nine Samuel Hopkins Adams attributes his longevity, vigor and vim to neither smoking nor drinking, except when he feels like it. This is typical of the intelligent attitude toward the vagaries of life that has maintained him through the years in which he has authored more than forty books, written countless magazine articles and, as a crusading reporter, almost single-handedly accounted for the passage of the Federal Food and Drug laws which pave protected millions of his fellow citizens.
Mr. Adams' amazing knowledge of the history of upper New York State is the result of his lifelong interest in the region in which he was born. His home is Wide Waters, on the shore of Owasco, "loveliest of the Finger Lakes." From Wide Waters he still makes forways into the surrounding countryside, attending antique-auction sales "for the purpose of sneering at the prevalent junk," which he says he wouldn't put in his open hearth Franklin stove for fear of insulting it.
A graduate of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, class of 1891, Mr. Adams introduced football to the campus, played tackle on its first team, and won the Intercollegiate Tennis Championship. For these contributions to scholarship, his college conferred on him the degree of L.H.D. in 1926.
Adams also wrote under the pseudonym Warner Fabian.
At seventy-nine Samuel Hopkins Adams attributes his longevity, vigor and vim to neither smoking nor drinking, except when he feels like it. This is typical of the intelligent attitude toward the vagaries of life that has maintained him through the years in which he has authored more than forty books, written countless magazine articles and, as a crusading reporter, almost single-handedly accounted for the passage of the Federal Food and Drug laws which pave protected millions of his fellow citizens.
Mr. Adams' amazing knowledge of the history of upper New York State is the result of his lifelong interest in the region in which he was born. His home is Wide Waters, on the shore of Owasco, "loveliest of the Finger Lakes." From Wide Waters he still makes forways into the surrounding countryside, attending antique-auction sales "for the purpose of sneering at the prevalent junk," which he says he wouldn't put in his open hearth Franklin stove for fear of insulting it.
A graduate of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, class of 1891, Mr. Adams introduced football to the campus, played tackle on its first team, and won the Intercollegiate Tennis Championship. For these contributions to scholarship, his college conferred on him the degree of L.H.D. in 1926.
Adams also wrote under the pseudonym Warner Fabian.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 23, 2020
A good read on the early days of the West!
About Landmark Books
"Each is a book that brings to life a great event or personality in our nation's past. Each is designed to be rich, rewarding reading, capable of stirring the heart as well as the mind. Each is intended to arouse in the reader not only an interest in the course of history, but also an understanding of how the democracy that is our heritage was forged."
-From one of the dust jackets
The Landmark Books for children are a great way to learn history! I can't say enough about these , and it's no wonder that they are highly sought after in the homeschool community. From what I’ve researched, I’ve found these books to be very historically accurate. It’s history told in nicely narrated story-form – a win!
Ages: 10+
Pages: approx. 175-200
Illustrations: some
Price Range: $4 – $125 depending on HC or PB, and the title and its rarity.
Cleanliness: An illustration shows Indians only in loincloths. Mentions whiskey, gambling, snuff, tobacco and smoking. Describes a man beheaded "It was a bearded head impaled on a stake. The beard proved that the victim was a white man. The scalp had been cut away ... arrows were still in the neck."
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide a Cleanliness Report, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
So Follow or Friend me here on GoodReads! You’ll see my updates as I’m reading and know which books I’m liking and what I’m not finishing and why. You’ll also be able to utilize my library for looking up titles to see whether the book you’re thinking about reading next has any objectionable content or not. From swear words, to romance, to bad attitudes (in children’s books), I cover it all!
About Landmark Books
"Each is a book that brings to life a great event or personality in our nation's past. Each is designed to be rich, rewarding reading, capable of stirring the heart as well as the mind. Each is intended to arouse in the reader not only an interest in the course of history, but also an understanding of how the democracy that is our heritage was forged."
-From one of the dust jackets
The Landmark Books for children are a great way to learn history! I can't say enough about these , and it's no wonder that they are highly sought after in the homeschool community. From what I’ve researched, I’ve found these books to be very historically accurate. It’s history told in nicely narrated story-form – a win!
Ages: 10+
Pages: approx. 175-200
Illustrations: some
Price Range: $4 – $125 depending on HC or PB, and the title and its rarity.
Cleanliness: An illustration shows Indians only in loincloths. Mentions whiskey, gambling, snuff, tobacco and smoking. Describes a man beheaded "It was a bearded head impaled on a stake. The beard proved that the victim was a white man. The scalp had been cut away ... arrows were still in the neck."
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide a Cleanliness Report, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
So Follow or Friend me here on GoodReads! You’ll see my updates as I’m reading and know which books I’m liking and what I’m not finishing and why. You’ll also be able to utilize my library for looking up titles to see whether the book you’re thinking about reading next has any objectionable content or not. From swear words, to romance, to bad attitudes (in children’s books), I cover it all!
January 18, 2023
Landmark books are so hit or miss. I could not read this first chapter aloud to my student. Looking for a better living book on the Santa Fe trail. Finished the book not really having made any connections
November 13, 2025
Difficult to start, with its outrageous stereotyping of Native Americans. After that the focus was on the first big adventure of the Santa Fe Trail. This was detailed and interesting. After this main story, the information was briefer and more generalized. It was an interesting, but dated read.
August 27, 2023
This was my least favorite (I think more accurate to say, the one I disliked the most) volume in the entire Landmark series that I've read so far, out of several dozen, primarily due to the outright arrogance, pretension and blatant racism of its author, who is an utter judgemental blowhard. I think it's the only one in the series I've given a two-star review to, and I think anything less than a three-star rating, in fact. And more: I'm frankly concerned about readers who left a four- or five-star review, even if MANY also noted the same issues I did, and who recommended pre-screening for young readers. I would go much further, personally - I wouldn't recommend this for, at least, pre-high-school students at all.
The biography states: "Mr. Adams' amazing knowledge of the history of upper New York State is the result of his lifelong interest in the region in which he was born." He may be knowledgeable about his own region (doubtful, frankly, to judge from the content here), but he knows very little about the Southwest - so, probably best to leave authorship about that to persons who are familiar with it, and leave the tall tales out altogether. Admittedly, I haven't read any of the author's other books, and, after enduring this one, I'm highly disinclined to do so, on account of his style of writing and personal views. First and foremost, this book is just terribly written, for a number of reasons, so I wouldn't expect much better from anything else he's published.
First, there isn't very much informative content about the Santa Fe Trail at all. It reads like a dime novel, frequently employing colorful language, which isn't necessarily offensive itself (although many of the terms used throughout are), but it just basically amounts to little more than a highly-exaggerated adventure story about Captain William Becknell's wagon train journey west to Santa Fe from Missouri, and a salacious one at that. Becknell's successful ventures resulted in him being hired by the Congress to map the train for traders and the US Army in 1825, leading to him being labeled the Father of the Santa Fe Trail. That said, this could most rightly be called a work of historical fiction, aside from the major events, some of which may or may not have occurred, as there is a great deal of disagreement about whether much of what is described actually happened as it was reported by the "adventurers."
The rest of the text aside from the first chapter is at least readable. That said, however, I think this is the first volume in this series I've read by this particular author, and I hope it's the last. I started writing about all the problems I encountered with this text within the first DOZEN pages, and the hits just kept on coming. The language in this volume is so problematic, in fact, that I wouldn't even recommend it for young children, unless as the instructor, you're prepared to do some serious explaining about racism and prejudice, reflected in the vernacular this author uses throughout.
Alternatively, it's an EXCELLENT example to include in a lesson on UNCONSCIOUS BIAS, with careful attention paid to pointing out the blatantly offensive passages, as well as the author's hypocrisy. These books are certainly a product of their time, and I know that most were published in the decidedly un-PC 1950s, but this one is just beyond the pale, to the point that it's just indecent and highly insulting. Every racist epithet for Native peoples you can imagine are found within, and not in a sarcastic context, which I've seen with other volumes in this series. Here, the author uncritically and repeatedly calls Native people "savages," "the red man," "red-skinned," "uncivilized," and, of course, frequently employs the obligatory, yet highly offensive term "squaw," used interchangeably to refer to a Native woman - I could keep going, but why bother? You get the idea.
This author makes the inexcusable mistake of pointing the finger at someone else - in this case, primarily the Spanish conquistadors - but fails to take a good long look in the mirror when it comes to racial insensitivity and obvious bias. Another great example of this dude just being straight-up tone deaf: "Doubtless the many cruelties committed by the red-skinned tribes (!) in the following centuries were the natural result of these early Spaniards' crimes against the Indians. The savages were no worse than the apostles of civilization." Just... wow.
Oddly, there is some pretext at criticism of "white supremacy," but the language the author uses makes it sound forced, almost as if he's being required to comment on the atrocities committed by European explorers, but he then purposely goes about it in the most demeaning way possible toward Native people. Example: regarding a massacre of villagers by Coronado near present-day Albuquerque, "more than two hundred savages were slaughtered."
And, apparently, after butchering his way through the Southwest, Coronado, aside from all the "dead Indians," of course, apparently "left the region better off than he found it," for the reason that he graciously set loose a flock of sheep and some horses, which then became fruitful and multiplied, and "grew up" in the country. Yes, dude's serious. What Coronado did, of course, was to effectively introduce severely-damaging invasive species onto a new continent ill-adapted to assimilate them, which permanently altered the environments of the Southwest and beyond.
Santa Fe Trail lore admittedly has some fantastical elements and tales attributed to it, but it's an author's job to bring it and keep it down to earth. Because of all the idiocy (refer to the above example about the "gracious" act of introducing invasive species, and then claiming that left the region better than a Spanish conquistador found it) and blatant racial insensitivity (and I'm pretty hard to offend, in that regard), this book was just painful to read. I just wanted it to be over as soon as possible.
At the end of the day, this guy is just straight-up stupid - utterly ignorant and a purveyor of tall tales and misinformation, like the people he criticizes for doing just that. There are many superior books about this subject, ones that don't read like a cheap, confabulated old-West dime novel, and I'm wondering if that was somewhat the intent. As much as I like this series generally, I would seriously leave this one out. It's reflective of everything that was so wrong with the mentality toward non-White people in that time period, including this Western, "cowboys-and-Indians" trope, which is infuriating to see in a HISTORY book written for, in essence, children.
The biography states: "Mr. Adams' amazing knowledge of the history of upper New York State is the result of his lifelong interest in the region in which he was born." He may be knowledgeable about his own region (doubtful, frankly, to judge from the content here), but he knows very little about the Southwest - so, probably best to leave authorship about that to persons who are familiar with it, and leave the tall tales out altogether. Admittedly, I haven't read any of the author's other books, and, after enduring this one, I'm highly disinclined to do so, on account of his style of writing and personal views. First and foremost, this book is just terribly written, for a number of reasons, so I wouldn't expect much better from anything else he's published.
First, there isn't very much informative content about the Santa Fe Trail at all. It reads like a dime novel, frequently employing colorful language, which isn't necessarily offensive itself (although many of the terms used throughout are), but it just basically amounts to little more than a highly-exaggerated adventure story about Captain William Becknell's wagon train journey west to Santa Fe from Missouri, and a salacious one at that. Becknell's successful ventures resulted in him being hired by the Congress to map the train for traders and the US Army in 1825, leading to him being labeled the Father of the Santa Fe Trail. That said, this could most rightly be called a work of historical fiction, aside from the major events, some of which may or may not have occurred, as there is a great deal of disagreement about whether much of what is described actually happened as it was reported by the "adventurers."
The rest of the text aside from the first chapter is at least readable. That said, however, I think this is the first volume in this series I've read by this particular author, and I hope it's the last. I started writing about all the problems I encountered with this text within the first DOZEN pages, and the hits just kept on coming. The language in this volume is so problematic, in fact, that I wouldn't even recommend it for young children, unless as the instructor, you're prepared to do some serious explaining about racism and prejudice, reflected in the vernacular this author uses throughout.
Alternatively, it's an EXCELLENT example to include in a lesson on UNCONSCIOUS BIAS, with careful attention paid to pointing out the blatantly offensive passages, as well as the author's hypocrisy. These books are certainly a product of their time, and I know that most were published in the decidedly un-PC 1950s, but this one is just beyond the pale, to the point that it's just indecent and highly insulting. Every racist epithet for Native peoples you can imagine are found within, and not in a sarcastic context, which I've seen with other volumes in this series. Here, the author uncritically and repeatedly calls Native people "savages," "the red man," "red-skinned," "uncivilized," and, of course, frequently employs the obligatory, yet highly offensive term "squaw," used interchangeably to refer to a Native woman - I could keep going, but why bother? You get the idea.
This author makes the inexcusable mistake of pointing the finger at someone else - in this case, primarily the Spanish conquistadors - but fails to take a good long look in the mirror when it comes to racial insensitivity and obvious bias. Another great example of this dude just being straight-up tone deaf: "Doubtless the many cruelties committed by the red-skinned tribes (!) in the following centuries were the natural result of these early Spaniards' crimes against the Indians. The savages were no worse than the apostles of civilization." Just... wow.
Oddly, there is some pretext at criticism of "white supremacy," but the language the author uses makes it sound forced, almost as if he's being required to comment on the atrocities committed by European explorers, but he then purposely goes about it in the most demeaning way possible toward Native people. Example: regarding a massacre of villagers by Coronado near present-day Albuquerque, "more than two hundred savages were slaughtered."
And, apparently, after butchering his way through the Southwest, Coronado, aside from all the "dead Indians," of course, apparently "left the region better off than he found it," for the reason that he graciously set loose a flock of sheep and some horses, which then became fruitful and multiplied, and "grew up" in the country. Yes, dude's serious. What Coronado did, of course, was to effectively introduce severely-damaging invasive species onto a new continent ill-adapted to assimilate them, which permanently altered the environments of the Southwest and beyond.
Santa Fe Trail lore admittedly has some fantastical elements and tales attributed to it, but it's an author's job to bring it and keep it down to earth. Because of all the idiocy (refer to the above example about the "gracious" act of introducing invasive species, and then claiming that left the region better than a Spanish conquistador found it) and blatant racial insensitivity (and I'm pretty hard to offend, in that regard), this book was just painful to read. I just wanted it to be over as soon as possible.
At the end of the day, this guy is just straight-up stupid - utterly ignorant and a purveyor of tall tales and misinformation, like the people he criticizes for doing just that. There are many superior books about this subject, ones that don't read like a cheap, confabulated old-West dime novel, and I'm wondering if that was somewhat the intent. As much as I like this series generally, I would seriously leave this one out. It's reflective of everything that was so wrong with the mentality toward non-White people in that time period, including this Western, "cowboys-and-Indians" trope, which is infuriating to see in a HISTORY book written for, in essence, children.
October 7, 2018
Not as good as other Landmark titles I’ve read. Careful explanation may be needed for today’s young readers to explain not only is this written with 1950s vernacular about Native Americas it’s also written often in third person that can be misunderstood as the author regarding prejudices and attitudes about them in the 1800s. The treatment of indigenous people is sometimes brutal and often uncomplimentary to say the least. There are however good lessons about respecting your leaders and doing work well.
September 5, 2023
2 on research, 2 on weight, 2 on style, 2 on logic, 1 on affections. Fascinating. It showed me the importance of obeying the commands of those who are wiser than you. It also taught me that the sins you commit today may have long term affects. The cruel actions of the Catholic Spaniards hundreds of years earlier helped rile up the Indians so that they would attack peaceful traders on the trial.
December 20, 2019
An easy, entertaining read.
December 21, 2022
This is a great book for multi-age book club. Please.pre read for the sensitive kids.
July 24, 2025
I read this as a quick way to get a different perspective of our upcoming geography book.
July 25, 2023
This is either #6 or #13 of the Landmark American history series depending on which publisher published your book. #6 is a special edition printed by Spencer Press. This book is a history of the opening of the Santa Fe trail during the American expansion on the Western Frontier. I loved reading these books while in elementary school and am currently collecting/rereading as many as I can locate. The author has told a good story of history without being a dry recitation of facts.
February 9, 2011
The Santa Fe Trail is a brief but very informative history of the Santa Fe Trail. It was very entertaining and used great language for children. Within the flow of the story, the author impressively gave short explanations of things along the way to make it a more understandable read for children.
April 11, 2012
I loved this book. I read it way back in high school and will put it on my "to read" list if I can find a copy.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews