The wagon trains started in the spring as soon as the new grass would nourish the teams. At this time the small streams were full from the spring rains, and draws that normally were dry most of the year had a little water or a boggy stretch in the bottom. Here a wagon might stick in the mud and block the trail. When camping near a stream, the teamsters always tried to get across in the evening, for their teams would pull more willingly even at the end of a long day than they would when cold and stiff in the early morning. Josiah Gregg described the method used in crossing:
Early the next morning we reached the Little Arkansas which is only a small creek with a current but five or six yards wide. Its steep banks and miry bed annoyed us exceedingly in crossing. It is the practice upon the prairies on all such occasions for several men to go in advance with axes, spades and mattocks, and by digging the banks and creating temporary bridges, to have all in readiness by the time the wagons arrive. A bridge over a quagmire is made in a few minutes, by cross laying it with brush (willows are best but even long grass is often employed as a substitute) and covering it with earth across which a hundred wagons will often pass in safety.
Beyond the Arkansas River crossing, lack of streams was the real problem. For much of the year this stretch of the trail is a real desert with water hard to find. When William Becknell opened the trail from the Arkansas across to the Cimarron, he had this experience, reported by Gregg:
Frequently led astray by the deceptive glimmer of the mirage, or false ponds, as those treacherous oases of the desert are called, and not suspecting they had already arrived near the banks of the Cimarron, they resolved to retrace their steps to the Arkansas. But they were no longer equal to the task, and would undoubtably have perished in those arid regions had not a buffalo, fresh from the river's side, and with a stomach distended with water, been discovered by some of the party…. The hapless intruder was immediately dispatched, and an invigorating draught poured from its stomach.
Although the wagon trains depended on the buffalo for most of their food, this is the most dramatic use of a buffalo in the personal experiences along the trail. Buffalo herds were common in most of the area throughout the year, but in the spring were found much nearer the settlements than at any other time. The eastern edge of the plains is at a much lower altitude, giving it an earlier spring, and the tall prairie grass there grows faster than the gamma grass of the high plains. This early spring growth sometimes brought the herds as far east as Council Grove.
Other game was plentiful too, particularly deer and antelope, but in the opinion of the plainsmen, nothing could take the place of good buffalo meat. The sighting of the first herd was an event, which Gregg described:
Our eyes were greeted with the sight of a herd amounting to nearly a hundred head of buffalo, quietly grazing in the distance before us. Half our company had probably never seen a buffalo before and the excitement that the first sight of these "prairie beeves" occasioned among a party of novices beggars all description. Every horseman was off in a scamper, and some of the wagoners, leaving their teams to take care of themselves, seized their guns and joined the race afoot. Here went one with his rifle or yager, there another with his double-barrelled shotgun, a third with his holster pistols, a Mexican perhaps with his lance, another with his bow and arrows, and a number joined without any arms whatever, merely for the pleasures of the chase.
Whenever the train had a chance to make a good kill, the extra meat was sliced thin and dried for future use. Sometimes this reserve food supply was neglected, or used too freely, and a few days of travel without sighting any buffalo would reduce the men to cornmeal and old bacon. Sometimes the train met Indian hunters who offered to trade their goods for the dried meat.
Near the New Mexico border, Gregg reported, they sometimes met a different kind of hunting band:
Every year ciboleros [buffalo hunters] form large parties and go from the New Mexican settlements to the buffalo plains. Some are provided with mules and asses, others with carts and oxen. They hunt, like wild Indians, chiefly on horseback, and with bow and arrow or lance. They cure their meat in the Indian fashion, slicing it thin and suspending it in the sun. During the curing operation they often follow the Indian practice of beating or kneading the slices with their feet, which is supposed to speed up the drying.
The meat never spoiled in the pure, dry air if the animal heat was allowed to escape quickly. Seemingly there were no harmful bacteria on the high plains, and there were no blow flies or horse flies on the southern plains in the early years.
When Josiah Gregg first crossed the plains, he was with a large wagon train of a hundred vehicles and more than 200 men, plus a small family party of Spanish who were returning from exile now that Mexico was free from Spain. The train was a conglomeration of many small groups with no common bond except that they were all going to Santa Fe and wanted company across the plains, for there was danger of an Indian attack on a small party.
For security and police purposes, the train was divided into four columns of twenty-five wagons each, and each train was under an elected leader. Each column marched and camped as a unit. For camp guard at night each of the 200 men was assigned to one of the eight watches, and had to stand one watch every other night even though he might be injured or sick, unless he was too weak to get out of his bedroll.
Travel on the Santa Fe Trail grew rapidly, the trains following one another in close order. In the twenty-one-year period 1822-43, about 3,150 men and 1,563 wagons passed through the Indian country. In addition, several small parties without wagons went through each year. Out of this large number only seven people are listed as having been killed by Indian attacks. While an all-out assault by a large war party would probably have met with success against some of the trains, and the plunder would have been fabulous to the red men, they did not care to try for even that much loot if it meant losing a few of their number.
The large, well-organized trains, with a hundred or more armed men on guard, appeared a formidable force, with a guard detachment on each side, in front, and at the rear during the march. In camp the wagons were put in a circle, and when danger threatened, the horses, mules, and oxen were held within the wagon circle at night, or picketed under heavy guard close by.
In spite of their appearance, the trains were not always so formidable as they looked, as this extract from Gregg shows:
In accordance with the habitual carelessness of caravan traders, a great portion of the men were unprepared for the emergency. Scores of guns were empty, and as many more had been wetted by recent showers and would not go off. Here was one calling for ballsanother for powdera third for flints. Exclamations such as, "I've broke my ramrod," "I've spilt my caps," "I've rammed down a ball without powder,'' "My gun is choked, give me yours," while a timorous greenhorn would perhaps cry out, "Here, take my gun, you can out-shoot me."
Luckily this time the Indians were friendly, so no harm came from the confusion and lack of preparedness.
In addition to the treaty that the Spanish made with the Comanches in 1786, the New Mexicans tried to make peace with other tribes of buffalo hunters. They sent a party of twenty-five men to Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1824. There the United States Indian agent helped them hold a council, which resulted in an agreement that Pawnee war parties would not interfere with traders on the trail. The next year United States commissioners met with the Osages at Council Grove, Kansas, and secured from them a similar agreement covering the eastern part of the trail.