This is Not the Santa Fe Trail

A Short Story on the "In"visible Display of Information

Michael Round

September 5, 2009

This is not the Santa Fe Trail.

How can this be?  Isn't this what we've been taught? The trail of commerce from Independence, Missouri, through Kansas City, and on to Santa Fe, New Mexico? 

I repeat:  THIS IS NOT THE SANTA FE TRAIL!

This is:

The former map, of course, shows "The Santa Fe Trail".  So does the latter.  The latter map includes a lot more.  It includes the distance from Santa Fe to Mexico City, which was all Spanish Territory, at one time.

Why is this relevant?

There's a lot that went into the history of "Santa Fe".  Here's just a portion of material to be covered in my upcoming book tentatively titled:

Why do I claim the two maps are substantially different?  The former - the traditional - map leaves out the most important aspect of the Santa Fe Trail - why Santa Fe was there in the first place!  It was there as an outpost for the Spaniards, largely due to the distance from Mexico City!

To provide the reader proper context, then, demands this crucial element be on the map!  The VISIBLE display of relevant information!  A must - for good graphics, for good text, for good logic, for good understanding!

Stay tuned!