This year marks the 40th anniversary of Les Vilda walking the Santa Fe Trail. In 1984, Les, along with three friends and a pack donkey (Joker), walked the Santa Fe Trail from Fort Osage in Sibley, Missouri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. They estimated this was a distance of about 980 miles. They completed the trip in 91 days—80 walking days and 11 rest days. They chose Fort Osage as a starting place because it was the beginning point for the first Government survey done of the trail in 1825.

Now, on the 40th anniversary of that trip, Les, a 68-year-old from Wilber, Nebraska, is going to attempt to travel the trail again in a 1923 Model T Roadster. This time, Les is going to start his journey in New Franklin, Missouri. Franklin, Missouri, was the town where a pack train led by William Becknell departed in 1821. This was the first successful trading expedition with Santa Fe and the start of the Santa Fe Trail.

Les is leaving New Franklin on September 9, 2024. He is hoping to get through the Kansas City area by the end of the day on September 10. After Kansas City, Les will not be on any kind of schedule. He says there have been so many new sites “rediscovered” since he walked the trail in 1984 that he wants to take his time and explore as many of these “new” sites as he can. As a rough estimate, he thinks it may take about 10 days to drive the Model T to Santa Fe and about eight days to make the return trip. Les is guessing that he will be traveling close to 2,000 miles for the complete round trip. His journey will have him traveling west along the Mountain Branch of the trail. He will follow the Cimarron Cut-Off on his journey east. Near what is today Dodge City, Kansas, the trail split into two major routes. The Mountain Branch went west through the southeast corner of Colorado and then south over Raton Pass near present-day Trinidad, Colorado, and on to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Cimarron Cut-Off went more southwesterly from what is now Dodge City. It passed through the panhandle of Oklahoma to a point close to Springer, New Mexico, where it turned South and rejoined the Mountain Branch the rest of the way into Santa Fe.

The Santa Fe Trail was a wagon road that went diagonally across Kansas. The wagons of the day created the “road.” Today, much of the original trail is on private property. Les will need to travel the nearest modern roads to where the old trail was. He found this information through help from the Santa Fe Trail Association and the National Park Service office in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Les has prepared Google My Maps to use for traveling the trail based on information obtained from both organizations. “Both groups have been very helpful in preparing for my trip,” he said. 

Information on the Santa Fe Trail Association can be found at santafetrail.org/, and information on the Santa Fe Trail through the National Park Service can be found at nps.gov/safe/planyourvisit/maps.htm.

If you would like to follow Les on his journey, you can watch for his posts on Facebook (Search for “Les Vilda”) and on his website:  www.havedonkeywilltravel.com.