The Cimarron Route began from one of the many crossings of the Arkansas River between the lower bend of the river and Choteau's Island beyond the 101st meridian. From any of those points, it ran south westward across Kansas, the corner of southeastern Colorado and into Cimarron County of the Oklahoma Panhandle near the northeast corner. It crossed the Cimarron River at Willowbar Crossing, angled in a southwesterly direction across the county, passed near Wolf Mountain, Flag Springs, Cold Springs, Camp Nichols (Cedar Creek), and left the county near the southwest corner, close to McNees Crossing in Union County, New Mexico. In New Mexico, near present Watrous, the Cimarron Route merged with the Mountain Branch. At San Miguel it circled northwestward through Glorieta Pass to Santa Fe.
The Cimarron Route was the road to Santa Fe for wagon traffic from 1822. It was shorter and easier to travel with mule and ox drawn freight wagons and was used into the 1870's, when the railroad built into Colorado.
It is widely believed that one of the earliest travelers on the Trail through this area known by name was the Spanish explorer, Don Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, who was searching in 1541 for Quivira. Others known to have followed portions of the trail included numerous scouts, soldiers, trappers and buffalo hunters. It was a trading route of the Kiowa, Ute, Comanche and Apache Tribes.
Graphics by Laurie McCannas 
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