National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)/National Historic Landmark (NHL)
Properties are on the National Register of Historic Places ONLY unless otherwise indicated.
The National Park Service, in partnership with a wide variety of state agencies, universities, and other entities, has nominated a number of properties associated with the Santa Fe Trail to the National Register of Historic Places, and it is in the process of nominating additional properties. The nomination process involves identifying properties of high integrity with a significant association to the Santa Fe Trail. Associated properties eligible for the National Register help trail enthusiasts to positively identify the Santa Fe Trail on the ground. They also promote the significance of the trail in our communities. A listing on the National Register may offer additional protection features to historic sites and trail segments.
A document called "National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Nomination Form: Historic Resources of the Santa Fe Trail, 1821–1880" was written by Joseph J. Gallagher, Alice Edwards, Lachlan F. Blair, and Hugh Davidson and was entered onto the National Register in 1993. Multiple property nomination forms provide historic contexts and significances for trail-related properties. They also identify property types, including descriptions, resource significance statements, and nomination requirements for properties such as fort sites, emigration depots, roadbeds, ferry crossings and landings, campsites, structures, gravesites, and disbandment sites. This document, now almost twenty years old, is currently being revised.
Each of the State Historic Preservation Offices for states located along the Santa Fe Trail (Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, and Oklahoma), along with the National Park Service, are now actively involved in identifying and nominating eligible trail-related properties. See the listing below for the properties that have already been entered onto the National Register.
