by Joanne VanCoevern, Manager
Santa Fe Trail Association
The Santa Fe Trail Association (SFTA) continues to make plans and preparations to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Santa Fe Trail throughout 2021. In 1821, the Santa Fe Trail was opened as a commercial route between Missouri and New Mexico by William Becknell and his party of five traders.
A new website, www.santafetrail200.org, has been launched to provide information to the public about events that will be taking place throughout 2021, as well as a new “Santa Fe Trail 200th” Facebook page. The premier event will be the SFTA Symposium scheduled for September 22-26, 2021 at La Junta, CO and Bent’s Fort National Historic Site. A special website has been created for that event and can be found at www.2021sfts.com.
SFTA has also been awarded a “$1,000 Quick Grant,” made possible through funding from Humanities Kansas and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Funds will be used to develop a podcast, “The Santa Fe Trail Lives On,” which will provide a platform to share the many stories related to the history of the Santa Fe Trail. Deb Goodrich, chair of SFTA’s Publicity Committee and the Santa Fe Trail 200th Committee, will be the host for the podcast and will work with Dave Kendall on the production.
The Santa Fe National Historic Trail will be featured in a segment of season 11 of A Taste of History, a TV cooking series hosted by Chef Walter Staib that explores America’s cooking through history, scheduled to begin airing on PBS stations in July 2020. Filming on location, the chef visited the Santa Fe Trail sites and helped prepare recipes with Katie Lange at Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm, Olathe, KS and with Shirley McClintock at Trail Days Café in Council Grove, KS. These forms of communication will allow new audiences to learn about the trail and its 200th anniversary.
Chef Walter Staib of A Taste of History prepares recipes with Katie Lange at sites along the Santa Fe Trail. Photo Credit: Joanne VanCoevern, SFTA
For questions about the Santa Fe Trail 200th, contact:
publicity@santafetrail.org