Road of Conquest

This episode focuses on the challenges and complications faced by the US Army to secure the Santa Fe Trail leading up to and during the US-Mexico War (1846-1848). Following along with the insecurities, pressures, and personalities involved, we trace how the trail gradually, then suddenly, transformed from an international trade corridor to a military supply road. It's a story intimately tied in with the violent saga of westward expansion, the US invasion of Mexico, and the series of wars against Indigenous peoples along the route.

Written and narrated by: Mathias Smith

Producer and Engineer: Kyle Jackson

Theme Song: Fog Holler

Additional Musical Elements: Fog Holler, Casey James Holmberg, Kyle Jackson, Kate Bone

What is Wheels Across the West: History and Legacy of the Santa Fe Trail?

"Wheels Across the West: History and Legacy of the Santa Fe Trail" invites listeners on a fun and fact-filled adventure across time and territory to make sense of an oft-overlooked overland trail. Created, written, and narrated by students at the University of Missouri’s Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, Wheels Across the West covers a wide range of topics that intersect with the past and present of the American West: mules, military forts, missionization, Hollywood Westerns, gun culture, living history reenactors, pioneer women, Black cowboys, and so much more. Transporting listeners from Indigenous pathways, to international wagon caravans, to railroads, highways, and modern-day Main Streets, this series reveals how the infrastructure and cultural landscape of the West has been constructed atop foundations laid long ago.