Review by Ed Quillen
Guidebooks – January 1998 – Colorado Central Magazin
Crossing the Territory – Historic Trails and Scenic Byways of Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico
Spirit Magazine Travel Digest
Published in 1996 by Orphan Press
No ISBN
PERHAPS IT’S BECAUSE I write for it, but I’ve always considered Spirit Magazine several cuts above the slick “Enjoy the Local Attractions” publications you often find in motel rooms.
Spirit does appear in motel rooms and visitor centers — that’s where I first encountered it — but its editors, like me, enjoy examining the past and its effects on the present. Practical honest history, often gritty rather than romantic, in other words.
As Gretchen and Brian Orr explain in the preface, “as Spirit has grown, trail information has been squeezed into a smaller and smaller section of the magazine … This book has many of our regular trails restored to their full uncut glory, plus seven new trails we couldn’t shoehorn in before.”
Many of the 21 trails featured in this 84-page pamphlet-style book are historic routes, like the Taos Trail southwest from Pueblo or the Goodnight-Loving Trail that brought Texas longhorns north. Others are now official Scenic Byways, like the San Juan Skyway and el Camino de los Antiguos. Some are fabricated footpaths, like the Rainbow Trail and the Colorado Trail, and others are highways that have been bypassed, like Route 66.
Each gets a map and at least three pages, enough to acquaint you with the route, and some offer much more — a dozen pages about the Santa Fé Trail, for instance, with suggested stops at Bent’s Fort, Boggsville, Trinidad, and many other places I like too much to encourage tourists to visit, along with some recommended reading.
Crossing the Territory is a good book to start with if you’re curious about who came this way before. Be warned that an interest in old routes can lead to an addictive pursuit and several rooms brimming with maps, books, pamphlets, and lore.
— Ed Quillen