Clayton and Santa Fe Trail-- Cimarron Cutoff

Union County · US 87 -- Clayton

(SIDE 1) Trade caravans and homesteaders traveling the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail passed near here. Clayton was founded in 1887 and named for the son of cattleman and ex-Senator Stephen W. Dorsey, one of its developers. It became a major livestock shipping center for herds from the Pecos Valley and the Texas Panhandle. Population–2968 Elevation–4969 ft. (SIDE 2) The Santa Fe Trail was the major trade route between New Mexico and Missouri from 1821 until the arrival of the railroad in 1880. The Cimarron cutoff, a major branch of the trail, passed through t this portion of Northeast New Mexico. Some of the best preserved segments of the trail route are located at the nearby Kiowa National Grasslands along the Santa Fe National Historic Trail.

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Marker data: Official Scenic Historic Markers program, New Mexico Historic Preservation Division, Department of Cultural AffairsMarker texts come from the Division’s published marker spreadsheet, reproduced with the Division’s written permission. Where that spreadsheet records a coordinate, the pin is the Division’s own; where it records only a highway and mile marker, an address, a junction or a named place, or where its coordinate contradicts its own highway, mile and county, the pin is ours, resolved on public road and place data and marked approximate.

Clayton and Santa Fe Trail-- Cimarron Cutoff

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