Product DescriptionIn Susan Shelby Magoffin June 1846, eighteen years old and a bride of less than eight months, left with her husband, a veteran Santa Fe trader, on a trip from Independence, Missouri, through southern New Mexico and Chihuahua. His travel diary was written at a crucial time, when the war with Mexico was beginning and New Mexico was occupied by Stephen Watts Kearny and the Army of the West. His journal describes the excitement, the routine, and the dangers of the wife of a successful businessman. On the trail for fifteen months, going from house to house and town to town, became an expert in Spanish and the lingo of traders, and scored in detail the customs and appearances of places she went. She gave birth to her first ch. . . More>>
Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico: The Diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin, 1846-1847