475. Trinidad, Colorado (Mountain Route)
Trinidad, Colorado was founded in1862 by Felipe Baca. This village sits at the base of Fisher’s Peak on the Santa Fe Trail. All wagons going through Raton Pass to Santa Fe came through the Trinidad area. The Trinidad History Museum overlooks the Santa Fe Trail and is a complex of four different attractions: the Baca House, the Bloom Mansion, the Heritage Gardens, and the Santa Fe Trail Museum. The Baca House was originally built for John Hough who moved from Boggsville. Later, the house was purchased by Felipe Baca. The Santa Fe Trail Museum is an adobe structure and housed the servants who worked for the Baca family.
If you take the interstate south through the pass, you will travel past the location of a toll on the trail. In 1865, Dick Wooton built and opened a toll road for travelers through the Raton Pass and Wooton Ranch served as a stage station stop. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad purchased Dick Wooton’s ranch in 1878. The railroad was the first one to enter the New Mexico Territory. Go to the Trinidad History Museum complex and to the Santa Fe Trail Museum. Find the framed record of George McBride and the tolls he recorded on Uncle Dick Wooten’s Toll Road. Fill in the list showing what the charges were for the kind of transportation or produce.
For more information:
Colorado Welcome Center - Trinidad
