American Caravan - Alice Anne Thompson, Ph.D.

American Caravan is a true history of one of the last great wagon trains to cross the old Santa Fe Trail during the post Civil War era, written in the tradition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

"The tragic tale of the death and burial of 19-year old Mary Alphonsa Thompson, Sister of Loretto, on the Santa Fe Trail in present western Kansas in the summer of 1867 is one of the greatest mysteries as well as one of the most touching human interest stories in the six-decade history of that famous route of commerce and conquest between the Missouri River valley and New Mexico.  This is a story that has waited nearly a century and a half for someone to present to the public with all the componets described."
Leo E. Oliva, PhD.

1. "Lost Springs", a rendezvous site along the eastern section of the Santa Fe Trail in Marion
      County, Kansas

2. Storm clouds move across the vast plains of McPherson County, Kansas, where Santa Fe Trail wagon wheel
   ruts are still visible.

3. In the vicinity of the Cimarron Crossing of the Arkansas River, approximately twenty-five miles west of
    Dodge City, Kansas.

4. A limestone post marks the location of the "Mountain Route" of the Santa Fe Trail, north of Trinidad,
    Colorado.

5. "Point of Rocks" a geological marker along the Santa Fe Trail in Finney County, Kansas.

6. Railroad tracks constructed over old Santa Fe Trail in Finney County, Kansas.

Photos