OLD TRAILS, OLD FORTS, OLD TRAPPERS A N D TRADERS By Herbert S.
Auerbach1
HISTORY AND ROMANCE OF T H E O L D SPANISH TRAIL
The myriads of interlacing trails throughout the Rocky Mountains date back through the centuries. Long before the visits of white men to these regions, the trails were traveled by the Indians, roving over the country on their hunting, trapping and war expeditions. Not infrequently were trails newly made, or deeply reworn, by galloping Indian horsemen on some punitive or thieving expedition against an enemy tribe of Indians in some distant part of the Rocky Mountains. Many trails were also made in the first instance, and traveled frequently thereafter, in seeking easy crossings of the streams when in high stages, and too deep to ford or cross in the usual manner. Toward Winter whole tribes moved along the trails to warmer climates, and in Spring they returned to follow the game and later in the year they traveled about to gather roots, berries, pine-nuts and seeds. They made trips also to gather flint, jasper, agate, and quartzite for fashioning arrowheads, knives, axes, tomahawks, hide scrapers, awls, hammers, grinding stones and other tools and implements. Many tribes for centuries made these quartzite and flint-gathering expeditions to the ancient "Spanish Diggings,"" prehistoric stone quarries, shops and village sites in eastern Wyoming, which quarries were scattered over a wide area in Niobrara, Converse and Platte Counties, Wyoming, extending from about thirty miles north of Hartville, Platte County, to a few miles southwest of Manville, Niobrara County, and to Bulls Bend on the North Platte River. With primitive stone tools they laboriously quarried layers of sandstone to uncover the thin vein of quartzite which they prized so highly. A particularly interesting quarry is located near Flattop, Niobrara County, where cooking and other household utensils and stone tools and implements have been found in large quantities. These quarrries are scattered over an area of 300 square (See "Editor's Note," at end of article, page 63. J.C.A.) The author desires to acknowledge his indebtedness for the valuable assistance given him by: Miss Stella M. Drumm, Librarian. Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Missouri. Miss Mary E. Marks, Librarian, Wyoming State Library, Laramie, Wyoming. Miss Ruth Laphan Butler, Librarian. Ayer Collection, Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Leslie Bliss, Librarian, Huntington Library, San Marino, California. And, last, but by no means least, J. Cecil Alter. Salt Lake City. Utah. a So called by cowboys who discovered them. However we have no evidence to show that they were worked by the Spaniards. J
