Ron Mazzulla, age 10, of Mesa, Ariz., for his question:

WHERE DID THE SANTA FE TRAIL GO?

One of the longest commercial routes in the United States in the pre railroad era was the Santa Fe Trail. It started in Independence, Missouri, and ended in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a distance of 780 miles.

Early travelers transported their goods by pack horses. A man named William Becknell first used the trail in 1821 and after that, traders took wagons loaded with manufactured goods to Santa Fe to exchange for mules, furs, gold and silver.

Between 1822 and 1843, an average of about 80 wagons and 150 men used the trail each year. Travel westward then increased greatly during '£ the 1850s and 1860s.

By the late 1860s, more than 5,000 wagons a year used the trail.

An extension of the trial, known as the Old Spanish Trail, ran from Santa Fe to Los Angeles by way of Durango, Colorado, the Green and Virgin Rivers in Utah and the Colorado River.