User:Asiaticus/sandbox/Cooke's Wagon Road

Cooke's Wagon Road was the first wagon road between the Rio Grande and the Colorado River to San Diego, through the Mexican provinces of Nuevo México, Sonora and Alta California, established by Philip St. George Cooke and the Mormon Battalion, from October 19, 1846 to January 29, 1847 during the Mexican American War. It became the first of the wagon routes between New Mexico and California that with subsequent modifications before and during the California Gold Rush eventually became known as the Southern Emigrant Trail.

Cooke and the Mormon Battalion Establish The Route
Philip St. George Cooke wrote a book "The Conquest of New Mexico and California" that recorded his experience in command of the Mormon Battalion and its expedition to establish the wagon route that soon became known as Cooke's Wagon Road or Cooke's Road.

Cooke's Road began from his last camp on the west bank the Rio Grande across the river from the San Diego Mountain, 258 miles southwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico and 29 miles down the river from the camp where Colonel Stephen W. Kearny's Expedition left the river for California. Cooke's road extended westward 444 miles, southwestward through Guadalupe Pass in the Guadalupe Mountains, westward to the San Pedro River, following it northward until turning westward near modern Benson, Arizona to Tucson. From Tucson it cross the arid desert to the Gila River, 9 miles east of the Pima Villages, where his route rejoined that of Colonel Kearny. From there it then followed Kearny's route along the Gila River to the Yuma Crossing of the Colorado River. Following the crossing were 89 miles from waterhole to waterhole across the Colorado Desert to Vallecito, then after building a wagon road over difficult terrain 47 miles up and over Warner Pass in the Laguna Mountains, the battalion marched 58 miles north and west through Aguanga, Temecula, then south over the Vallecitos Pass to the San Luis River, and west again, past Mission San Luis Rey to the Pacific Ocean. The last march was south to Mission San Diego.

Major Graham's Road 1848
Major Graham’s Road

Tucson Cutoff 1849
Tucson Cutoff