From Jedediah Smith's final fight to an unlikely flash flood in the desert, It Happened on the Santa Fe Trail gives readers a unique look at intriguing people and episodes from one of America's most historically important trails, the artery that opened the Southwest to settlement.

Find out how Colonel Kit Carson survived the Battle of Adobe Walls. Discover how a famous mountain man became an unlikely millionaire. And read all about how a railroad traded a lifetime of social security for a right of way!

(1) The Last Conquistador on the Santa Fe Trail (2) Nathan Boone Discovers a Salt Spring (3) The Spanish Governor of New Mexico Locks Up an Aristocrat (4) Captain William Becknell Can't Find the Comanche (5) Getting the Better of the White Man Again¿and Again (6) The Cimarron Desert Claims a Hero (7) Old Bill Williams Makes the Trade of His Life (8) Francis Parkman Visits Westport (9) Lewis Garrard and Fort Mann (10) A Sappington Family Dinner (11) A Winter Crossing of the Prairie (12) Satank Shoots a Peacock Off the Roof (13) A Night Ride on the Santa Fe Trail (14) Major Wynkoop and the Sand Creek Massacre (15) Kit Carson and the Battle of Adobe Walls (16) Colonel Chivington and the Sand Creek Massacre (17) Franz Huning's Lost Train (18) Fossil Creek Station (19) Lucien Maxwell, Mountain-Man Millionaire (20) Bat and the Tenderfoot (21) Battle of Adobe Walls II (22) The "Uncle Dick" Chuffs into Santa Fe, Almost (23) Parkerville, Kansas Celebrates the Fourth (24) Point of Rocks (25) Union Station Massacre (26) Santa Fe's La Fonda (27) The Final Chapter: "The Santa Fe Trail Lives On."