Photos: Retracing a family’s legacy on the Santa Fe Trail

By Michelle P. Fulcher and Hart Van Denburg
·
Courtesy Kevin Moloney
Westbound along the Santa Fe Trail across the tall- and short-grass prairies of Kansas, grain elevators and wind turbines now pierce the endless sky, marking where railroads and irrigation changed the landscape, and an energy-hungry population siezes the reliable wind.

Kevin Moloney
The site of Bent's New Fort near Lamar, Colo., a trading post, resupply station, and eventual military post the likely provided a stopping point for Dario Gallegos' freight drovers and teamsters as they traversed the plains to stock his mercantile in San Luis. The post was WIlliam Bent's second, after a cholera outbreak rattled his first fort and forced its abandonment in 1849.
Santa Fe Trail Dario Gallegos Kevin Moloney
Courtesy Kevin Moloney
The Spanish Peaks, a Santa Fe Trail landmark, break the horizon beyond a remote cemetery near La Junta, Colo., Saturday, June 10, 2023. Near here in 1859, on a merchandise buying expedition on the Santa Fe Trail, photographer Kevin Moloney’s great great grandfather Dario Gallegos' six wagons and their loads were burned and his oxen stolen by a raiding tribe. The crew escaped on horses they hid in a nearby arroyo.
Courtesy Kevin Moloney
The 14,351-foot Sierra Blanca Massif towers as a sentinal over Colorado's San Luis Valley, the site of the 1843 Sangre de Cristo Land Grant. Dario Gallegos and his young family joined others in settling the area in 1852, where five years later he opened a mercantile store that satyed in his family for 165 years. It continues in business as the San Luis People's Market. Gallegos stocked the store with goods from the east carried over the Santa Fe Trail on freight wagon trains until the arrival of the railroads.

Courtesy Kevin Moloney
Rain clouds sprinkle San Luis, Colo., the state's oldest town and the center of the 1843 Sangre de Cristo Land Grant. Dario Gallegos and his young family joined others in settling the village in 1851, where five years later he opened a mercantile store (center) that satyed in his family for 165 years. It continues in business as the San Luis People's Market. Gallegos stocked the store with goods from the East carried over the Santa Fe Trail on freight wagon trains until the arrival of the railroads in 1881.
Courtesy Kevin Moloney
Notable local artist Huberto Maestas crosses the street in front of the San Luis People's Market, originally opened in 1857 as the Gallegos Mercantile. The store sated in Gallegos' family for 165 years until sold in 2022.
Courtesy Kevin Moloney
A raised relief mural of a 19th-century wagon lines the wall of a commercial building across from the San Luis People's Market, left, the store opened in 1857 by Dario Gallegos, and stocked through its first decades by freight wagons like these on the Santa Fe Trail.
Courtesy Kevin Moloney
Dario Gallegos' 1859 adobe home next to his store on Main Street in San Luis, Colo.

Kevin Moloney
A herd of big horn sheep browse the roadside above the Rio Grande Gorge between Ojo Caliente, N.M., Friday, June 9, 2023, where Moloney's great great gandfather Dario Gallesgos was born in 1830, and Arroyo Seco where he was raised.
Courtesy Kevin Moloney
An adobe butress supports the walls of the Santa Cruz chapel in Ojo Caliente, N.M., Friday, June 9, 2023, where Moloney's great great gandfather Dario Gallegos was born in 1830. Gallegos was born in Ojo Caliente, but moved with his family when he was young to Arroyo Seco, just north of Taos, N.M.
Courtesy Kevin Moloney
Folk religious art of the Stations of the Cross and crucifixion encircle a penitente morada in Arroyo Seco, N.M. Friday, June 9, 2023. Santa Fe Trail merchant and entrepreneur Dario Gallegos grew up in Arroyo Seco where is father José and uncle Antonio operated way stations on Santa Fe Trail to offer services and food for wagon trains. Young Dario there fell in love with the idea of the trail and set out on his own first transcontinental journey along the Camino Real to Chihuahua, Mexico in 1844.
Courtesy Kevin Moloney
The grave of Dario Gallegos, 1830–1883, in the cemetery at San Luis, Colo. Fueled by the commerce of the Santa Fe Trail, Gallegos opened a successful and important mercantile store in the town in 1857. The store stayed in his family for 165 years. It continues in business as a community-owned cooperative, The San Luis People's Market.

Latest Stories