The Santa Fe Trail Scenic and Historic Byway is a 188 mile portion of the Santa Fe National Historic Trail, designated as one of America's Byways and a Colorado Scenic Byway. The entire Santa Fe Trail begins in Missouri and ends in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Before 1821, everything south of the Arkansas River was Mexican Territory. After Mexico won independence from Spain, trade opened and the Santa Fe Trail served as a link between Mexico and the United States, creating a rich exchange of ideas, culture, and goods from 1821-1881. Its legacy endures in Victorian buildings, historic ranches, landmarks, stage stops, watering holes, and wagon wheel ruts along the Mountain Route in Colorado. The Colorado Daughters of the American Revolution began marking the trail in 1906 and completed it in 1912, placing thirty-six granite stones on Colorado's Santa Fe Trail to mark wagon ruts, watering holes, and stage stops, including the Big Timbers marker north of the Arkansas River bridge near the museum.