The Santa Fe Trail chiefly carried commercial traffic east and west, unlike emigrant trails to Utah, Oregon, and California. After Santa Fe became part of the United States in 1848 following the Mexican-American War, trade barriers were removed and traffic increased, but the trail’s need ended when the railroad reached Santa Fe in 1880. The trail linked international trading routes, with eastbound goods moving by rivers and canals to New York City and New Orleans, while El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro connected Santa Fe with Chihuahua, Mexico, and places farther south. Along the trail, wagon ruts still remain, and several important eastern sites reflect its history. In 1838 Henry made his first trip across the plains on the trail and traveled yearly afterward, forming friendships with Indian chiefs; Rebecca Mayer wrote in 1852 that his fearlessness, strength of character, and vitality won their respect, and wagons bearing the name H. Mayer & Company were never molested. Near here in 1822, a blizzard halted traders bound for Santa Fe, who buried and cached their goods until returning from Taos six months later, leaving the landmark called the Caches. The 100th meridian long served as a boundary between nations, first between France and Spain, later as the Louisiana Purchase boundary between Spain and the U.S., and after 1821 between Mexico and the U.S.; in Dodge City it symbolizes where the east ended and the west began. Fort Dodge, founded in 1865 at a junction previously used as a campsite, stood where the wet and dry routes met, protected the Santa Fe Trail, and also guarded stagecoaches, mail, and railroad construction crews until it was removed from service in 1882; it is now the Kansas State Soldiers Home. From just west of Great Bend to this point, the trail split into the wet route near the Arkansas River and the dry route atop the ridge before joining again here. Mulberry Creek Crossing, an early and less used crossing, met the Arkansas River on its south side near present-day Ford, Kansas. Fort Larned, active from 1859 to 1878, was a major military installation on the Santa Fe Trail, and nine of its ten original stone buildings remain.