Pioneered by William Becknell in 1821, the Santa Fe Trail was a 900-mile overland road connecting Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico, and an important commercial trade route. Near here, travelers heading west toward Santa Fe had to choose between the Cimarron Route, the most direct path, and the Mountain Route. Wagon traffic on the Cimarron Route began in 1822 and continued until the late 1860s, using several crossings of the Arkansas River near the 100th meridian. Despite its smoother course, the Cimarron Route was hazardous because of scarce water and passage through American Indian lands, and attacks occurred more often on the Santa Fe Trail than on emigrant trails as the Comanches and Apaches of the southern high plains resisted travelers crossing their lands. Wagon trains loaded with trade goods took from six weeks to two and one-half months to complete the journey. Rebecca Mayer wrote in 1852 that between the Arkansas and the Cimarron the ground had numerous plants and many shallow basins of water called sand-pans by drivers, and that although the water was neither clean nor pure, travelers and their animals were glad to have it. Along the Mountain Route, Charlie's Ruts near Lakin, Kansas, preserve parallel wagon ruts ascending a hill; Boggsville, south of Las Animas, Colorado, was a small complex of two trading stores first owned by John W. Prowers and then Thomas O. Boggs and was the last residence of Kit Carson; and Bent's Old Fort, east of La Junta, Colorado, was a private trading post that hosted trade and travelers from 1833 to 1849. Along the Cimarron Route, Lower Spring, later called Wagon Bed Springs, provided the first reliable water since the Arkansas River; Point of Rocks in the Cimarron National Grassland served as a lookout along the Cimarron Valley and remains surrounded by grasslands where wagon ruts can still be seen; and McNees Crossing, named for Robert McNees, who was killed there by Indians in 1828, was used by traders as a campground and a place to celebrate the Fourth of July in 1831.