About two miles west, the Lower Springs of the Cimarron River, known today as Wagon Bed Springs, served early-day travelers on the Santa Fe Trail as an oasis in dry weather. Several shortcuts of the trail converged there, and the most popular route ran between that place and the Arkansas River near the present-day town of Cimarron. The sixty-mile stretch between the two rivers, known as the Jornada, was perilous for men and animals in dry seasons, when wagon trains often ran out of water. Near there in 1831, the western explorer and fur trader Jedediah Smith, lost and without water for four days, was killed by Comanches just as he reached the river. Late in the history of the trail, a wagon bed was set in the ground to collect water from one of the springs, and the springs took their name from that event. Although few visible remains of the many travelers who once stayed there survive today, nearby trail ruts left by wagons can still be seen.