Herbal Medicines on the Santa Fe Trail

The Santa Fe Trail was an historic trade route that brought cayenne peppers up the Trail to St. Louis and Kansas City, and sent back new diseases the indigenous people had never seen. Rugged people traveled the trail, taking along new state-of-the -art medicines of the time and discovering new plants along the way. This is a look at the plants and medicines that shaped the medical treatment of the Civil War, and helped to shape our medicines of today.