=Round Mound.= Round Mound, standing nearly a thousand feet above the level of the surrounding plain, in what is now New Mexico, was one of the landmarks along the Trail. At that point the caravan had completed about three-fourths of the journey to Santa Fe. As they approached the Mound some of the party decided to ascend it. They felt certain that it could not be more than half a mile away, but they had to go fully three miles before reaching it. This remarkable deception in distance is characteristic of the West.[5] Nothing of particular note occurred from Round Mound to the end of the journey. =Arrival at Santa Fe.= The arrival of the caravan at Santa Fe was a source of excitement for both the traders and the city and was celebrated with much festivity. The traders had entered what was in those days a foreign country and had to pay duties on their goods at the custom house. Then came the business of selling these goods to those who had come in from the surrounding country to buy, after which the traders, or freighters as they were often called, prepared for the long return journey, planning to finish the round trip before the winter began. This was but one of many trips made over the Santa Fe Trail. =Travel Across Kansas During the ’40’s.= There was a war between the United States and Mexico in 1846-’48. The trouble between the two countries checked the Santa Fe trade between the years 1843 and 1850, but even under those circumstances there was much travel across Kansas during the ’40’s.[6] There were four principal classes of travelers: soldiers, emigrants to Oregon, Mormons, and California gold seekers. =The Soldiers.= The war with Mexico broke out in 1846, and many of the United States soldiers were sent to that country by way of the Santa Fe Trail. This increased the travel across the prairies. =The Oregon Settlers.= The remote unsettled region in the Northwest, known as Oregon, was soon to become the home of civilized people. In 1842 wagon trains of emigrants began to undertake the long and weary journey to that far-off country. Others soon followed, and during the next few years many thousands of people settled in the Oregon country. =The Mormons.= In those days the Mormon Church had not been long established, but their beliefs had brought the Mormons into trouble with the people around them and with the Government, and they had been forced to move several times. The last time was in 1845, when they left Nauvoo, Illinois, and began the long and perilous journey to the valley of Great Salt Lake, in which region the main body of them remains to-day.