Westward the women: Live program depicts fearless females on the Santa Fe Trail

Marla Matkin admires the adventurous spirit and wanderlust that sparked Marion Sloan Russell to travel the Santa Fe Trail five times, starting when she was just 7.

"She said she would rather be in a wagon going somewhere than on white wings going to heaven," Matkin said during a phone interview from her home in Hill City, Kansas.

Russell, who lived from 1845 to 1936, is credited with creating New Mexico's nickname, Land of Enchantment, which is the title of her memoirs.

She is one of three women associated with the Santa Fe Trail whom Matkin will portray in "Women on the Santa Fe Trail" at 3 p.m. Friday at the Corrales Library, 10 a.m. Saturday at the Martha Liebert Public Library in Bernalillo and 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Taos Public Library.

The Santa Fe Trail, established in 1821, was a commercial highway that stretched 900 miles from Missouri to Santa Fe. It remained a vital route until the railroad arrived in Santa Fe in 1880.

"She was on the trail the first time in 1852," Matkin said of Russell. "Xavier Aubry (a French Canadian merchant and explorer) was the leader of her wagon train."

Russell knew and was a lifelong friend of famed frontiersman Kit Carson.

While her mother was a cook for officers at New Mexico's Fort Union, Russell met Lt. Richard Russell, whom she married. Her husband was killed during land wars that followed the Civil War.

"They had been married for 23 years at that point," Matkin said. "They had nine children, six of whom survived (childhood).

"She traveled the Santa Fe Trail again in a car when she was in her 80s. She was disappointed. Fort Union was in ruins. Other sites she had known were gone."

Russell was in her early 90s when she died in a car crash.

"After all those years in a wagon on the Santa Fe Trail, she is killed by a modern conveyance," Matkin said.

Not bystanders

Matkin was born in Dodge City, Kansas, and grew up southeast of there in the town of Bucklin. After graduating from Fort Hays (Kansas) State, she went to Hill City as a teacher and taught elementary school for about 10 years.

She has been doing her portrayals of historic figures for 30 years.

"You don't get rich at this, but I've enjoyed the experience, traveling and meeting people," she said.

She does her programs primarily in the Midwest, but has traveled as far north as the Dakotas and Montana and as far south as Oklahoma. Now, she is reaching out to New Mexico.

Her program at the Corrales Library is a product of a collaboration between the Adult Lifelong Learning Program and the Friends of Coronado and Jemez Historic Sites. Matkin's presentation in Bernalillo is a result of a partnership between Friends of Coronado and Jemez Historic Sites, Friends of Libraries and Literacy and the Martha Liebert Public Library.

The other two women Matkin portrays in her Santa Fe Trail program are Susan Magoffin and Doña Tules.

Magoffin was 18 when she embarked on the Santa Fe Trail in 1846 with her older husband, Santa Fe trader Samuel Magoffin.

"She came from a life of privilege," Matkin said. "They were on the trail for 15 months. She lost a baby at Bent's Fort (in Colorado). People felt that her travails on the trail shortened her life."

Magoffin was 28 when she died. She left behind a diary recounting her experiences on the trail. It was published under the title "Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico."

"Much of what we know about the Trail came from her diary," Matkin said. "It is the writing of women that has left us impressions of the Trail."

Tules, whose real name was Maria Gertrudis Barceló, was born in Sonora, Mexico, in 1800 and would become one of the most infamous women in New Mexico history.

A gambler and courtesan, she was known not for traveling the Santa Fe Trail but for operating a gambling house and saloon on Burro Alley near the trail's terminus at the Santa Fe Plaza.

"Doña Tules was a whole different ball of wax," Matkin said. "I wanted that divergence of characters and individuals. She had wealth, she had power. People came to her for money. She was a pretty tough character, a savvy businesswoman, and she did not suffer fools gladly."

Matkin said Tules married, had two sons who died in infancy, but adopted and raised daughters. She died in 1852.

Although Tules' story is much different than those of Russell and Magoffin, Matkin said the three women had something in common.

"They were all participants, not bystanders," she said.