Gregg Trailer Marker at Amarillo, Texas - Side A

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Marker Text: Side A - Josiah Gregg (1806 1850), prompted by ill health, set out with a caravan from Independence, Missouri, for Santa Fe, New Mexico, on May 15, 1831. During a period of nine years he made frequent journeys to Santa Fe. Greggs route took him across Oklahoma and the Panhandle of Texas north of the Canadian River. On a return journey from Santa Fe to Van Buren, Arkansas, in 1840, he sought a route south of the Canadian. On March 14, he camped at the spot now known as Wild Horse Lake in the north part of present Amarillo. His route on March 15, as he left Wild Horse Lake, probably crossed the site of this monument. // Geographic: 35.228806, -101.825005 Location: ​ intersection of NE 15th Avenue and North Grant Street, Amarillo -- source: https://texashistoricalmarkers.weebly.com/gregg-trail.html

Josiah Gregg was born July 19, 1806, in Overton County, the youngest of seven children of Harmon and Susannah (Smelser) Gregg.  When Josiah was six, the family moved to Howard County, Missouri.  At the age of 18, Josiah was teaching school in Liberty, Missouri.  While there, Josiah studied law and surveying. In 1825, the Gregg family moved to Independence, Missouri. He survived consumption and chronic dyspepsia in 1830.  Josiah studied medicine and practiced for a short period, though he did not style himself as a doctor.

Departing Independence on May 15, 1831, Josiah spent the next several years travelling along the Santa Fe Trail and other expansive routes, collecting and documenting plants and mapping and describing his journeys.

After leaving Mexico to join the California Gold Rush in 1849, a starved Josiah died after falling from his horse near Clear Lake, California, in 1850.  His grave is unmarked.  All his papers, instruments, and specimens were lost.

The Arkansas Gazette, dated 19 May 1850, contains an announcement under the title “Death of Capt. Gregg”:

“We regret to learn by the last accounts from California, of the decease of Capt. Josiah Gregg, formerly a resident of Arkansas, and well known as the author of the “Commerce of the Prairies.” Capt. Gregg died on 25 Feb., at Clear Lake, California. He joined the company of Trinidad adventurers in November last, and encountered with them the hardships and perils of their fatiguing travel. So incessant and severe were the trials of the journey that his physical powers sunk under them, and an absence of medical attendance, added to general debility, caused his death.”

Josiah Gregg is known primarily for his explorations of the American West and the 1849 publication of a two-volume work entitled Commerce of the Prairies, or, The Journal of a Santa Fé Trader, During Eight Expeditions Across the Great Western Prairies and a Residence of nearly nine Years in Northern Mexico.  Several monuments have been erected to memorialize Josiah’s activities (see the photo album on this page), and a few dozen plan species have been named “greggii” in his honor.  Josiah’s portrait, painted by artist Herndon Davis, hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

Click here to read a detailed description of Josiah Gregg’s life at Wikipedia.

Click here to read a PDF-formatted article, dated 1930, from the American Antiquarian Society, containing a brief biography and transcripts of letters written by Josiah Gregg.

Click here to read and listen to Kansas Public Radio’s podcast commemoration of Josiah Gregg.