Kiowa National Grasslands Forestry Services

About forestry service, 81027, Branson, CO, US, New Mexico

Clayton is a town in and the county seat of Union County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 2,980. == History == === Early history === Native Americans were present in the area of Clayton for at least 10,000 years, as evidenced by the findings at the Folsom site about 55 miles northwest of Clayton, near the village of Folsom. The first Spanish explorers in the 16th century found the region inhabited by the Apache people. In the 18th and early to mid-19th century, the Comanche controlled this region. The Spanish called their domain Comancheria. The Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail brought some of the first settlers through the Clayton region. The Santa Fe Trail was first established in 1821 after Spanish rule was evicted from Mexico which opened up trade between Santa Fe and the United States. William Becknell, also known as the Father of the Santa Fe Trail, became the first person to utilize the Santa Fe Trail as a trade route between the state of Missouri and Santa Fe. He established the Cimarron Cutoff, also known as the Cimarron Route, as a faster route between countries as the Cimarron Route shortened the Trail by more than 100 miles.