The Trapper's Trail is a north-south path along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

 that links the Great Platte River Road

Great Platte River Road

The Great Platte River Road was the convergence point for the Trapper's Trail, the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, the California Trail, the Pony Express route, and the military road from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Laramie across Nebraska. The Road, which extended from the Second Fort Kearny to Fort...

 at Fort Laramie and the Santa Fe Trail

Santa Fe Trail

The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1822 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880...

 at Bent's Old Fort. Along this path there were a number of trading post

Trading post

A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....

s, also called trading forts. It was an important trade route

Trade route

A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a single trade route contains long distance arteries which may further be connected to several smaller networks of commercial...

 for animal trappers and fur traders in the North American fur trade

North American Fur Trade

The North American fur trade was the industry and activities related to the acquisition, exchange, and sale of animal furs in the North American continent. Indigenous peoples of different regions traded among themselves in the Pre-Columbian Era, but Europeans participated in the trade beginning...

 from about 1820-1846.

In 1846 it was used by a group of Mormon

Mormon

The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

 immigrants who established a branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints near the southern end of the trail. The sick detachments of the Mormon Battalion

Mormon Battalion

The Mormon Battalion was the only religiously based unit in United States military history, and it served from July 1846 to July 1847 during the Mexican-American War. The battalion was a volunteer unit of between 534 and 559 Latter-day Saints men led by Mormon company officers, commanded by regular...

 used this trail to return to the Mormon pioneers on the Mormon Trail

Mormon Trail

The Mormon Trail or Mormon Pioneer Trail is the 1,300 mile route that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints traveled from 1846 to 1868...

.