We forget today just how long the Spanish were in the Southwest. They basically spent 300 years there. That is a lot of time for explorers, traders, deserters, and missionaries to get around. We probably only really know of fraction of the evnts that took place there in that span of time. There are thousands of legends of Spanish gold and whatnot all through the country, and undoubtedly, some of them are true. And the French were in many of these places for almost as long as well.
As for the roads, I think both Indians and Spaniards alike followed buffalo wallows and trails as much as anything. I know of one buffalo trail that runs across our land that can be followed of and on for at least ten miles. The average person would never know what it is. It is just a depression with sloping sides with no creek in the bottom. But imagine it 250 years ago when it would have been a wide path trodden by thousands of hoofs for centuries cutting through impenetrable woods and prairies for miles on end.
When my Dad was a boy, he found this old dagger under a huge old cottonwood tree in their front yard. It said something like "Valerie" on one side and "Deere" on the other. It was completely cast in bronze. Mom and Dad have it framed in a picture frame and hanging up in their house. Most unusual. They always thought it was Spanish for some reason.
I've got depressions in the prairie grass on my land. I've always figured they were old Buffalo wallows.
