According to documentation, large expeditionary parties using mule-drawn carts with military escorts would be formed a few times a year to make the long journey to the salinas. After 1824, the salt trail is documented on maps with three stops noted: Ojo de Soledad, San Augustin, and Ojo San Nicholas. The salt trail was a wagon road that connected El Paso del Norte to Salina de San Andres, and followed the eastern slopes of the Organ and San Andres Mountains. The Lake Lucero salinas, located on White Sands National Park, were first officially documented as a discovery by West Texas Hispanos in 1824 during the Mexican Period. While there is evidence that salt was being mined from the area, there are no clear place names, geographic landmarks, or maps to connect these trails and the salinas with contemporary locations. The Guadalupe salinas, southwest of the Guadalupe Mountains in the eastern Tularosa Basin, were discovered by the Spanish in 1691, and both the Guadalupe and Lake Lucero deposits supplied the Spanish-operated silver mines in Mexico. The Apache presence in the Tularosa Basin continued to be a deterrent for salt gathering. Salt is an invaluable mineral, both for the health of people and their livestock, but also as a fundamental element in the processing of silver ore.
In 1647, the Spanish colonists established salt trails into the interior of the Tularosa Basin connecting the salt deposits north of Lake Lucero with the Camino Real in El Paso del Norte and the silver mining operations in Durango, Mexico.
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