The Oregon-California Trails Association (a non-profit, 501 (C) (3) association) is the nation’s largest and most influential organization dedicated to the p...

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Oregon-California Trails Association

4 days ago

Today in history, September 16, 1849, Capt. Randolph Marcy writes from west Texas along the Pecos River while returning to Arkansas, in the Congressional Report "Route from Ft. Smith to Santa Fe:"

"Leaving the Delaware creek this morning, we struck out upon the prairie in a course south 64⁰ 30' east; and, after traveling nine miles, came in sight of the valley of the Rio Pecos. Our course led us down the stream six miles further, where we descended from the highlands into a sandy bottom, and encamped upon the river. The stream is here about 30 yards wide, very sinuous, rapid, and deep, with high clay banks. I understand that it receives a very considerable tributary some fifty miles above here, called the "Sacramento river," rising in the chain of mountains of that name, and this is said by the Mexicans to have upon its borders the most beautiful valley of lawns and woodlands of any streams known in New Mexico. They express their admiration of it by the word "linda," which, I believe, signifies super-excellent; yet, as it is in the heart of the Apache "range," it has never been settled.

"Our Comanche guide informs me this evening that I cannot, as I desired, go directly from the point to the head of the Colorado or Brazos, as no man (not even an Indian) ever undertaken to cross the "Llano Estacado" opposite here. He states that it is eight days travel from here to "Bosque Redondo," where the route from the "Joya de Cibaletta" crosses the Pecos, and about sixty miles to where the other route crosses near the southern terminus of the Llano Estacado. We are, therefore, obliged to follow down this stream until we find we can with safety turn east."

This overland route, mapped in 1849 by Army Captain Randolph B. Marcy, was best known as part of the Southern Routes to California. Starting at Ft. Smith, Arkansas, Marcy led an expedition across Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle into Santa Fe before dropping south to El Paso and heading back east through central West Texas. Both of the wagon roads he laid out served emigrant traffic.

After reaching Santa Fe, Marcy realized that he could shorten the route considerably by eliminating the route down the Rio Grande from Santa Fe to southern New Mexico by laying out a direct route across Texas from Fort Smith to Dona Ana or Las Cruces. He laid out that route in the fall of 1849, and the quote above is from the second half of his expedition.

In 1853, the northern section of Marcy's trail was planned as part of the route for the first transcontinental railroad in America, but the Civil War shifted sentiment to northern routes. The trail's importance declined after the railroad came through in the late 1880s.

Earlier, Josiah Gregg (1806-50) had blazed the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail in 1839-40 as a shorter route between the U.S. and New Mexico. He used this corridor while returning to Arkansas from a trading expedition to Santa Fe and Chihuahua. In his 1844 book "Commerce of the Prairies," Gregg recommended this new route that paralleled the Canadian River.

Over 2,000 California-bound gold seekers traveled it in 1849. The largest wagon train of that year was accompanied by U.S. Army troops commanded by Captain Marcy (1812-87), who made a survey of the trail for a proposed national wagon road.

The extensive use of the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail in the early 1850s caused it to be considered as a favorable route for a transcontinental railroad. Lt. A. W. Whipple of the Army Corps of Engineer surveyed a possible route in 1853-4. By the late 1850s, emigrants were traveling a more southern road through El Paso, which was eventually to become the southern railroad route, and the Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail fell into disuse and was finally abandoned. In many places on the Plains, the wagon ruts are still visible in the undisturbed prairie sod.

Last September, the Past President of the Southern Trails Chapter of OCTA, David Miller, spoke on this subject at our Santa Fe Convention. Anyone who attended the convention can watch his talk at the link here for free: https://octa-trails.org/product/david-miller-randolph-marcy-explorer-road-builder-and-guide/. Simply message us for the password. All others can buy access for only $10 to hear this hour long talk. ... See MoreSee Less

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Oregon-California Trails Association

5 days ago

We are pleased to announce that our Trails Head Chapter has just launched its new website. Everything you ever wanted to know about historic trails in Kansas City can be found here. It is extensive and comprehensive, containing video, diaries (compiled by chapter member Mary Conrad), letters, memoirs, photos, trail markers, a very dense chapter history section (400 pages of info written by OCTA Past President Ross Marshall), and interactive trail maps. To coincide with the launch of the new website, the city of Independence, Missouri announced this morning that it had just won a $1 million grant to promote, among other things, walking history tours in the city. It's a good thing our previous intern Lauren Manning (with a whole lot of back-end help from our friends with the National Park Service and especially Chapter member Craig Crease) created an interactive trail map as her final project last December! The city has already agreed to promote this as part of their marketing outreach.

A special thank you to our Chapter (and this was a true team effort; there are too many people to list here) and especially Gina Sifers and her team at Bella Media for creating such an attractive and comprehensive website. Enjoy! ... See MoreSee Less

OCTA Trailshead Chapter

www.trailshead.org

The early 19th Century towns of Independence and Westport began as “jumping off” points from the Missouri River, serving several historic trails and routes for emigrant, commerce and military purp...

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Oregon-California Trails Association

5 days ago

Today in history, September 15, 1848, a party of former Mormon Battalion personnel consisting of 45 men and one woman under Samuel Thompson were driving wagons east on the California Trail to rejoin their families in Utah when they found the junction of Samuel J. Hensley's pack trail near the rock formation called the Twin Sisters in Idaho. Thompson's group were following Hensley's pack trail back to Salt Lake City, converting it into a passable wagon road. Thompson's company traveled southeast into northern Utah, crossing Deep Creek near present-day Snowville, Utah. They found plentiful water and grass on the route, just as Hensley told them when he'd met and talked with them along the Humboldt River in Nevada.

With some difficulty, Thompson's party crossed the Malad and Bear Rivers, still traveling southeast. They then went to the tiny community of Ogden, Utah where they crossed the Weber River before traveling on to Salt Lake City. Ebenezer Brown, leading a party from the 1846 Mormon ship Brooklyn, followed them three weeks later and helped to further define the trail. Word spread quickly that a good road with good grass and water was known out of Salt Lake City back to the Oregon-California Trail.

Earlier in 1848, Samuel Hensley was returning to California, leading a pack train of ten men on a quest to get back to the California Trail. After trying Hastings Route south of the Great Salt Lake and finding the salt flats too soft because of heavy rains that year, they returned to Salt Lake City and discovered a route north of the Great Salt Lake. His newly blazed trail went from Salt Lake City back to the Oregon-California Trail and joined the main trail near the City of Rocks, about 7 miles north of today's Utah-Idaho border. This became known as the Salt Lake Cutoff and was about the same distance as the Fort Hall, Snake River, Raft River, and City of Rocks route which it bypassed.

When the gold-crazy emigrants of 1849 heard of this new route to the California gold fields, many thousands detoured to Salt Lake City to get new supplies and livestock. Ferries charging a few dollars per wagon were established at the Weber, Bear, and Malad Rivers in 1849 and later. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 California or Oregon-bound emigrants a year passed through Salt Lake City between 1849 and 1852. Thousands more followed every year before 1869 and the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

The Salt Lake Cutoff is one of the many shortcuts, or cutoffs, that branched from the California, Mormon and Oregon Trails. It led northwest out of Salt Lake City and north of the Great Salt Lake for about 180 miles before rejoining the California Trail near the City of Rocks. From there, trail travelers could easily travel down the Raft River valley portion of the California Trail or return to the Oregon Trail. It provided a way to stop in Salt Lake City, which was the only significant city on the trail then, for repairs, fresh supplies, and fresh livestock. In later years, it was used by tens of thousands of pioneers and miners going east and west on their way to or from the future states of California, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Nevada or Washington.

Hensley, a veteran of the Mexican-American War, would build a house in San Jose in 1850 and, along with his wife, would deliver the papers ratifying California as a state to the new state capital building in San Jose. His home still stands near the former state capital and anchors the Hensley Historic District. Hensley was born in Clay County, Kentucky on September 16, 1817, but would die at the relatively young age of 48 on January 7, 1866. He is buried in the Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, San Mateo County. ... See MoreSee Less

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Oregon-California Trails Association

6 days ago

Gerald Ahnert shared this in our Southern Trails Chapter group and we wanted to make sure more eyes saw it:

On this day September 14, 1858 the first Butterfield stage started its journey on the 2,700-mile Butterfield Trail.

“This stage, with the mails, started from the Plaza, at San Francisco, at precisely ten minutes past midnight, of the 14th ultimo and arrived at Tipton, the present terminus of the Pacific railroad, at five minutes past nine o’clock, on the morning of the 9th [October] instant.”

On board was Special Agent Goddard Bailey who was assigned the task by Post Master General Aaron V. Brown to see if the Overland Mail Company would meet the requirements of the $600,000 annual contract.

Bailey stated in his report “In conclusion, I have to report that, with the exception mentioned above [the bad condition of the road from Ft. Smith to Springfield, Missouri], the company have faithfully complied with all the conditions of the contract.” ... See MoreSee Less

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