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Oregon-California Trails Association

1 day ago

What preparations would you make for a trip cross-country?Mrs. Margaret Frink:"The wagon was designed expressly for the trip, it being built light, with everything planned for convenience. It was so arranged that when closed up, it could be used as our bedroom. The bottom was divided off into little compartments or cupboards. ... The wagon was lined with green cloth, to make it pleasant and soft for the eye.... To prepare for crossing the deserts, we also had two India-rubber bottles holding five gallons each, for carrying water."Preparation for traveling the 2,000+ miles across the emigrant trails was critical to any emigrant's success. Many would study months before their departure and many guidebooks would be written, claiming to offer the best advice. Some of the better ones included "The Latter-Day Saints' Emigrant Guide," "The National Wagon Road," and "The Prairie Traveler."The Frink's preparations go beyond what most emigrants would do, even thinking so far ahead as to buy wood for their home at $4/thousand foot and shipping it to California by sea, instead of the $400/thousand foot it might cost in California.Join us on Thursday for the Frinks' departure. #MidwestNPS #FindYourPark #californiatrail NPS photo from Scotts Bluff National Monument. Not as fancy as that of Mrs. and Mr. Frink but it got the job done. ... See MoreSee Less

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Oregon-California Trails Association

1 day ago

CORRECTED OCTA Board Meeting Zoom Info, March 2023 - ... See MoreSee Less

CORRECTED OCTA Board Meeting Zoom Info, March 2023

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Oregon-California Trails Association

2 days ago

The Oregon-California Trails Association (OCTA) and its Gateway Chapter are presenting "Journey West From St. Joseph Symposium," from Thursday, March 30 to Sunday, April 2.Click through to read more. ... See MoreSee Less

'Journey West From St. Joseph Symposium' set for March 30-April 2

www.hiawathaworldonline.com

The Oregon-California Trails Association (OCTA) and its Gateway Chapter are presenting "Journey West From St. Joseph Symposium," from Thursday, March 30 to Sunday, April 2.

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Oregon-California Trails Association

3 days ago

This Marker Monday, we visit the final resting place of Mormon migrant Rebecca Winter, who was one of the many pioneers who died of cholera on their westward journey.Marker Text: https://history.nebraska.gov/marker-monday-rebecca-winters/📷: View of Rebecca Winter's grave, circa 1929. ... See MoreSee Less

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Oregon-California Trails Association

6 days ago

OCTA E-News for Friday, March 24, 2023 - ... See MoreSee Less

OCTA E-News for Friday, March 24, 2023

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2023 OCTA Spring Symposium Journey West from St. Joseph Symposium March 30 - April 2, 2023 St. Joseph, Missouri

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Oregon-California Trails Association

6 days ago

Authentic letters from the Butterfield Overland Mail ... See MoreSee Less

Authentic letters from the Butterfield Overland Mail

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Bob Crossman shows us some of his collection of letters that were actually carried across the US on the Butterfield Overland Mail as he talks about the Butte...

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Oregon-California Trails Association

6 days ago

Could you leave friends and family behind for an unknown life in an unknown place?Some might wonder why someone would pick up everything that they had and leave friends and family behind for an unknown life in an unknown place with no guarantee of success in a frontier that was little understood. Yet, even today, many experience the same thing, minus a wagon and 3+ month journey. Some sought free or cheap land, others sought adventure, religious freedom, freedom from politics, freedom from bondage, and for a majority of the people who would travel overland, as Margaret Frink put it, for "delightful climate and abundance of gold." It was a chance at a better life, often a gamble.There were plenty of skeptics. Mrs. Frink notes her experience with them: "We know nothing of frontier life, nor how to prepare for it. ... we were met with all the discouragements and obstructions that our neighbors and the people of our country could invent or imagine, to induce us not to attempt such a perilous journey." #MidwestNPS #FindYourPark #CaliforniaTrail Sketch of "The Mining Business in Four Pictures," undated, Britton & Rey, call number: 48052:009, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California ... See MoreSee Less

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Oregon-California Trails Association

6 days ago

It is the last Friday with the Donner/Reed party. "And thus ends the terrible, thrilling, and true saga of the Donner/Reed wagon party of 1846." Thank you to California Trail Interpretive Center staff for all their research, writing, and postings of this infamous episode on the trail.Friday with the Donners:As this series comes to a close, The California Trail Interpretive Center would like to thank those of you who have been following these weekly posts. If you missed or would like to reread any of the posts you can follow the hashtag link #fridayswiththedonnerpartyMarch 1847: Sometime toward the end of this month, George Donner dies. After laying him out, his wife Tamsen sets out to cross the mountains. She arrives at the Breen cabin, where Lewis Keseberg is living, mysteriously, she does not survive the night.Eliza Farnham wrote in her 1856 book California In-doors and Out, based on interviews with Mrs. Breen:“...they reached Mule Springs [...] There Mrs. B. (Breen) learned of the safe arrival of her sons who had preceded her, and of the fate that had befallen other(s), and there she found new cause of thanksgiving for the unspeakable love that had sustained them through all the sufferings and perils ..”April 17, 1847: The Fourth Relief reaches the lake. Lewis Keseberg, surrounded by half-eaten corpses, is the only one alive.April 29, 1847: The last member of the Donner Party, Lewis Keseberg, arrives at Sutter's Fort.Mortality summaryThere were 87 emigrants in the Donner Party, plus Luis and Salvador, two California Indians who joined them in Nevada, for a total of 89 people. Of the 89, a net of 81 people were trapped in the mountains.Of the total 89 people, 41 died and 48 survived; of the original 87 emigrants, 39 died and 48 survived; of the 81 people trapped in the mountains, 36 died and 45 survived.About two-thirds of the women and children survived, while about two-thirds of the men died. All four Donner adults (the couples George & Tamsen Donner and Jacob & Elizabeth Donner) died; all the Breens and Reeds survived.The survivors of the Donner Party settled throughout California, and some became quite well-known with numerous descendants.Lewis Keseberg was the most infamous and vilified member of the Donner Party. Keseberg, 32, was the last member of the Party to be rescued, by the Fourth Relief. It is said that he lived 4 months on human flesh. Upon his arrival at Sutter’s Fort, he filed an action for defamation against Ned Coffeemeyer. Presumably, the allegedly defamatory statements were the stories spread by the Fourth Relief that Keseberg had killed Mrs. Donner for her money. The court found for Keseberg but awarded him only one dollar in damages. Keseberg captained Sutter’s launch in Sacramento and later opened a boarding house in Sacramento. Lewis Keseberg died in 1895.William McCutchen was a hero of the Donner Party.William McCutchen, 30, left the Party with Charles Stanton on about September 12, 1846. They rode ahead from Relief Springs, Nevada, to Sutter’s Fort for supplies. McCutchen joined James Reed on his unsuccessful relief of November 1846, and on the Second Relief. He lived to old age in San Jose. His wife Amanda, 30, survived the Snowshoe Party.June 22, 1847: General Stephen Watts Kearny, heading east, reaches what he calls the "Cannibal Camp". Mormon Battalion veterans in his party gather the remains into the Breen cabin. The bodies are buried there, and the cabin is then set afire.Clean-Up Operations:In June 1847, General Kearny led his detachment back to the United States. As Sargeant Nathaniel Jones recorded in his journal for June 22, 1847:“We came down the lake to some cabins that had been built by some emigrants last fall. [...] The general called a halt and ordered 5 men to bury the deserted bodies that were lying on the ground. This place now goes by the name of cannibal camp. [...] After we had buried the bones of the dead, we set fire to the cabin.And thus ends the terrible, thrilling, and true saga of the Donner/Reed wagon party of 1846. Sources: Survivors (donnerpartydiary.com), Donner Party timeline - Wikipedia , C.F. McGlashan | Media Museum of Northern California (norcalmediamuseum.org)Photo: Cover of “History of the Donner Party”. Charles Fayette McGlashan became interested in the story of the Donner Party as the relief operations began. This interest led to a thorough two-year investigation of the Donner tragedy, culminating in the book “History of the Donner Party.” The story was first run in serial form in the Truckee Republican and is McGlashan’s main claim to fame. ... See MoreSee Less

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Oregon-California Trails Association

1 week ago

For your summer trails trip planning . . . . Why would you want to see the Platte River? Because its a perfect curiousity!The Platte River was alien to most people coming onto the Great Plains from east of the Mississippi River. Here is what some of the diarists thought."Its waters are very shallow, and are scattered over their broad bed in almost innumerable channels, nearly obscured by the naked sand-bars that (meander) its entire course through the grand prairie. ... the valley of the Platte is six or seven miles wide, and the river itself between one and two miles from bank to bank." - Rufus Sage, 1841 or 1842"The river is a perfect curiosity, it is so very different from any of our streams that it is hard to realize that a river should be running so near the top of the ground without timber and no bank at all." - Martha M. Moore, 1859What was your first impression of the Platte River? Where did you see it for the first time? #FindYourPark #MidwestNPS #platteriver Image: William Henry Jackson Collection, Scotts Bluff National Monument, unknown date ... See MoreSee Less

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Oregon-California Trails Association

1 week ago

Cochise County - Arizona Trails ... See MoreSee Less

Cochise County - Arizona Trails

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Doug Hocking presents at the OCTA Southern Trails Annual Meeting in Tombstone. The Trails across Cochise CountyDiscover your Trail. The Oregon-California Tr...

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Featured Products

Bruff's Wake: J. Goldsborough Bruff & the California Gold Rush, by H. L James $24.95
The Oregon Trail Revisited, by Gregory M. Franzwa $24.95
In Pursuit of a Dream (DVD) $20.00
Reading, Writing and Riding Along the Oregon-California Trails (An Educational Activity Book), by William E. Hill $8.95

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