Indoor Outing

Tumwater Middle School hosted NWOCTA on Saturday 19, 2001 to hear two excellent presentations by our members. First, Jack and Pat Fletcher treated us to a slide show about their fifteen year research project on the Cherokee Trail. No, not the Trail of Tears, but the 1849 and 1850 trail to the gold fields in California. Their Book Cherokee Trail Diaries was built from many trips over the trail and from many primary sources. Where did they find the primary sources, someone asked. And I paraphrase the answer: "We looked in the major libraries, Bancroft, Newberry, etc. and they had nothing. So we started looking for small, local historical societies and genealogical societies, and that's where we struck our gold. Small ads were also placed in newspapers and pretty soon the diaries and reminiscences started pouring in, from as far away as Hawaii, in one instance." They have now accumulated enough material to document continued use of this trail from 1851 to 1883, and another volume is in the works.

Part of Fletcher's Trail became the Overland Trail, and, largely through their work the BLM has begun marking that trail with heavy concrete markers. At the OCTA convention in August Jack and Pat will lead a tour of conventioneers over part of the route from Saratoga, WY west and over the continental divide. You can get the complete story and buy the book on their website: http://rutnut.com/cherokeetrail

Next up was , who put the six month Oregon Trail Odyssey into one hour with pertinent and poignant diary quotes. He came up with a very interesting mix which talked about almost every aspect of trail life: recruiting (in two senses), preparing, supplies, murder and swift justice, heartache, accidental and disease related death, and elation at reaching the goal. Jim very wisely let the emigrants speak for themselves and they did so eloquently, especially to an audience who already knows the story. Many of the quotes were from his own ancestors who came out on the Oregon Trail in various years.

Jim was a high school history teacher for nearly thirty years, and now does freelance work researching and teaching the trail. He is a docent at McLoughlin House in Oregon City and he is also a consultant to the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. Wearing two hats he just arranged for an OCTA Marker to be place at the entrance to EOTIC. More info about that is at: Abernethy Green Marker.

He recently completed a history book of Oregon City and is working now on what he calls "The Five Oregon Trails", a unique approach which delineates five different time periods of the trail and the different conditions which existed in each. He says: "When we read or hear diary quotes, the year is important because, for instance, the early emigrants had no roads, while the later ones had roads, bridges, ferries so their experience was quite different." He is also working on an article for the Overland Journal about early surveying and land claims.

Jim is also an excellent tour guide on the Oregon Trail in Oregon, the Barlow Road, and Oregon City. Coming up June 23 and 24 he will be leading a Barlow Road tour from The Dalles to Oregon City.

The location was set up by Chuck Hornbuckle who welcomed visitors and talked about many of our activities, and exhibited his recent detailed report to the National Park Service on our trail marking activies for the last four years. Chuck is a tireless worker in many historical societies, and can always be counted on to get the job done.

After the program we all had lunch at Izzy's and reviewed the day. Many people have asked for this type of activity to give our members a chance to show off their skills and research. The luncheon group decided this could be the start of our Speakers Bureau.

We will be compiling a list of people who will go out and speak to groups, both on their own subject and on OCTA in general. There is already a Speakers Bureau page on this website, but so far I only have a few re-enactors listed. More will be coming, so if you have a talk you give to groups please send a brief description and contact information to and .