Information taken from:  Preserving Our Historic Overland Trails: The Story of OCTA
by Ruth Anderson, a charter member. This booklet and Ruth's recent update OCTA - The Growing Years are available from  at $5  each plus shipping and handling. My purpose here is not to reproduce the books, but just to outline the beginnings of OCTA, because I marvel at beginnings.

AS A YOUNG MAN  Ezra Meeker came west on the Oregon Trail in 1852. More than 50 years later, in 1906, he realized that the old trail he held so fondly in his memory was being plowed under and concreted over and just generally forgotten. So he got a covered wagon and a team of oxen and went backwards along the trail, telling the story and trying to awaken a spirit of preservation in communities along the trail. It worked! Many stone markers were erected or promised in towns along the trail, most paid for by local contributions. He even persuaded Congress to issue special souvenir half-dollars to be sold to collectors. In later years he repeated his trip by car and in 1924 by airplane.

In 1926 he formed the Oregon Trail Memorial Association (OTMA) to carry on his work. It was highly successful. In 1940 the name was changed to American Pioneer Trails Association. They worked till about 1954 and then slowly faded away.

Twenty-five or thirty years went by before there was another unified effort to preserve the trails. To be sure, many individuals traveled and wrote about the trails, producing a rich library of both field and academic research (Paden, Unruh, Mattes, Morgan,  Franzwa, to mention only a few.) Some governmental agencies also studied portions of the trails and produced reports. A network of "trail junkies" developed , with a deep love for the trails and great concerns for preserving these early roads so that the future may know and appreciate its past.

In the early 1980s many things happened that seemed to cry out for unified action, chief among these a 1981 amendment to the 1968 National Historical Trails System Act. This amendment added the Oregon, Mormon Pioneer, Lewis & Clark, and Iditerod Trails to the System, but left out the California and Pony Express Trails. Oil and geo-thermal exploration threatened several prime segments. Highway routings threatened others, Alcove Spring was taken over by Vandals and several miles of pristine ruts near Echo, Oregon were plowed up for a potato field. On page 254 of Maps of the Oregon Trail, author Gregory Franzwa says: "It was this very incident which led directly to the founding of the Oregon-California Trails Association."

In the spring of 1982 Franzwa wrote to a number of equally concerned persons seeking their suggestions and support. A nucleus was formed and a meeting set for Denver for August 11, 1982. This meeting was attended by Gregory Franzwa, Dr. John A. Latschar, Robert D. Tucker, James F. Bowers, Robert Rennels, Bertha Rennels, Troy Gray, Billie Gray, Merrill J. Mattes, Roger Blair, Dr. Merle W. Wells, and James P. Johnson.

Officers and Board Members were elected, a committee was appointed to write by-laws, and plans for the first convention were laid. A motion was made by Troy Gray that the name should be the Oregon-California Trails Association.  It passed unanimously. The new association unanimously agreed upon the name Overland Journal for its publication, to be issued quarterly to all dues paying members.

The first address at the charter convention was a Tribute to the Oregon Trail Memorial Association by Merrill J. Mattes. It was printed in the Winter 1984 OJ and is reprinted here to inspire us to continue the good work that was started 18 years ago.

In the next several years, as membership grew, members who shared a common state or region began getting together and working together to provide conventions, tours, and other support. In 1988 the Board of Directors recognized that these regional groups would be necessary to fully cary out the purposes of the organization. By-laws were written authorizing the formation of chapters and providing guidelines and policies for the granting of charters. It was decided that people would first be members of the parent organization, and then join one or more chapters, as they wished.

When these guidelines were adopted the following already existing chapters were recognized and issued charters: Arizona-New Mexico (1988), California-Nevada-Hawaii (1986), Colorado (1988), Idaho-Montana (1987), Trails Head (1987), Gateway (1986), Nebraska (1987), Northwest (1986), and Wyoming (1987). Subsequently AZ-NM was changed to Southwest, CA-NV-HI became California-Nevada. The Utah/Crossroads chapter was chartered in March 1990, and the Kanza chapter in March 1995. All Chapters are provided with the official documents of  the organization, guidelines, and OCTA's liability waiver.

Merrill J. Mattes tribute article to OTMA

Northwest Chapter
(directly quoted from Ruth Anderson's OCTA - The Growing Years)

A dedication ceremony for the Catherine Bonnet Butts and three unknown pioneer graves was held June 4, 1988. The Chapter worked with the Oregon Trail Coordinating Council in submitting "An Initiative for Significant Historical Trail Routes in Oregon and Washington." Treks included the Barlow Cutoff Trail, Oregon City, blue Mountains, Brownsville, Bloody Point, burnett's 1848 Gold Rush Route, Whitman Mission, Fort Boise, Keeney Pass, Farewell bend, Applegate Trail, Barlow Trail, Fort Vancouver, Biggs Junction, John Day River crossings, the beginning of the Meek-Elliot-Macy route, Foster House, Blue Mountain Hiking Segment, Naches Pass, and Cascades of the Columbia.

A network of local trail preservation officers monitor known trail sites in the area. the chapter's Publications committee is charged with producing an Oregon Trail Historical Overview for the I-84 driving route. A seminar on trail history was presented. Members work with COED, and a newsletter is published regularly. The chapter hosted the 1993 convention at Baker City and the 1998 convention at Pendleton."