Summary 1999

The Fall of 1999 proved to be our busiest. The mid-August OCTA (Oregon California Trails Assoc.) meeting in Chico, Calif. gave us several opportunities to promote our book. A pre-convention tour led by Frank Tortorich over Carson Route provided us a chance to see and hear details of the difficulties encountered on this route by both the 1849 and 1850 Arkansas/Cherokee companies, as well as others. It also gave us a chance to read from our book the letter & diary passages describing hardships encountered in the desert and going over the pass. Quote: ”It had snowed and now heavy frost as we reached the top". Crawford: “Sunday 14 [Oct 1849]...9 miles...I never felt the wind blow so hard in any place...while crossing this Mt. It was all we could do to keep from being Blown off ...Some of our boys had to crawl to keep from Being Swept away.” Pyeatt: “...whill we ware crossing the sumit the wind blew all most like a tornado it had lik to have taken one of our wagons of[f] but by locking both wheels and the help of the oxen we saved it... the wind blew severl of the men down sow that they had to hold to rock to save themselves....thear had bin some snow before we crosed.” (p. 165) Sarah Winnemucca: “...we (Piute traveling with Chief Truckee) were camped upon the (Carson) summit, and it snowed very hard all night.” (p.166)

Besides the field trip and having a book table at the conference with Lee Whiteley, Pat & I spent a week visiting historical societies, museums, sites and the gold towns along California’s Hwy 49. Many historians were surprised at the impact our companies had on their gold towns. Of special interest was Butte County’s Cherokee; town history concerning Potter can now be corrected; Dry Town whose prominent merchant was Cherokee Devereaux Jarrette Bell “Bell’s Exchange”; Sheep Ranch owned by Cherokee Clem Vann McNair (developed ranch and mine; mine sold to the Hearst family). Thanks to Elizabeth Fischer of San Diego for research and the new tombstones for Clem Vann McNair and (Mrs.) Martha McNair. [McNair grave Sheep Ranch, CA]

There have been two new articles of interest: Paul Hershey’s excellent article “Calvin Hall Holmes: Events from the Life of a Forty-Niner” in The Pioneer The Newsletter of the Society of California Pioneers. Both Calvin and brother Henderson Holmes were with Captain Evans in 1849. If you have any info on Holmes’ two cattle drives from Arkansas to California in the 1850s please contact us and we’ll pass it on to Paul. Larry Cenotto of Amador County wrote a very interesting second article dealing with the 1849 Arkansas cabin built by the Pyeatt contingent on the Consumnes River, an 1850 census site. Our book provided the information about location and original occupants (p 168).

September & October found us in our camper heading east to Denver for our book dedication to Loyd Glasier. Lee made the arrangements and gave the program that followed. Lee also gave the Merrill Mattes dedication; Clara could not attend. The next day was spent with Johanna Harden, archivist for Douglas County library at Castle Rock, who has received a grant to make a documentary film about the Cherokee Trail through that county. Lee will be close at hand. Before we leave the western segment of the trail it should be mentioned that Russ Tanner and Tere Del Bene at BLM’s Rock Springs office have located another six miles of the Evans 1849 route near Sulphur Springs (CT Wyo. Map #15).

The Eastern Segment of the trail turned out even more productive then we ever dreamed. A book signing at the Talbot Museum & Genealogy Library, Colcord (Oklahoma) arranged by Donna Clark, was a highlight and gave us a chance to meet many people we had written to and more that we had heard of. One was June Smith who took the picture. Donna’s home and the Library provided us with a home base where everything was sent during our eight week research/selling/presentation trip. Thank you Donna and Imogene.

The week long Santa Fe Trail Assoc. meeting in Council Grove, Kansas and our trail presentation to the Cottonwood Chapter, SFTA, introduced us to a new group of people. One highlight here was the finding and documenting of swales coming out of West Emma Creek on the Alden Schroeder farm near Goessel, KS. These are the second set of traces of the Cherokee Trail found near here. Thanks to John Dick of that chapter for making the arrangements and finding the crossing of that creek. (CT KS map #4) Mr.Arnold Schofield, NPS historian at Fort Scott made arrangements for us to give an afternoon presentation to the Staff and an evening one to the public. Another day was spent in their library and talking with Arnold about the Cherokee Neutral Lands and the Jeter Lynch Thompson (Cherokee)/Judge Tully (Missouri) 1849 party possibly being the first emigrants over the Fort Scott-Council Grove pathway. (p.150). Much time was spent trying to identify the Malinda Armstrong whose gravesite remains prominent on our trail near Green River.(CT WY map #15).

One week of searching in the Sherman, TX. area turned up a local Armstrong family, (two US Army brothers and an Choctaw Indian agent) all prominent in that area during that time. The genealogy facility at Calera, Oklahoma, like the one at Colcord proved to be outstanding. A chance reading in Arkansas noting there was a Lewis Evans in Texas sent us to the beautiful town of Gonzales. Three days of research in their outstanding archives, and unexpectedly meeting an old timer (who had the records) at the Masonic cemetery, turned up the Lewis Evans Grave. This ended our decade and a half search for Evans. A clue there in Texas led us back to Kansas and one of the largest cattle operations ever in that state and Lewis Evans’ sons. Please contact us with your piece of family history on the Cherokee Trail. Jack and Pat Fletcher jpfletcher@olympus.net

Summary 2000

In May of 2000 the Rock Springs, Wyoming Office of the Bureau of Land Management conducted a one-week workshop on locating, mapping, and marking segments of the Cherokee and Cherokee/Overland Trails. Staffed by volunteers from Washington, California, Tennessee, and Wyoming, five days of trail work was conducted under the supervision of Terry Del Bene, Russ Tanner, and Mike Brown of the BLM.

The Cherokee/Overland was informative in that our starting points were the old stone stage stations; many structures still remain. The trail between the stage stations was located using early GLO maps, by walking and looking for ruts or swales and early telegraph & telephone pole remains. Prior to the outbreak of Indian activity during the Civil War the Overland Stage followed the more northerly Oregon/California Trail, but was moved down upon the Cherokee Trail in 1862. One of the highlights was Sulphur Springs Meadows, first noted by the1849 Evans/Cherokee party, and continually used as a rendezvous area to recuperate their stock by those traveling the Overland Stage route. Several hours were spent locating and reading the many names carved into the near by bluff from which the springs burst forth

Two days were to be spent on the 1850 Cherokee Trail; however newly-found  human remains demanded Russ Tanner's archaeological expertise. One half-day was spent at the excavation site on the west side of the Green River at the crossing of the Cherokee Trail near Buckboard Crossing, under the auspices of the National Forest Service. They inquired whether the remains could have been from the 1849 packers or 1850 wagon companies in our book. We assured them they were not.

A day and a half was spent locating & walking considerable distances over the trail, with a visit to Malinda Armstrong's grave. The closing highlight on the trail was the observation of 75 wild mustangs and their stallions' markings (dung piles several feet tall).

Two separate late summer fires (40,000 acres each) burned over miles of the 1850 Cherokee Trail, leaving a white line or track through miles of blackened ground. One positive aspect, recorded on film from the air, was that this white track provided trail continuity. The reseeding of the area with grass will diminish those parts of the trail that was noted by vegetation change. Alert actions were taken by the BLM 1)before the fire, digging many postholes for the trail markers, and 2)after the fire, obtaining additional markers for placement on the trail.

Over 150 markers will be placed on the Cherokee Trail in time for the Casper 2001 OCTA Cherokee Trail Pre-Convention field trip. Each 6 ft concrete marker weighs about 250 lbs and contains 5 rebars, with"Cherokee Trail" imbedded vertically. Jack & Pat looking at the newly arrived   BLM Cherokee trail markers August 2000 .

Our book table at the OCTA 2000 Kansas City convention provided an opportunity to acquaint many of the "eastern" members with the trail. A presentation by Arnold Schofield, NPS Historian at Fort Scott, included the Cherokee Trail and gave high praise of our book, which was gratifying.

A productive week of research in the Kansas City/Independence area, another at the Kansas Historical Society and all of their institutions of higher education, has ended our quest for additional materials for BOOK Two on the Cherokee trail.

Colorado PBS is producing a Documentary film on the Cherokee Trail in 2001. A late Spring phone call from National Geographic, and subsequent letter and numerous emails enabled us to have both the Eastern and Western 1850 Cherokee Trails incorporated on the map Western Migration in the September 2000 issue.