|
|
Pioneering
the Trail
an Overview
(Cherokee Trail Diaries CTD V 1)
|
In
1849 a Cherokee wagon train from the Nation and wagon groups
of whites mainly from Washington County, Arkansas
rendezvoused on the Grand [Neosho]
River at the Grand Saline [salt works] for the sole purpose
of going to the California Goldfields.
There
they elected officers with Lewis Evans of Evansville,
Arkansas as Captain; Thomas Tyner, 1st Lt.; Peter Mankins,
2nd Lt.; Joseph Waits, 1st Sarg; George North 2nd Sarg;, S B
M [Squire Marrs] 3rd Sarg; J[ames] Crawford 1st Division
Wagonmaster; Jno Cline 2nd____; Js McCullock 3rd____; Henry
Freyschlag 4th___. Cherokees James Vann, Secretary; and
Martin Scrimpsher, Commissary were also elected. Not on the
list was Dinkley, the sutler at Fort Gibson,
who joined the company.
Under Evans/ leadership the forty-wagon train
pioneered [built] the first wagon road
northwest through
northeastern Oklahoma,
crossing the Verdigris River near Coody’s Bluff. The train
continued northwest passing just east of present-day
Wann,
Oklahoma entering the Osage Diminished
Reserve in present day
Kansas.
This
company information including a printed list of participants
can be found in
Cherokee Trail Diaries, Vol I
Chapter 3."Rendezvous at the Grand Saline"
|
|
Entering
south central Kansas,
present Montgomery County,
traveling on the highlands between the Verdigris and
Caney
Rivers, the 40 wagons and 129 people
crossed the Walnut River at present El Dorado,
Kansas and the
Whitewater
River near present Potwin, Kansas.
On May
13, 1849 the wagon train struck the Santa Fe Trail at
Running Turkey Creek east of McPherson, and south of
Galva,
Kansas. A large stone was found,
chiseled with a description of the route just taken and
placed at this location. It would later become the site of
the Fuller ranch and a post office. (visit the
Galva
Museum for details and
information on the Cherokee Trail).
Lt.
Abraham Buford, military escort for the
Santa Fe
mail returning east, wrote: "Arrived at Turkey
Creek...[considering mail safe]...followed the trail
made by Capt. Evans... crossed the Verdigris at
Big
Island...[proceeding to Fort
Gibson
6/27/49] wrote:.."Emigrating parties leaving
Arkansas...would do well to follow this
trail...it is a good and plain way to the old Santa Fe trace...parties leaving Fort Smith..should not, on any account
whatever, go by way of
Santa Fe...".
Southern Shield Helena, Ark 28 July 1849
p. 3
[Buford had traveled west to
Santa Fe along the Canadian
River leaving Sept. 1848 and knew the dangers of
that route.]
Proceeding
west along the "wet route" of the Santa Fe Trail passing Fort Mann
[Dodge City,
Kansas] the Evans/Cherokee wagon train remained
in the forefront of the 1849 California emigration.
Leaving the mountain branch of the Santa Fe Trail at Bent's
Old Fort (CO) the train continued west, up the Arkansas
River to Pueblo. Evan's/Cherokee Company member Davis
wrote about Pueblo, "No persons live here but about 10 men
and as many women, the most abandoned set of thieves,
Mexicans, Indians, half breeds, that ever disgraced any spot
on earth, and as lousy as rabbits."
.
Here a
split in the company occurred. A large number of members
sold their wagons and formed a “pack” company, hiring
mountain man Kit Carson's comrade Dick Owens as guide.
|
|
Owens
led the packers northeast along the South Platte River to
Fort St. Vrain ( northeast of Denver), crossing the Cache la
Poudre River, proceeding north and then west through
southern Wyoming near the Colorado border, an old
trapper/trader route, to the vicinity of Brown’s Hole (Park)
on the Green River, and on to Fort Bridger.
This
was the old trapper/ trader route between the four
fur-trading forts. Forts St.Vrain (Bent & St.Vrain 1835);
Lancaster (Lupton 1836); Jackson (Sarpy & Fraeb 1837);
Vasquez (Vasquez & Sublette 1837)) on the South Platte and
Fort Davy Crockett
(William Craig, Prewitt Sinclair, & Philip Thompson
1836) on the Green river in Brown's Hole. (Park) Another
mountain man guiding the Ithaca
packers over this trail to
Fort
Uinta was Charles
Kinney.
Captain
Lewis Evans/Cherokee wagon company, joined by other wagons
from Santa Fe, proceeded from
Pueblo north along the front range of the
Rocky Mountains
on the old Trappers or Divide Trail. This trail, from
Santa Fe to Fort Laramie, ran east of Colorado
Springs, over “the divide” between the
Arkansas
and South Platte rivers watersheds, then north down Cherry
Creek to the South Platte River, where
Denver
now stands.
Traveling northeast along the east bank of the
South Platte passing the remnants of three
trading forts they arrived at the remains of Fort St. Vrain.
From the planks of the fort they built a ferry boat and
floated it 17 miles to the confluence of the South Platte
and Cache la Poudre
River
east of present
Greeley. The Evans/Cherokee wagon
train left the trading forts’ trace, forded the South Platte and proceeded west.
|
With no guide, they again pioneered [built] the wagon road
from the crossing of the South Platte River near present
Greeley, Colorado
west and north to
Fort
Bridger.
Their
route, west along the north bank of the
Poudre River through present Fort Collins turned north along Boxelder
Creek passing what would become in 1862 the site of the
Virginia Dale Stage Station on the Overland Stage and Mail
route. They followed John C. Fremont's
oute north onto the Laramie Plains of present
Wyoming.
|
The
Evans/Cherokee train traveled north, six miles west of
present Laramie, Wyoming, rounding the north end of Medicine
Bow Mountains, turning south around Elk Mountain to Pass
Creek, then southwest to ford the upper North Platte River
near present Pick Bridge. Crossing, the wagon train
proceeded west to the foot of the Atlantic Rim [Continental
Divide], then, finding they could not proceed over
Bridger Pass “for want of grass and water” drove north to
present Rawlins [Springs],
Wyoming. Several wagons continued
north (as Fremont
had done on the later named "Sweetwater Cutoff") but returned
to join the other wagons of the west bound train.
The
train crossed the Red Desert to Bitter Creek, then went west
to present Rock Springs [approximately Interstate 80],
where, unable to proceed west, the train turned north and
west around the White Mountains to the Green River After
crossing the Green River, the wagon train struck the
California Trail at Ham's Fork [present Granger]went
southwest to Fort Bridger, and proceeded west to the Great
Salt Lake.
This
trail that originated at Fort Gibson/Tahlequah in
Oklahoma
and went to Fort
Bridger was subsequently
named "The Cherokee Trail." It was also referred to as the
"1849 Evans/Cherokee Trail," the "Fort
Smith to California,"
the "Fayetteville to California,"
or The "Arkansas"
Route.
|
Route to California from Salt Lake
At Salt Lake
[City] the 1849 Evans/Cherokee wagon train left the main
emigrant route running north [Hensley], and instead
traveled west around the south end of the Salt Lake over
the Salt Desert. The route was known as the Hastings
Cutoff; and the Evans/Cherokee wagon train was one if
not the first major train to take this trail in 1849,
and one of few to traverse this route since the
ill-fated Donner Party crossed it in 1846. Recent
research indicates that the wagons left 21 miles east of
Donner's Spring by these 1849ers have been erroneously
identified as belonging to the Donner party. A
recently-found diary indicates that some of James Reed’s
books [but no wagons!] were found in the sand by members
of the 1849 Evans/Cherokee wagon train.
Separations
within the 1849 Evans/Cherokee wagon company on the
Humboldt River resulted in members of the train
arriving in California
on each of the three major trails--the
Carson,
Truckee, and Lassen routes. Those who took
the Carson
route traveled some of the way with Chief Truckee and his
band.
1850 Cherokee Wagon Trail (CTD V2)
Where the various crossings of the Verdigris River were, in what time periods, and
who crossed where have remained more or less a mystery until
recently. Bill Maggard, raised in and around Nowata and
knowing the area, and remembering the stories heard as a
child, and with
assistance from his wife Darlene, using the diaries in our
first book, have answered those questions. The crossings he
found are marked on the HERITAGE MAP of NOWATA COUNTY
compiled by Herb Couch, drafted by Robert Demos, Map made
for and distributed by The Nowata County Historical Museum, Nowata, OK
In
early spring, 1850, four separate wagon trains crossed the
Verdigris
River south of present Nowata, Oklahoma,
within two weeks’ time, setting out to follow the trail
blazed by Lewis Evans in 1849. The first 1850 wagon train,
under Captain Edmonson, would remain in the forefront of the
loosely-organized caravan all the way to California. The first
three, 1850 ox trains composed of Cherokee and whites, were
Captained by Edmonson [Edmondson, Edmiston] and Holmes from
Arkansas, and Alfred Oliver from southwest Missouri. The
fourth, drawn by horses and mules, was Captain Clement Vann
McNair’s all-Cherokee train. Through
Oklahoma,
Kansas, and most of Colorado, the 1850 route varied little from
Evans’ 1849 route.
|
East
of the then-destroyed [August 1849] Bent’s Old Fort, the
Edmonson company hired Delaware/French guide Ben Simons. At
present Denver, Simons did
not follow down the South Platte River to the confluence of
the Cache la Poudre River
[present Greeley, Colorado] as the Evans/Cherokee company had
done in 1849. Instead, Simons crossed the South Platte River
there and struck north toward present Laporte through
present Longmont,
Loveland, and west Fort Collins [Highway 287]. Holmes’and
McNair's wagon trains followed the route blazed by Edmonson,
while Oliver, in possession of
Lewis Evans’ 1849
Journal, followed the Evans/Cherokee route along the South
Platte River to Greeley before turning
west.
Clement Vann McNair's train (following Edmonson’s route)
stopped north of present Denver, spending two days panning gold on a
small creek. Cherokee diarist John Lowery Brown noted the
finding of gold on a creek they named Ralston for the
discover Note:
Remembering this gold find, some of the same Cherokee and
their white Georgia relatives returned to Colorado in 1858
to pan gold. A discovery by the Georgians led to the 1859
Pike’s Peak
Gold Rush.
On
the north side of the Cache la Poudre River, all four 1850 companies rejoined
and proceeded north. Near Steamboat Rock the trains joined
the Evans/Cherokee Trail of 1849 and followed it north to
the Laramie Plains. On entering the Laramie Plains north of
the Colorado border near present Tie Siding,
the guide Ben Simon turned first Edmonson and then the other
three trains west, leaving the 1849 Evans/Cherokee Trail.
The four trains were now on the packer trader trail between
the four long abandoned fur forts on the South Platte and
Green River north of Brown's Hole, today's Flaming Gorge, Wyoming
|
Again
the Edmonson wagon train pioneered [built] a new wagon road
that roughly followed the Colorado/Wyoming state border to
the North Platte and Green Rivers.
Crossing the North Platte River in North Park, they traveled
northwest to cross the Encampment
River at Riverside, Wyoming.
The trains continued westerly, fording the
Green River
near present Buckboard Crossing [Flaming Gorge]. McNair's
Cherokee train [now captained by Thomas Fox Taylor],
abandoned their wagons for "Packing". All four companied
reached Fort Bridger,
joining the main California Trail there.
Their
route became known as the
1850 or Southern
Cherokee Trail and would become heavily used over the next
decade or so. By 1857, the year of the Mountain Meadow
Massacre, emigration and cattle drives over this trail would
surpass numbers of
either the Oregon or the
California
trails.
In
1850 the Oliver and Holmes ox wagon train companies, and the
Cherokee packers, left Salt Lake
taking the Hastings Cutoff route south of Salt Lake,
the same as taken by the 1849 Evans/Cherokee wagon train.
Members of the 1850 trains suffered twice from bouts of
cholera; first at Hope Wells, Tooele Co, Utah. Dead were the
son-in-law of Cherokee Chief John Ross, Return Jonathan
Meigs Aug. 6th;
Runaway Tuff, slave Aug 7th & Russell Aug.7th. Second at
Donner Springs, Box Elder Co., Utah, the dead were: on August 11th
Gabriel M. Martin, Cherokee; Henry Street,
Seneca; & Davis, white.
The
three diarists took the
Carson Route
over the Sierra
Nevada
Mountains to the gold
fields
In California
(CTD V2, Epilogue)
The
areas of gold finds or strikes were often named after the
person, group or state the miners were from. During the gold
rush the Cherokee, with their previous gold mining
experience in Georgia, were associated with many bars,
diggings, creeks, flats, etc. with the result that
California had more Cherokee place names than any other
state.
Many
of the members of the 1849 and 1850 trains stayed to follow
their trade or profession; some went into business, mainly
cattle. Starting in 1851 tens of thousands of Arkansas, Cherokee and east Texas
cattle were driven to California
over the Cherokee Trail, in ever increasing numbers until
1860, when California could take no more cattle.
Emigrant trains from sw Missouri, Arkansas, and
Texas to Utah,
California, and Oregon surpassed the cattle drives,
continuing through the 1850s, -60s, -70s and into the early
-80s. Many of the emigrant trains were composed of extended
or very close families moving all of their possessions and
cattle. The most noted of these was the Baker/Fancher train
from Arkansas, most of them
massacred at Mountain Meadows,
Utah, on September 11, 1857.
The Cherokee Trail to Other Areas (CTD V3, Cpt 9)
Emigrants for Oregon traveled the
Cherokee Trail beginning in 1853. The finding of gold in
1850 (recorded in the diary mentioned above) led to the
expeditions over the Cherokee Trail to Colorado in 1858. The
stampede to the Colorado or
Pike’s Peak gold rush in 1859 and subsequently to the
goldfields of Idaho
in 1862 and Montana
in 1864 were important to the longevity of the Cherokee Trail.
. A diarist living a El Dorado,
Kansas
recorded the traffic to the Pikes Peak
gold fields." Over one hundred wagons passing daily"; last
of April "great many droves of cattle came in"; a
man reported "The road was covered with wagons from
here to Fort Gibson on the way to Pike's
Peak". The latest research shows that by1857 the
traffic over the Cherokee Trail to the west surpassed both
the California
and Oregon traffic over the South Pass route. See Mike Landon's article in the
Spring 2011
Overland Journal.
Research may show that it also surpassed the Southern Trail
traffic and in 1859 traffic over the Arkansas/Cherokee route
would equal the South Platte
route and surpass the Smoky Hill Trail.
Cattle Drives East Over the Cherokee Trail (CTD V
3pp.373-382)
The
eastward livestock drives of cattle and later sheep in the
1870s and -80s, from Oregon and Washington
to the grasslands of Wyoming
and Colorado, were the last
continental use of the Cherokee Trail. Homesteading roads
and highways in southern Wyoming,
and highways in Colorado appear to be
the last local uses of the Cherokee Trail. In
Kansas
and northeast
Oklahoma, the War Between The States
halted traffic in 1862.
The Future of the Cherokee Trail
Trail
segments (ruts and swales) and sites (campsites, springs,
creeks, rivers, and pilot points) remain visible in
Kansas, increase in number in
Colorado, and are plentiful today in Wyoming. The authors’
research and maps have been turned over to government
agencies to be used for verification to qualify the Cherokee
Trail for status as a branch of the California National
Historic Trail. As part of the congressional Ominous Bill
the National Park
Service has conducted their scoping (public input)
sessions that appear very favorable. National
Historic Trail designation will take congressional
action. Efforts are under way to acquaint
the public and
congressional members and their staffs with the significance
of the Cherokee Trail. Jack and Pat Fletcher will continue
their work toward that goal, and ask each of you for your
help in trail protection and making the public and our
legislatures aware of this national heritage.
The
above is from the authors’ books on the Cherokee Trail.
e-mail
Dr. Jack E. &
Patricia K.A. Fletcher. for more information
|
For more information about the trail
Click Here. This is an AdobePDF
File
Thank You for Visiting Our Site.
|