Vol. I–II • Vol. III • Historic Windsor Farm
Why was so little known about the trail?
ONE HUNDRED FIFTY YEARS after the trails were pioneered — fifty years of use and nearly a century of speculation as to who pioneered them, who used them, how long were they used and the trails' exact locations have been solved. After thirteen years of on the road research through county records including genealogical records to National Archives, the authors of the book have been able to locate diaries, letters home and newspaper accounts of the blazing of the 1849 & 1850 Cherokee Trails.
Most of (but not all) of those that participated in the blazing of these trails were southerners and had returned home in time to participate in the Civil War. Some of the bloodiest and cruelest parts of the war seemed to settle and stay in this part of Arkansas and Cherokee Nation. Cherokee were either in or sided with the Southern army or the Northern army and stayed in the area to ravage their own civilization. Very few diaries, letters, etc., survived such carnage, as did the men themselves. Rebuilding, settling old grudges, or moving on occupied the minds of men leaving little matter for reminisces of California gold, crossing the plains, and cattle drives as young men.
This lack of diaries, letters, references to the Cherokee Trail led the foremost historians of their day to conclude that the Cherokee was a minor trail of little significance in the migration in western United States. State Historians of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming that had significant sites and segments of the Cherokee Trail chose to ignore the physical evidence or were ignorant of its existence. The Ashley and Medicine Bow National Forest and the Rawlins and especially the Rock Springs Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Offices have played major roles in locating, mapping, marking and preserving large segments of the trails.
Cherokee Trail Diaries Vol. I & II
Vol. I — 1849 A New Route to the California Gold Fields
Vol. II — 1850 Another New Route to the California Gold Fields
The authors have combined two volumes (1849 & 1850) into one book. Four unedited diaries giving day-by-day accounts of travel, events experienced and campsites from Arkansas & Indian Nation to California. The 1849 Captain Lewis Evans ox train splintered by those leaving to pack would be the first documented wagon train to travel over the Hastings cutoff across the desert since the Donner Party.
The 1850 volume documents the three separate white Cherokee ox trains (one Missouri, two Arkansas) and the one all-Cherokee mule horse train from present Oklahoma to their arrival in California. On the Arkansas River, Arkansas wagon master Edmondson hires mountain man trader Ben Simons, in a contract written by Broken Hand Fitzpatrick, to guide the train to Salt Lake. Ben Simons guides the train along the front range of later Colorado, crosses the South Platte at present Denver where the train builds a wagon road north to La Porte and the crossing of the Cache La Poudre — what would become US 287.
This 418 page book is indexed; well documented, heavily footnoted with 1,143 footnotes; and contains a series of 29 full pages of maps showing the route and campsites of both the 1849 & 1850 routes from Fayetteville, Arkansas, southwest Missouri, and Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation to California.
Cherokee Trail Diaries Vol. III — 1851–1900
Emigrants, Goldseekers, Cattle Drives, and Outlaws
This 445 page book is indexed; well documented, heavily footnoted with 1,057 footnotes; literature cited and a sprinkling of maps for clarification.
Additional diaries and accounts of Oregon, California & Utah emigration, Mormon Missionaries & converts; continued cattle drives from Texas, Arkansas, Missouri & the Cherokee Nation have prolonged the trails' use, and prompted the writing of this third volume. Travel beginning in 1851 to 1900 is fully documented by diaries, letters, newspaper accounts, and military and congressional records.
The numerous pre-Civil War cattle drives to California from Arkansas & Missouri and east Texas are given considerable detail. Many were strictly cattle drives; others included emigrating extended families, such as the Baker-Fancher party that was massacred at Mountain Meadows. By 1857 emigrant travel over the Cherokee Trail had surpassed travel on the Oregon & California Trail.
Lower Powder Springs (first described by Fremont) on the 1850 southern Cherokee Trail was used as a headquarters and hideout by Butch Cassidy and up to 100 members of the Wild Bunch. Some later pulled off the Wilcox and Tipton Union Pacific Railroad robberies before fleeing the west.
The Historic Windsor Farm (Denver, Colorado)
This illustrated seventy-three page book gives a brief but vivid account of the Historic Windsor Farm by one who lived there and whose grandfather sold it to the developers of Windsor Gardens.
Starting with Bill Bush who had met H.A.W. Tabor in Leadville, mining money and English money were both spent lavishly on Denver's future. In June 1880 the colossal Windsor Hotel opened, built by the Denver Mansions Company for $350,000. Manager Bill Bush spent another $200,000 for furnishings. Bush would also manage the Tabor Grand Opera House and would later establish the Windsor Farm — a showcase farm for the Plains and an example used by the Union Pacific in their promotions.
The farm supplied fresh produce and dairy products, first to the Windsor Hotel and later the Brown Palace. In 1949 the Windsor Farm Dairy was bought by Walter and Annie Gallagher Andersen, the author's grandparents. Under Andersen's ownership the farm became the largest independent milk producer in the Denver Milk Shed. In 1960 the Andersens sold the now 144-acre Windsor Farm for $360,000 to the developers of Windsor Gardens.