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Oregon and California National Historic Trails Spring 2021 Newsletter

Read the latest project updates and completions from the National Trails Office of the National Park Service (NPS).

To print this newsletter, or save it as a pdf: CTRL + P or Right Click with your Mouse, and select "Print."

A man in a blue shirt. — Photo/David Jenkins

National Trails Welcomes New Staff

David Jenkins, a Returned Peace Corps Madagascar Volunteer, joined the National Trails Office (NTIR) office as a Student Conservation Intern in January 2021. David holds a Bachelors in Geography with an emphasis in GIS and minor in Spanish. Outside of the office you will find him recreating outdoors, with a passion for skiing, biking, fishing, and rock climbing. He will be working on the signing initiative, ensuring the preservation and recognition of our National Historical Trails.

Contact David

Work in the Time of Covid

NTIR staff have been teleworking full time from home since mid-March 2020, and will continue to do so until notified to return to our offices. Meanwhile, personnel are available during regular work hours through their usual email addresses and cell phone numbers. If you need a staffer’s cell number, call 505-988-6098 in Santa Fe or 801-741-1012 ext 119 to inquire.

Virtual Trail Resource Protection Workshop

NTIR staff is working with Don Owen, of Lands Trails and Parks LLC, to develop a Zoom workshop on protection methods, techniques, and procedural steps for protecting trail resources, including effective coordination and consultation with federal and stage agencies, land trusts, and others. There will be particular focus on the ins and outs of developing conservation easements. The six-hour workshop will be held on May 27th.

Auto Tour Route (ATR) Guide Updates

Oregon ATR

After many reviews by numerous Oregon & California Trails Assocation (OCTA) members, Oregon State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and Oregon State Parks, multiple Indian Tribes, Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service managers, professional historians, and NTIR staffers, the Oregon ATR guide is in the hands of NTIR staff for layout and design. Many thanks to all our OCTA participants, particularly Stafford Hazelett and Henry Pittock for their important contributions.

California ATR

A team of OCTA volunteers (and one National Pony Express Assocation volunteer) is organized and ready to assist with planning out the California auto tour route guide. The group will work to coordinate the driving route with the California sign plan that NTIR is working on, and identify appropriate sites/stops for inclusion. The goal for summer/autumn 2021 is to drive the trail to meet with OCTA folks, landowners and managers, learn about the sites, take photographs and GPS locational data, and finalize the driving routes. The next step after that will be writing, reviewing, and finalizing the driving directions.

A view looking out on a large river, cutting through high canyon walls. — View of Columbia Gorge from Moody Road.
Photo/NPS

Overlanders through the Columbia River Gorge Narrative

Historical Research Associates (HRA) has completed its one-year Oregon Trail narrative history contract with NTIR. This report centers on the Columbia River and its banks, from the confluence with the Snake River (near present-day Pasco, Washington) to the confluence with the Willamette River (near Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington), from 1840 to 1870.

Using maps, historical documents, and images, it examines change over time in the landscape of the Columbia River Gorge, hydrological hazards of the river, methods of navigating the river, historical livestock and wagon tracks, American Indian settlements and businesses along the river, interactions between American Indians and overlanders, the Hudson’s Bay Company’s role in overlander travel, calamities and deaths that befell overlanders, alternative routes and how they altered travel on the gorge, and commercial transportation.

Read the Brief Summary and find the link to the report.

First Year in Oregon Research Project Update

The purpose of this study is to discover how arriving emigrants coped the first winter and several years after reaching the end of the Oregon Trail. The timeframe of interest is the early Oregon Trail migration period of 1834 (when the first Protestant missionaries arrived) through 1869. Historical Research Associates (HRA) is conducting archival research in key repositories, libraries and online sources; compiling relevant historical photos and images; identifing any extant pioneer cabins in Oregon dating to the period of interest; and preparing a scholarly, professional research paper presenting their findings. This project ends in October 2021.

Project Update:

Draft of the introduction and first chapter is being reviewed

National Historic Trails Inventory Application

The mobile application (app) is used to track assets along the trail such as interpretive waysides, museum exhibits, and NHT road or pedestrian signs. The app utilizes a user-friendly interface, similar to a fillable PDF, and eliminates the use of complex and sometimes costly GPS devices.

Dave Welch, Travis Boley, and Lee Black have a flyer they can send out for more information on the app. Alternatively, the flyer can also be accessed by ArcGIS Online NHT Asset group members here: National Historic Trail Asset Inventory Mobile App (s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com) or by contacting Brian Deaton.

New Interactive Trails Map Viewer

NEW Interactive Trails Map Viewer

A new NHT viewer web app (Interactive Trails Map Viewer) has been developed and can be accessed from the Oregon and California NHT websites:

Sign Plan Updates: 2020

The sign plan status map for the Oregon and California Trails. It depicts a map of the United States with trails going from the east to west. — NPS Image

The map depicts the sign plans that were completed and ordered in 2020. For more information about these or other signs, please contact us.

Virtual Trail Stories & Experiences

Have you been following the trails on social media? You may have noticed an increase in articles, virtual visits, and virtual kids' activities. People can't travel to experience the trails in person, so the national trails' staff has been working to bring the trails to your house. You can check out recent and past articles, become a junior ranger, take virtual visits to learn more about trail sites, and more - click the links below!