Cherokee Trail

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The Cherokee Trail, called the "Trappers' Trail," in Colorado was a historic trail through the present-day U.S. states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana that was used from the late 1840s up through the early 1890s. The route was established in 1849 by a wagon train headed to the gold fields in California. Among the members of the expedition were a group of Cherokee. In 1849. lieutenant Abraham Buford escorting the mail from Santa Fe to the east turned south at McPherson, Kansas to follow the recently blazed Evans/Cherokee Trail to Fort Gibson, Oklahoma connected with another trail to nearby Fort Smith, Arkansas. Starting in 1850 the trail was used continuously by gold seekers, emigrants and cattle drovers from Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, and the Cherokee Nation. In all, approximately 35,000 or 10% of western emigrants traveled along the route.

The route of the trail ran from the Grand River near present day Salina, Oklahoma, northwest to strike the Santa Fe Trail at McPherson. From there it followed the Santa Fe west, then turned north along the base of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains over the Arkansas/Platte rivers divide and descended along Cherry Creek (Colorado) into the valley of the South Platte River. In 1849 it followed the east side of the South Platte River to present-day Greeley then west by building a wagon road to Laporte in Laramier County. From Laporte, the wagon road was built north past present-day Virginia Dale Stage Station to the Laramie Plains in southeastern Wyoming. The trail was then blazed westward and northward around the Medicine Bow Range crossing the North Platte River then turning north to present day Rawlins. The trail proceeded west along the route of present Interstate 80 joining the historic route of the Emigrant Trail near Granger, Wyoming. The community of Cherokee Park in Larimer County was named in error. There is no primary documentation of the Cherokee returning from California along this route.

In 1850 four separate white/Cherokee wagon trains followed the 1849 Evans route to the South Platte River. Here at present-day Denver the trains crossed the South Platte and proceeded north to a creek where gold was discovered named Ralston by the Cherokee. The initial Cherokee expedition along the trail was a principal factor in the later exploitation of gold in the area during the 1859 Colorado Gold Rush. The Cherokees, familiar with gold mining from their original home in Georgia, discovered traces of placer gold in creeks of the South Platte. William Greene Russell, a Georgian with ties to the Cherokee who had prospected in California during the California Gold Rush, heard stories of the gold and organized one of three prospecting expeditions to the region in 1858. The four 1850 wagon companies continued north from Denver, building the wagon road to the Cache la Poudre River, and then to the Laramie Plains. There the trail turned west at present day Tie Siding, and proceeded west along the Colorado/Wyoming border (Cheyenne) to Green River and to Fort Bridger where it struck the California Trail.

In Albany, Carbon, and Sweetwater Counties in Wyoming, many miles of the 1850 Cherokee Trail can be seen and followed on Bureau of Land Management land. In Sweetwater County the trail on BLM sections is marked with four foot high concrete posts. Some pioneers on the Cherokee Trail continued northward into Casper into Montana and the very end of their movement is Cut Bank, Montana on the Canadian border where they might gone to.

In Colorado parts of the trail are still visible and walkable in Arapahoe, Douglas and Larimer counties. An approximation of the route can be driven on State Highway 83 from Parker near Denver to Colorado Springs. It is also called The Rocky Mountain Trail since the path follows the Rockies' north-south direction.

[edit] References

  • Fletcher, Patricia K. A.,Jack E. Fletcher, Lee Whiteley, "Cherokee Trail Diaries New Routes to the California Gold Rush Vol 1 1849, Vol II 1850." Sequim, WA Fletcher Family Trust, 1999.
  • Fletcher, Dr. Jack E., Patricia K.A. Fletcher, "Cherokee Trail Diaries Emigrants, Goldseekers, Cattle Drives and Outlaws 1851-1900,Vol III" Sequim, WA Fletcher Family Trust, 2001.
  • Foreman, Grant. Early Trails Through Oklahoma, Oklahoma Chronicles 3:2 (June 1925) 99-119 (retrieved August 18, 2006).
  • Marcy, Randolph B., Capt. US Army. The Prairie Traveler. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1859. (retrieved from The Kansas Collection August 18, 2006).
  • Dictionary of American History by James Truslow Adams, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940
  • Whiteley, Lee. "The Cherokee Trail, Bent's Old Fort to Fort Bridger"