In this issue
Updates:
- Will Bagley, 1950-1921
- Submit Your Volunteer Hours
- Kansas City Area Girl Scout Creates Trails Website
Photo by: Darryl Montgomery
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Events:
- Mormon Battalion and General Kearny’s Army of the West – 1846-47, October 8 & 9, 2021
- Northwest Chapter meeting, October 9
- Colorado-Cherokee Trail Chapter Zoom event, October 16
- Third Thursday History with the Southern Trails Chapter, October 21
- Idaho Chapter Meeting, October 23
- Partnership for the National Trails System Historic Trails Virtual Workshop, November 1-4
- San Diego Symposium (in partnership with the Mormon Battalion Association), January 27-30
- Casper Convention, August 28 - September 3
Books & Publications
- New Jim Bridger Book Now Available!
Ongoing:
- Order Fresh Coffee and Help OCTA's Bottom Line
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Will Bagley
1950 - 2021
Will Bagley — a historian who wrote clear-eyed and detailed accounts of Utah’s past, particularly in a comprehensive and controversial book about the Mountain Meadows Massacre — has died.
Bagley died Tuesday in Salt Lake City at age 71 after suffering a stroke, according to his brother, Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune’s editorial cartoonist.
Will Bagley’s best-known book was “Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows,” published in August 2002. The book updated Juanita Brooks’ legendary 1950 volume, “The Mountain Meadows Massacre,” about the murders of 120 California-bound Arkansas settlers crossing southern Utah, killed by Mormon militia men Sept. 11, 1857.
Among the most incendiary points in the book is Bagley’s argument that Young, then president and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, likely orchestrated the slaughter from Salt Lake City.
Bagley didn’t explicitly say Young ordered the attack. But he insisted that “claiming that Brigham Young had nothing to do with Mountain Meadows is akin to arguing that Abraham Lincoln had nothing to do with the Civil War.”
Read more at the Salt Lake Tribune.
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Time to Report Your Volunteer Hours!!!!
It is again time to turn in your volunteer hours, mileage, expenses paid by you and not reimbursed, time traveling to meetings (including the Elko convention), research, etc..
To submit hours recorded before September 30th, visit our online volunteer hour reporting portal for a simple, fast way to share your hard work with our federal agency partners and budget planners in Congress. (You can also report hours after September 30, as we have another deadline for reporting on December 31). Your volunteer hours are matched with appropriations and the Volunteers in Parks program to the financial benefit of our trails. Please report all you have done! It's the most important thing we do!
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Kansas City Area Girl Scout Develops Trails Website
OCTA HQ was recently notified that a local Girl Scout spent her summer developing a Greater Kansas City Area trails website. Lizzie Place, a junior at Blue Valley North High School in Overland Park, Kansas, worked toward her Gold Star Award with this project. Though the website features hiking trails, many of the trails she highlighted either overlap with or cross different parts of the Santa Fe, Oregon, California, and Lewis & Clark National Historic Trails. Please visit Lizzie's website at takeahikekc.org.
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The Mormon Battalion and General Kearny’s Army of the West – 1846-47
October 8 & 9, 2021
OCT 8 – Friday Field Trip to Cooke’s Peak Area – visit Ft Cummings, Cooke’s Spring and Butterfield Stage Station
9:00 AM – Meet at Butterfield Rest Stop, 16480 Wells Fargo Drive, Deming
10:15 AM – Meet at Cooke’s Canyon NE Road (15 miles northeast of Deming on HW 26)
- From the water tank, we will caravan five miles north to the Ft Cummings area.
- Participants should bring their own lunch, beverages, and dress appropriately for the terrain and weather.
- High clearance vehicles not required.
- 3:30 PM – latest expected return
OCT 9 – Saturday 10 AM – 2 PM – Ft Bayard - 40 Fort Bayard Rd, Santa Clara
Mormon Battalion reenactor and trail researcher Kevin Henson will have a small ‘camp’ display at the fort. He will be answering questions and portraying their experiences.
5 PM – Silver City Visitors Center - N Hudson St, Silver City Dedication of the new "Army of the West" interpretative sign.
7 PM – Silver City LDS Chapel - 3755 N Swan St, Silver City Historical presentation free to the public
- Dr. Doug Dinwiddie - General Steven W. Kearny and his ‘Army of the West’ during the 1846-48 Mexican War.
- Laura Anderson, President of the Mormon Battalion Association – Women with the Mormon Battalion.
- Kevin Henson – Mormon Battalion trails overview and their passage through southwest New Mexico
- For more information: www.mormonBattalion.com – Mormon Battalion Association website; also on Facebook and YouTube
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NWOCTA CHAPTER MEETING
Saturday, OCTOBER 9, 2021
10 AM T0 4 PM
Our first in person meeting since March 2020 will be held on the date above at the Borst Park in Centralia, WA.
This Fall meeting is planned to reacquaint our members and welcome the new persons who have joined since the pandemic began. We will have Christopher Chapman speak with us about his bicycle tours of the Oregon Trail. He has slides of his adventures to show us as well.
Please plan to bring your own lunch, a dessert to share with others (if you wish) and any other drinks besides water, coffee, and tea. The meeting will be held in the Kitchen #1 at the park. The Park is next to the freeway at the southern edge of Centralia.
We will have our usual raffle and will welcome any items that you might wish to contribute for this event. Books are always welcome.
We do have some business to conduct, but the meeting is mainly for fun and to talk about the Elko Convention and other ideas for trail preservation and for ideas for next summer’s tours.
You are welcome to come at 9:30 AM so you can visit with the members before the meeting.
Due to the levels of COVID infections please plan to bring your masks. Washington State requires masks when people are in close quarters and meeting in large numbers.
Additionally, the chapter is providing a Zoom link for those who would like to attend the meeting virtually.
Topic: NW OCTA Chapter Meeting
Time: Oct 9, 2021 09:30 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88188532280?pwd=K05XYWI4dGFwTkhsd3Iwd3BSUllLUT09
We are looking forward to seeing you and hope that you all can attend.
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Colorado-Cherokee Trail Chapter Zoom Event
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If you missed the presentation by the Emigrant Trails Hall of Fame Committee in late September and would like to view the video of the event, please email Camille Bradford at bradford@usa.net for a link to the recording,
Please plan to join the chapter on Saturday, October 16 for an engaging presentation by Roger Blair on how businesses have identified with the Oregon Trail over the years.
The Oregon Trail is Big Business: It's not as boring as it sounds!
Presentation by Roger Blair
Time:
1:00 Pacific
2:00 Mountain
3:00 Central
4:00 Eastern
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Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81655727045
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Third Thursday History
With the Southern Trails Chapter
The Southern Trails Chapter is hosting its regular Third Thursday History event on Thursday, October 21st at 5 PM PST/8 PM EDT.
Please share the following information with chapter members and friends by:
- forwarding this email,
- posting the below text and attached photo on Facebook and other social media,
- sharing the Facebook post on OCTA's Facebook account, or the post on the Southern Trails Chapter's Facebook account, (Facebook is down as I'm sending this email, so I have not posted this event to either account yet.)
- sharing the attached flyer.
Topic:
The Carlin 13: What They Reveal About the Treatment of Chinese Immigrants in the Western U.S.
OCTA intern Charlie Dodge will present on "The Carlin 13: Chinese Immigrants," some of the oldest settlers in Carlin, whose graves were accidentally disturbed in 1996. After being studied for 21 years, they were given a traditional Chinese re-burial in 2018 - an effort spearheaded by a current Chinese citizen in Carlin. The Carlin 13 gives insight into the treatment of the Chinese at the time of their death, and how traditional Chinese burial and funerary practices have evolved through time and immigration. Organized by the Southern Trails Chapter of the Oregon-California Trails Association.
Charlie is a senior at New York University and grew up in the Los Angeles area. She is of Chinese-American descent and is exploring Chinese immigration during the California Gold Rush.
Register Here: tinyurl.com/TheCarlin13
When: Thursday, October 21st, 5 PM PST/8 PM EST
A monument to and short film about the Carlin 13 were recently unveiled. Learn more here.
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Idaho Chapter Fall Meeting
The IOCTA Fall chapter meeting will be on Saturday, October 23. The meeting will start at 11:15 am at the Idaho Pizza Company at Overland Road and Orchard Street in Boise. If you are coming to Boise on I-84, take the Orchard exit north a mile to Overland. The restaurant opens at 11:00 am.
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Partnership for the National Trails System
Historic Trails Workshop Registration Now Live
Join the Partnership for their Historic Trails Workshop, November 1-4, 2021. Register at the link here.
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New Jim Bridger Book Now Available!
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Even among iconic frontiersmen like John C. Fr mont, Kit Carson, and Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger stands out. A mountain man of the American West, straddling the fur trade era and the age of exploration, he lived the life legends are made of. His adventures are fit for remaking into the tall tales Bridger himself liked to tell.
Here, in a biography that finally gives this outsize character his due, Jerry Enzler takes this frontiersman's full measure for the first time. Read more and learn how to order the book here.
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Order Fresh Coffee and Help
OCTA's Bottom Line
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OCTA member Richard Gibson reached out to us with a review of the coffee. He wrote:
"I wanted to say to the group and to the KC ROASTERS that I am thoroughly enjoying my OREGON TRAIL ROAST BLEND COFFEE. It is mellow but full of flavor and is easy to warm back up or drink when cold! Great Idea for whomever came up with this promotion for OCTA! THANKS. I still have another package unopened!"
OCTA Board Member Jean Coupal-Smith added:
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"This is a wonderful brew! I love the rich, bold flavor, even though its medium roast and I usually drink dark roast. I rate it up there at the top with my favorite Starbucks blend of Cafe Verona. It is very smooth."
We concur whole-heartedly with Richard and Jean, though this E-News editor is of the opinion that the Butterfield Bean Medium Roast is slightly better than the wonderful Oregon Trail Medium Roast Blend. We remain excited that KC Coffee Roasters created two specialty coffees with 10% of every purchase being donated to the Oregon-California Trails Association. They are currently featuring Oregon Trail and Butterfield Bean blends. Visit their website at https://www.kccoffeeroasters.com/order-online to order now.
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