Links to Trails West


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Ancient Footpaths and Indian Trails
Before the Trails West
Crossing the Great Divide: South Pass
Links to the Oregon Trail

Links to Trails West Across the Plains and Mountains
The Applegate Trail | The Beckwourth Trail
The Boseman Trail | The California Trail
The Cherokee Trail
The Mormon Trail | The Nevada Emigrant Trail
The Nez Perce Trail | The Pony Express
The Smoky Hill Trail... and the Butterfield Overland Dispatch

Links to Trails West Across the Southwest
The Butterfield Overland Mail | The Chisholm Trail
Coronado and the Lost Cities of Gold
The Escalante Trail: The Legend of Everett Ruess
The Gila Trail
The Goodnight-Loving Trail
Trails of the Southwest

Links to Trails West Into the North
 The Karl Bodmer Trail | The Lewis and Clark Expedition
Trails Into the North. . .And Beyond

Military Roads Of The Old West
The Overland Trail Pages
The Santa Fe Trail
Trails to the Gold Rush

Other Trail Information:
Diaries and Letters From the Trails West
Following the Trails By auto, afoot, Stage Coach, and treks by Wagon Trains
General Trail Related Sites
Long Distance Trail Organizations
Modern Trails, Scenic By-Ways and Historic Highways
Route 66: The Mother Road
Other Specific Trail Sites
Wagon Roads to the West
Western Stagecoach Travel
Books From Barnes and Noble on "Trails West"

OTHER GENERAL TRAIL RELATED SITES

  • Links to Landmarks and Sites Along the Trails West
  • Sightseeing Along Trails West
  • The American West:Research Collections This collection brings together histories and personal narratives of America�s great westward migrations by covered wagon, on foot, and by stagecoach.
  • Alternative Water Route With map By Colby & Austin of the St. George Elementary third and fourth grade class
  • American Migrations Web Site A listing of emigrants to Indiana and Illinois by the early 1850's
  • American Trails The only National Trails Advocacy organization working for the common interests of all trail users. American Trails also sponsors the National Trails Symposium, which will be next held in Redding, California, September 21-24, 2000.
  • Buffalo Chips Learn all about them!
  • Cattle Trails They blazed a way for the first settlers.
  • Food on the Oregon Trail from Saleratus to "Just Plain Mush."
  • "The Frontier" This is where civilization advances upon the wilderness; it is that thin geographical line where the old and the new, the tried and the untried, meet and reshape each other; it is often dangerous, always exciting. It is called the frontier.
  • Go West, Young (Wo)Man! A great site with lots of links to western bound trails
  • Historic and Named Trails and Roads in the USA and Canada This web site has what appears to be a complete listing of links of many trails and roads not listed any where else! The various historical and present-day trails and roads have been combined onto this one page in order to make searching easier.
  • National Park Service
  • The National Trails System Act
  • Native Americans along the Trail including: The Grattan Massacre, the Massacre Rocks incident and the Bear River Massacre
  • The Overland Trail and Early Life in Oregon. An Interesting WPA Project done in the late 1930's
  • Pioneers on the Oregon Trail: The Wagon Train of 1843
  • Problems along the trails including Illness, Stress, Privacy
  • A Road Through The Wilderness The making of the "National Road." The first cries for a "national road" were heard before there was even a nation. These calls for a road to the west came as early as the 1740s and say much about the time and place. ]
  • Texas Forts Trail The frontier forts of Texas were lonely outposts in wild country. As settlers streamed West with dreams of new opportunity, the federal government established lines of forts to protect Texans on the advancing frontier.
  • Trails Linking the West A Listing of trails, mainly in the Southwest.
  • The Route to Oregon Via Antarctica
  • Texas Cattle Trails
  • Trails A brief history of a variety of Western Trails
  • The Trails Project: Educational Resources Includes Curriculum Guides, Lesson Plans, Downloadable "TrailQuest" for students, and more on a number of the Emigrant Trails West
  • Travel the Trails Electronically A good listing on Online Resources for many aspects of Trail Travel
  • Trails Across the West Marcia Philbrick's site--includes "Genealogy from the Heartland."
  • Trails and Migration Routes A listing of western trails
  • Trails Through Wyoming Includes Old West Trails in addition to modern biking and hiking trails
  • Trails West! Westward Migration Trails Through Nebraska
  • Wagon-route from Denver City at the Mouth of Cherry Creek, to Fort Bridger, Utah. Following esentially the Overland Trail, this is from The Prairie Traveler by Randolph Barnes Marcy, Captain, U.S.A. Written in 1859
  • Utah's Historic Trails All or part of most Utah highways--all the major ones--follow trails established by historic explorers and the Indians before them.
  • The Westward Expansion Index From the University of Kansas site, maintained by Nancy Sween
  • Yellowstone's Roads -- Ribbons of Access to the Wilderness The first wheeled vehicle to penetrate into Yellowstone's wilderness was on August 30, 1878, when a horse-drawn wagon pulled onto the shelf near Old Faithful in the Upper Geyser Basin.

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    • SPECIFIC TRAILS

  • The Appalachian Trail a continuous marked footpath that goes from Katahdin in Maine to Springer Mountain in Georgia, a distance of about 2160 miles.
  • The Arizona Trail which traverses the State from Mexico to Utah.
  • The California Emigrant Trail and Northern Nevada Between the years 1841 and 1869 it is estimated that 300,000 to 500,000 hardy souls walked two-thousand miles across the continent to California and Oregon in search of a new life or gold. Reno area residents may be interested to know that a significant part of this great migration went right through the Reno area.
  • The California National Historic Trail It carried over 200,000 gold-seekers and farmers to the gold fields and rich farmlands of California during the 1840's and 1859's, the greatest mass migration in American history. Today, more than 1,000 miles of trail ruts and traces can still be seen in the vast undeveloped lands between Casper Wyoming and the West Coast, reminders of the sacrifices, struggles, and triumphs of early American travelers and settlers.
  • The Camino Real: The Royal Road was an 1,800-mile trail that connected Mexico City to Santa Fe.
  • The Camino Real--Animated Showing the development of the California Missions along El Camino Real from 1769 to 1823
  • The Caribou Trail a scenic drive through one of the most beautiful regions of the Yukon.
  • The Chilkoot Trail The most famous route taken by prospectors and would be miners who made their way to the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon.
  • The Colorado Trail Meanders through some of the most beautiful terrain in the state! Stretching from Denver to Durango, the Colorado Trail fulfills the dreams one would expect of a high mountain educational and recreational hiking trail which connects 500 miles of Colorado's magnificent mountainsides. It is high and mighty and it is diverse, therefore demanding ! It crosses eight mountain ranges, seven national forests, six wilderness areas and five river systems!
  • The Continental Divide Trail Society A group dedicated to the planning, development, and maintenance of this great trail across the top of the Rockies. They also can assist in locating books on Western travel and exploration, including overland accounts and Government publications
  • The Dalles Military Road: To Ft. Boise through Canyon City Roads Bring Soldiers and Emigrants From the Historical Gazette
  • El Camino Del Diablo: Highway of the Devil Used as early as 1540 by the Spanish and connected the town of Coborca south of the Mexican Border to the area near present day Yuma, Arizona
  • The Emigrant Summit Trail or the "Carson Route" includes the highest known point ever crossed by emigrants' wagons heading for the California gold fields.
  • Historic Trails of Arizona Includes the Butterfield Route, the Stafford-Morenci Trail, and the General Crook Trail.
  • Juan Bautista de Anza This National Historic Trail commemorates the route followed by Anza in 1775-76 when he led a contingent of 38 soldiers and their families to found a presidio and mission on the San Francisco Bay.
  • The Lassen Emigrant Trail Thousands of emigrants followed the Lassen Trail to the gold fields of California.
  • The Lodgepole Trail The Lodgepole Trail branched off from the Oregon-California Trail in western Nebraska and crossed the South Platte at the Upper California Crossing at the mouth of Lodgepole Creek near where old Julesburg was established.
  • The Meeteetsee Trail The Meeteetsee Trail was founded in 1881 by the US Army. This old stage and freight road headed out of Red Lodge, Montana south to Meeteetsee, Wyoming. It is about 100 miles long.
  • The Mountain Meadows Massacre A virtual pictorial tour of the site by Terry Fancher, a descendant of wagon master, Captain Alexander Fancher. This wagon trail traveled from Arkansas to Utah in 1857
  • The Nobles Emigrant Trail In 1852, William H. Nobles set out with a prospecting party to explore a route that would bring emigrants directly to Shasta City.
  • The 1st Annual Northern Nevada Living History Festival August 11th - 15th.... will include Rodeos, 7 Living History Reenactment Encampments , An Arts & Crafts Faire, and the arrival of "The Official California Trail Gold Rush Wagon Train of the 49'rs."
  • The Overland Emigrant Trail Trek the footsteps and wagon ruts of pioneers who traveled the Truckee Route of the California Emigrant Trail! Used primarily from 1844 until completion of the Dutch Flat - Donner Lake Wagon Road in 1864, this challenging route was both one of the most treacherous and one of the most picturesque of all the western emigrant trails.
  • The Overland Trail: In Tasmania! A Hiking Tour from Cradle Mountain to Cynthia Bay
  • The "Parallel" Road In 1859 when gold was discovered near Denver City, Atchison Kansas business men sought to take advantage of their geographical location and open a new road to the mines which would follow the 1st Standard Parallel as closely as possible.
  • Potter-Blocker Trail The old cowboy saying that "there are as many trails north as there are ranchers" may apply to this route. Named after a cattleman taking his cattle from Texas to Cheyenne in 1883.
  • The Skeleton Canyon Road Long before Skeleton Canyon, in New Mexico, became a smuggler's trail, it had been one of several favored trails of the Apaches in their migrations to and from Mexico's Sierra Madre Mountains.
  • The Southern Route to Oregon Early in 1846, the citizens of Polk County sponsored a party led by Levi Scott, a pioneer of 1844, to find a southern route into the Willamette Valley
  • The Whitehorse to Dawson "Overland Trail" A winter road between Whitehorse and Dawson became known as The Overland Trail. The White Pass then inaugurated the Yukon Stage Line which, because of the mail it carried, was also called The Royal Mail Service. It marked the beginning of a new era of transportation in the territory.
  • The Whitman Route: Too Tough For The Oregon Trail
  • The Old West Links Links to trails, outlaws, gold rush, and more

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    • MODERN TRAILS, SCENIC BY-WAYS, AND HISTORIC HIGHWAYS TOO

  • Follow The Western Trails By auto, afoot, wagon train
  • Across the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park "Off-road vehicles" used to mean horses or wagons carrying Indians, explorers, soldiers, mail carriers, settlers, cattlemen and miners. Today there is a self-guided, twenty-six-mile (one-way) auto tour that traces part of the Southern Emigrant Trail stoping at several historical spots, including old stage station sites.
  • Billy the Kid Scenic By-Way New Mexico's Billy the Kid Route received a National Scenic Byway designation in 1997. This area is rich in history. It has been home to Billy the Kid, the Lincoln County War, the Mescalero Apache tribe, Kit Carson, "Black Jack" Pershing, the Buffalo Soldiers, the world's richest Quarter Horse race and Smokey Bear.
  • Historical Highways of Central and Southern California: Route 99--through the Central Valley, and the famous "Ridge Route" via Tejon Pass
  • The Geronimo Trail The Geronimo Trail Scenic Byway in New Mexico encompasses centuries of history in the Southwest. Ghost towns, cliff dwellings, lakes & rivers, historic churches and lots of history. The Geronimo Trail is located in southwestern New Mexico - 150 miles south of Albuquerque, and 75 miles north of Las Cruces. It covers terrain from dry desert to mountain forests to scrub-dotted hills and spans many different life zones. There are several interesting and beautiful side-trips which can be taken as well.
  • Idaho's Highway 12 Idaho's Highway 12, which takes you from the Lewiston/Clarkston valley through the Clearwater valley to the Montana border, has been designated as Idaho's Northwest Passage Scenic Byway. This highway has earned this title because it closely follows much of the Lewis and Clark Expedition's route, and in part because of its exceptional scenic beauty.
  • Interstate Highway System including I-80 general route of the Oregon Trail through Nebraska, and the Overland Trail through Wyoming.
  • Interstate 80 Travel Guide: An Exit by Exit Information Guide for the Traveler This one is through Nebraska
  • The Jemez Mountain Trail Just north of Albuquerque, at the junction of N.M. 44 and State Highway 4, quietly begins one of New Mexico's most spectacular scenic drives The Jemez Mountain Trail, declared a National Scenic Byway in recognition of its fantastic natural and cultural resources.
  • The Lincoln Highway America's Longest Main Street
  • Modern Day Oregon Trails A guide to a number of routes following history within the state of Oregon.
  • The National Scenic By-Way Lots and information here, and easy to use.
  • New Mexico's Scenic By-Ways A GORP site. Lots of links.
  • Route 66: The Mother Road
  • The Turquoise Trail Back roads often lead to great discoveries. Venture off the freeway and onto the Turquoise Trail. This National Scenic Byway encompasses 15,000 square miles in the heart of central New Mexico, linking Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
  • US Route 40 all you need to know about special events, traveling the route, and places to stop--a great site with lots of links
  • US Route 40 and National Road Bibliography This bibliography contains citations for sources that have anything (even the slightest) to do with Route 40 or the National Road.
  • US Highway 50: America's Backbone And it's history through Colorado. A sign at Ocean City, Maryland declares this coast-to-coast highway is 3,073 miles long

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    • LONG DISTANCE TRAIL ORGANIZATIONS Working with the Federal government building and protecting the National Long Distance Trails System....

  • Amigos de Anza c/o Heritage Trails Fund Walnut Creek, CA
  • Appalachian Trail Conference Harpers Ferry, WV
  • Continental Divide Trail Alliance Pine, CO
  • Continental Divide Trail Society
  • Florida Trail Association Gainesville, FL
  • Ice Age Park and Trail Foundation, Inc. Pewaukee, WI
  • Iditarod Trail Committee
  • Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Inc. Great Falls, MT
  • Mormon Trails Association Salt Lake City, UT
  • National Pony Express Association Cozad, NE
  • Nez Perce National Historic Trail Foundation Missoula, MT
  • North Country Trail Association Grand Rapids, MI
  • Oregon-California Trails Association Independence, MO
  • Pacific Crest Trail Association Sacramento, CA
  • Santa Fe Trail Association Larned, KS
  • Trail of Tears Association Little Rock, AR


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