The Cherokee Trail was a historic overland trail through the present-day

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s of Oklahoma,

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

, and

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

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 California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Among the members of the expedition were a group of

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

. When the train formed in Indian Territory, Lewis Evans of

Evansville, Arkansas Evansville is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in southwest Washington County, Arkansas, United States. It was first listed as a CDP in the 2020 census with a population of 102. It is located in the Northwest Arkans ...

, was elected Captain. Thus, this expedition is sometimes written as the Evans/Cherokee Train."Fletcher, Dr. Jack E. and Patricia K. A. "Pioneering the Trail." Undated.
Accessed January 21, 2018. In 1850 four wagon trains turned west on the Laramie Plains, along Wyoming's southern border to

Fort Bridger Fort Bridger was originally a 19th-century fur trading outpost established in 1842, on Blacks Fork of the Green River, in what is now Uinta County, Wyoming, United States. It became a vital resupply point for wagon trains on the Oregon Trail, C ...

. According to one source, "Neither the number of wagons nor the number of people that eventually used this road to cross the Sierra Madres makes this trail significant. What makes this road unique is that Native Americans and their traveling companions did not just cross the Continental Divide; they made a path over the mountains and through the Wyoming Basin." Gardner, A. Dudley. "Wyoming History: The Cherokee Trail - Part I." Western Wyoming Community College. Rev. 2002.
The trail was also known as the Trappers' Trail, but the

Trapper's Trail The Trapper's Trail or Trappers' Trail is a north-south path along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains that links the Great Platte River Road at Fort Laramie and the Santa Fe Trail at Bent's Old Fort. Along this path there were a number of ...

from 1820 in Colorado often varied from Cherokee Trail and took a different route in Wyoming. It also went to

Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Ch ...

Route
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The route originated in Grand River near present-day

Salina, Oklahoma Salina ( ) is a town in Mayes County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,396 at the 2010 census, a slight decline from the figure of 1,422 recorded in 2000. History For thousands of years indigenous peoples had lived along the rivers ...

. According to Erb, Brown, and Hughes, "The Cherokee Trail came west out of Oklahoma along the

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United Stat ...

Valley in Colorado to the mouth of Black Squirrel Creek, a tributary of

Cherry Creek (Colorado) Cherry Creek is a tributary of the South Platte River, long, in Colorado in the United States. Course Cherry Creek rises in the high plateau, east of the Front Range, in northwestern El Paso County. It flows north, through Castlewood Canyo ...

, following the latter to the

South Platte River The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/ Mountain West. It ...

. It went on north along the eastern base of the

Rockies The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

to the Cache la Poudre in the vicinity of Laporte and

Virginia Dale Virginia Dale (born Virginia Paxton; July 1, 1917 – October 3, 1994) was an American actress and dancer. Biography Dale was born in North Carolina. She was the daughter of Lula Helms Paxton, and she graduated from Central High School in Ch ...

then over to the Laramie Plains." The name of the trail originated from the 1849 trek to California of 130 Cherokees, with their 40 wagons, led by Captain Lewis Evans. In 1850 four Cherokee/white wagon train crossed the South Platte River near present Denver, turned north pioneering a new wagon road to the Laramie Plains (US Hwy 270) . Then west along the present Wyoming/Colorado border to Green River then NW to Fort Bridger. This route sometimes referred to as the "disease free" or "middle" route increased each year in numbers of Emigrants and cattle drives until by 1857 becoming the most heavily traveled or the major trail to California. In 1857 a new cutoff of the Cherokee Trail was established when the US Army built a road over Bridger Pass to Fort Bridger. By 1862 the Bridger Pass route of the Cherokee Trail was a well wore road when the Overland Mail and Stage moved from South Pass route on to it. In 1869 the rail road reached

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

ending the Overland Mail. The Cherokee Trail continued as an emigrant route as late as 1883 when the last wagon train from

Wise County, Texas Wise County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 68,632. Its county seat is Decatur. Wise County is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth– Arlington metropolitan statistical area. Its Wise Eyes crime- ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

was documented. In 1854, an additional route was blazed on the west side of the South Platte River, crossing the

Cache la Poudre River The Cache la Poudre River ( ), also known as the Poudre River, is a river in the state of Colorado in the United States. Name The name of the river () is a corruption of the original Cache à la Poudre, or "cache of powder". It refers to an ...

, and then to the Laramie Plains. There the trail turned west near present-day Tie Siding, and proceeded along the Colorado/Wyoming border to

Green River Green River may refer to: Rivers Canada * Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River *Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte *Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...

and to Fort Bridger where it struck the other emigrant trails. Parts of the 1854 trail can be seen on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land in Wyoming, California. In Sweetwater County the trail on BLM sections is marked with concrete posts.

History

Parts of this trail had been traveled and reported earlier in the 19th Century. According to Gardner, General William Ashley had used part of this route as early as 1824. Gardner also mentions that emigrants heading for Oregon wrote about the routes in and out of

Browns Park Brown's Park or Browns Park, originally called Brown's Hole, is an isolated mountain valley along the Green River in Moffat County, Colorado and Daggett County, Utah in the United States. The valley begins in far eastern Utah, approximately do ...

in 1839. By 1849, three routes suitable for crossing the Continental Divide had been identified: Twin Groves, Wyoming, an unnamed location near present-day Rawlings, Wyoming and Bridger's Pass. The Cherokee Trail followed the Twin Groves route. In 1849, Lieutenant

Abraham Buford Abraham Buford (July 21, 1747 – June 30, 1833) was an American soldier. He was a Continental Army officer during the American Revolutionary War, best known as the commanding officer of the American forces at the Battle of Waxhaws. After the ...

, escorting the mail from Santa Fe to the east, turned south at McPherson, Kansas, to follow the recently blazed Evans/Cherokee Trail with Captain Lewis Evans and Lieutenant Captain Peter Mankins, with 2nd Lieutenant George Van Hoose leading the expedition Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, and then connected with another trail to nearby

Fort Smith, Arkansas Fort Smith is the third-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 89,142. It is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Are ...

. Starting in 1850 the trail was used continuously by gold seekers, emigrants and cattle drovers from Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, and the Cherokee Nation. In 1850, a member of a wagon train en route to California discovered gold in Ralston Creek, a tributary of Clear Creek north of present-day

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Stories of this discovery led to further expeditions in 1858, and the subsequent 1859

Colorado Gold Rush The Pike's Peak Gold Rush (later known as the Colorado Gold Rush) was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 ...

. In the 1860s portions of the trail from northern Colorado to Fort Bridger in Wyoming were incorporated as part of the Overland Trail and stage route between Kansas and

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, Utah. The outlaw L. H. Musgrove traveled on the Cherokee Trail from Colorado into Wyoming during the 1860s. A native of

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, he came to California at the time of the Gold Rush. Apparently deciding that crime was more profitable than panning for gold, he was arrested and charged with murder in Fort Halleck, Wyoming, during 1863. Taken to Denver for trial, he was released on an unexplained technicality, and returned to a life of crime. Musgrove assembled a network of horse thieves known as the Musgrove Gang, who raided government posts and wagon trains along the Colorado Front Range, following the Cherokee Trail. Musgrove was finally captured and taken to jail in Denver. He started a rumor from his cell that friends were planning to help him escape, and that the citizens could not prevent this. Instead, a group of vigilantes demanded that the guards release Musgrove to them. The guards offered no resistance, so the vigilantes took possession of the prisoner. Quickly they moved him to the Larimer Street bridge and ended his criminal career by

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...

him beneath the bridge on November 23, 1868.[ http://www.americancowboychronicles.com/2015/08/little-known-old-west-gunmen-outlaws.html Correa, Tom. "Little Known Old West Gunmen & Outlaws - Part Four: L. H. Musgrove." The American Cowboy Chronicles. August 28, 2015.] Accessed January 21, 2018.

Notes

References

{{reflist

Sources

*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. *Marcy, Randolph B., Capt. US Army
''The Prairie Traveler''
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1859. (retrieved fro
''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'' *Gehling, Richard
"Colorado's Cherokee Trail'

External links