Wagons Ho!
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Perhaps Jack Fletcher can be forgiven for sounding so possessive when he speaks of the Cherokee Trail from Oklahoma to Wyoming as "our trail."
Jack and his wife, Pat, both retired university professors, have tracked down and documented evidence of the long-forgotten route to the California gold fields since they first noticed it on an old map in 1983.
This year they appeared in a DVD titled "Wyoming's Atlantic Rim Historic Trails," which was produced as part of a mitigation agreement by oil companies seeking to drill in the vicinity of the trail in Wyoming.
The DVD was a hit on public television in Wyoming when it debuted in July and was back by popular demand in September.
The success is gratifying. The Fletchers have invested a third of their lives bringing the trail to light.
About 30 years ago, after years away from their home state of Colorado, they returned for a visit to find that Jack's old neighborhood was going to be bulldozed for a retail development.
"They were saving one building called Four Mile House, the last stage stop before Denver," Pat said.
When Jack was young, he had worked for the family that owned the building for three generations.
The Fletchers began collecting stories from longtime residents of the area and compiled a short history of Four Mile House. That launched their second careers, writing and publishing history books.
"After the first book came out," Jack said, "the city fathers (of Glendale, Colo.) liked it so well, they gave us a grant to write the town's official history."
In the course of fact-checking old-timers' stories against old maps and records, they saw a notation of the Cherokee Trail on a map.
Their first thought was, "That can't be right." Their only familiarity with the term was from the Cherokee Trail of Tears, the forced relocation of the Cherokee Nation from the eastern United States to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma.
Because they are careful researchers, the Fletchers sent out letters inquiring about the notations but heard nothing to answer the question that remained on their minds:
What was this western Cherokee Trail?
Eight years later, they discovered the diary of a traveler in the 1849 Evans Cherokee party headed for the California gold fields. Details found in the diary of the route confirmed that this was the trail noted on the old map.
"You could even extrapolate the campsites," Jack said, from descriptions in the diary.
The discovery brought them to a turning point: They were university professors, but the research and writing about the trail to the gold fields had laid a claim on them.
The conversation remains clear in Jack's mind: "She asked me, 'Do you want to research or teach? What's more important to us?'"
Research won, and the Fletchers moved to Sequim in 1990, continuing their work as snowbirds.
Over several years, three more diaries came to light. The Fletchers searched tiny museums, historical societies, and genealogical collections along the trail and at its origin.
They found references in military records and the personal records of participants and tracked down the physical evidence -- wagon ruts across the plains and into the mountains.
In 1999 and 2001, they published "Cherokee Trail Diaries." Their Web site, www.cherokeetrail.org, provides information and an interactive map.
They also wrote about the trail in articles for the journal of the Oregon-California Trails Association. Last year, for the first time, OCTA's annual meeting was held along the Cherokee Trail in Loveland, Colo. The Fletchers chaired the program and led a tour and field trip.
"We were so happy they did it on the Cherokee Trail; we would have done anything," Jack said.
The trail finally is receiving national recognition. The Omnibus Land Bill signed into law this March funded two years of feasibility study on a few dozen historical trails around the nation.
The 900-mile Cherokee Trail from Tahlequah, Okla., to
Fort Bridger, Colo., is among them and the longest by far.
For the Fletchers, this means two busy years of more mapping, marking and documenting significant sites and segments of the trail.
If the trail is selected for preservation efforts, Pat said, "then we get the brown signs" that mark historical sites around the country.
"It's amazing," Jack said, "that after 25 or 30 years, we are still excited about it."
Contact Sandra Frykholm at sfrykholm@sequim gazette.com.
Jack and his wife, Pat, both retired university professors, have tracked down and documented evidence of the long-forgotten route to the California gold fields since they first noticed it on an old map in 1983.
This year they appeared in a DVD titled "Wyoming's Atlantic Rim Historic Trails," which was produced as part of a mitigation agreement by oil companies seeking to drill in the vicinity of the trail in Wyoming.
The DVD was a hit on public television in Wyoming when it debuted in July and was back by popular demand in September.
The success is gratifying. The Fletchers have invested a third of their lives bringing the trail to light.
About 30 years ago, after years away from their home state of Colorado, they returned for a visit to find that Jack's old neighborhood was going to be bulldozed for a retail development.
"They were saving one building called Four Mile House, the last stage stop before Denver," Pat said.
When Jack was young, he had worked for the family that owned the building for three generations.
The Fletchers began collecting stories from longtime residents of the area and compiled a short history of Four Mile House. That launched their second careers, writing and publishing history books.
"After the first book came out," Jack said, "the city fathers (of Glendale, Colo.) liked it so well, they gave us a grant to write the town's official history."
In the course of fact-checking old-timers' stories against old maps and records, they saw a notation of the Cherokee Trail on a map.
Their first thought was, "That can't be right." Their only familiarity with the term was from the Cherokee Trail of Tears, the forced relocation of the Cherokee Nation from the eastern United States to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma.
Because they are careful researchers, the Fletchers sent out letters inquiring about the notations but heard nothing to answer the question that remained on their minds:
What was this western Cherokee Trail?
Eight years later, they discovered the diary of a traveler in the 1849 Evans Cherokee party headed for the California gold fields. Details found in the diary of the route confirmed that this was the trail noted on the old map.
"You could even extrapolate the campsites," Jack said, from descriptions in the diary.
The discovery brought them to a turning point: They were university professors, but the research and writing about the trail to the gold fields had laid a claim on them.
The conversation remains clear in Jack's mind: "She asked me, 'Do you want to research or teach? What's more important to us?'"
Research won, and the Fletchers moved to Sequim in 1990, continuing their work as snowbirds.
Over several years, three more diaries came to light. The Fletchers searched tiny museums, historical societies, and genealogical collections along the trail and at its origin.
They found references in military records and the personal records of participants and tracked down the physical evidence -- wagon ruts across the plains and into the mountains.
In 1999 and 2001, they published "Cherokee Trail Diaries." Their Web site, www.cherokeetrail.org, provides information and an interactive map.
They also wrote about the trail in articles for the journal of the Oregon-California Trails Association. Last year, for the first time, OCTA's annual meeting was held along the Cherokee Trail in Loveland, Colo. The Fletchers chaired the program and led a tour and field trip.
"We were so happy they did it on the Cherokee Trail; we would have done anything," Jack said.
The trail finally is receiving national recognition. The Omnibus Land Bill signed into law this March funded two years of feasibility study on a few dozen historical trails around the nation.
The 900-mile Cherokee Trail from Tahlequah, Okla., to
Fort Bridger, Colo., is among them and the longest by far.
For the Fletchers, this means two busy years of more mapping, marking and documenting significant sites and segments of the trail.
If the trail is selected for preservation efforts, Pat said, "then we get the brown signs" that mark historical sites around the country.
"It's amazing," Jack said, "that after 25 or 30 years, we are still excited about it."
Contact Sandra Frykholm at sfrykholm@sequim gazette.com.
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Business hours are Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Phone 360-683-3311, or toll free at 800-829-5810. FAX 360-683-6670.
For a complete company directory with contact information please click HERE.
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