Parting of the Ways at the Raft River

 

 

The BLM Sign
For many years this photo was the first picture in Shann Rupp's photo story of the Raft River-Humboldt River Route of the California Trail. Shann took the picture while on a Trails West outing in 1995.

In November 2005 Jim McGill sent us a message challenging Shann's statement that the BLM sign marked the California Trail on top of a ridge. In December 2005 Shann decided to replace the picture of the sign with a view of the nearby scenery and a quote from an old diary. Jim and Shann asked Don Buck to clarify the situation and Don contributed the notes he wrote several years ago for a Trails West guidebook.

The following persons contributed to this email discussion:

  • Don Buck, a retired California educator, is an expert on the trails leading into California. Don is the editor of the esteemed OCTA mapping manual, Mapping Emigrant Trails, and formerly chaired the OCTA Publications Committee. He also is heavily involved in marking the trails for Trails West and has contributed to the Trails West guidebooks.

  • Jim McGill, past president of the OCTA Idaho Chapter and editor of Trail Dust, the Idaho Chapter's newsletter. Jim is also the current chairperson of OCTA's Mapping Committee.

    • CLICK HERE TO BEGIN READING THE THREAD.
For more information:
see Jim McGill's article on The Parting of the Ways in the May 2004 edition of Trail Dust.
Trails West plans to publish an updated edition of their Emigrant Trails West, A Guide to the California Trail from the Raft River to the Humboldt Sink and the Greenhorn Cutoff in 2006. For more information please refer to their website, http://www.emigranttrailswest.org

 

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