California National Historic Trail (U.S. National Park Service)

QUICKLINKS:

California National Historic Trail

The road to California carried over 250,000 gold-seekers & farmers to the gold fields & rich farmlands of California during the 1840's and 1850's – the greatest mass migration in American history. More than 1,000 miles of trail ruts and traces can still be seen in the vast undeveloped west – reminders of the sacrifices, struggles, and triumphs of early American travelers and settlers.

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Auto Tour Route Interpretive Guides

Auto Tour Route Interpretive Guides are being developed for each state that the California National Historic Trail passes through. These guides will provide descriptions of locations where visitors will find remnants of the trail with either interpretive services or media that will add insight to the experiences and history of the California Trail.

These guides will be posted as they are developed and updated as information changes. They are in Acrobat PDF format for downloading and printing on your home computer. You must have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader program installed to open and view these files.
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		2007 Challenge Cost Share Program Thinking about an interesting historic trail project, but don’t know how to fund it? Want to map trail segments, place an interpretive wayside exhibit, archive historic photos, or transcribe old journals? Want to write a trail guide, design a museum exhibit, or fence an important trail site – but you just don’t have the money? more...

Shortcut link to emigrant names information.

Emigrant Names Search

Recently the Oregon-California Trails Association, a primary partner with the National Park Service long distance historic trails office, developed a website to provide researchers, interested family descendants, and other emigrant trail enthusiasts with a tool for searching pioneer emigrant names.

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Write to

National Park Service
324 South State St., Suite 200, Box 30
Salt Lake City, UT 84111

E-mail Us

Phone

Trail Information & Brochures
(801) 741-1012 ext. 119

Interpretation Office
(801) 741-1012 ext. 116

Fax

(801) 741-1102

Climate

The California Trail is over 2,000 miles in length and passes through or into eight states. Climate varies from season to season as well as by region. Trail visitors should check with regional sources for climatic conditions.
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