• Wesley Brown
  How the 1859 Gold Rush Put Colorado on the Map

Wesley Brown has been a collector, student, and author of old maps for thirty years.  He confines his map collecting to two areas: the earliest world maps up to the year 1540, and the exploration and settlement of Colorado from the 16^th through 20^th centuries.  A Denver resident, he co-founded the Rocky Mountain Map Society in 1990 and served as its President for its first seven years. 

He has served on the Steering Committee of the Philip Lee Phillips Society, the national map and geography society of the Library of Congress, for ten years, including three years as Co-Chairman.  He has served on the Council of the Society for the History of Discoveries.  He has long been associated with the Denver Public Library, including eight years as one of its mayoral-appointed Commissioners where he served as President and where he is still active in acquisitions for the institution's important western collections.  He has published several papers on maps.

• Don Erickson and Kevin Reddy
  Building the Road from Fort Riley to Bridger Pass

Kevin Reddy is a geologist and does petroleum exploration out of Casper, Wyoming.  Don Erickson owns Image Exploration in Littleton, Colorado, specializing in international geological mapping for petroleum exploration.  Both have been active in living history for many years, portraying the Corps of Topographical Engineers to the public and have taught several interpretive schools on the subject for the National Park Service.

Watch for them in the movie In Pursuit of a Dream, which has a debut on Wednesday evening.

• Jack and Pat Fletcher 
  Cherokee Trail Through Time: Fort Gibson to Fort Bridger 1849-1869

The Fletchers are Colorado natives and graduated from Colorado State University and the University of Northern Colorado, respectively.  They are considered authorities on the Cherokee Trail having started their studies in 1983.  This trail crossed northeastern Oklahoma, central Kansas, up the Front Range in Colorado and west to Fort Bridger in Wyoming.  The Fletchers’ research has uncovered over 100 documents pertaining to this trail.  They have authored and co-authored five books pertaining to the trail and Colorado.  

Jack is a former science professor and has served on OCTA’s board.  Pat has taught History and Geography at colleges in Canada and the United States and supervised teachers at Eastern Washington University.  She is newly-elected to the OCTA board.  Both continue to work in mapping, marking and preserving the Cherokee Trail remnants, including serving on working committees with the Bureau of Land Management and energy companies.  Both are lifetime members of the Santa Fe Trail Association and charter members of the Smoky Hill Trail Association.

• Jerome A. Greene
  A Military Perspective of the Great Sioux War, 1876-1877

Jerome A. Greene is a retired National Park Service historian and curator now living in Arvada, Colorado.  He is the author of fifteen books, most dealing with the Indian wars, including, Stricken Field:  The Little Bighorn since 1876 and Indian War Veterans:  Memories of Army Life and Campaigns in the West, 1864-1898.  He has interests in American Indian history, nineteenth century military history, and government-Indian relations.

• Johanna Harden
  From Rufus Sage and Blackfoot Cave to the Cherokee Trail and East Cherry Creek Ranches: The rest of the story.

Archivist Johanna Harden has prepared this presentation which will give OCTA members knowledge, insight, and encouragement to be proactive identifying and saving other historic sites along the trails in cooperation with landowners and government agencies.  Special emphasis will be placed on the Blackfoot Cave site.  Here pre-history is being revealed by the archaeological dig in progress on the Douglas County Open Space Blackfoot Cave Site.

This is a unique opportunity to share the outstanding success of the collaborative efforts of Griffis Group Investments, Douglas County Open Space, Colorado Archaeological Society, and Douglas County History Research Center—Douglas County Libraries.  Annette Gray, Cheryl Matthews, Ian Griffis, and Neil Hauser will participate in the presentation.

• Michael Landon
  A Continuous Line of Stock and Wagons: A Reappraisal of the 1857 Overland Emigration

Michael received degrees in History and political science from UCLA and a Masters in Public History from California State University, Sacramento.  He is an archivist for the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  In that capacity, he has acquired documents, conducted research, and assisted in a variety of projects for the Mormon Trail and other historic western trails.  He co-authored Trail of Hope: The Story of the Mormon Trail.

Michael will illustrate the significance of the Cherokee Trail and discuss the size and composition of the 1857 emigration.  He will also discuss previously published works regarding the trail within this time period with the new insights of recent research.

• Bill Meirath, Alfred Vigil and Sharon Danhauer
  Mariano Medina:  A legend in his own time

Mariano Medina (1812-1878) was as famous in his time as the mountain men we remember today, but his legacy has been nearly forgotten.  He settled on an old trappers’ trail on the Big Thompson River near what is now Loveland.  His colorful and adventuresome life is the stuff of which legends are made.

Bill Meirath is a member of the Loveland Historical Society.  He is a fur trade, trails, and local history enthusiast.  Through his vision and tenacious research, he has generated a preservation movement to save an almost forgotten local site.

Alfred Vigil retired from a 35-year career with Hewlett-Packard.  He is a hard-working volunteer and member of the Berthoud Historical Society with special interests in local history, archaeology, trails, and maps.

Sharon Danhauer is an avid history enthusiast and interpreter.  She is on the Board of Directors for the Loveland and Berthoud Historical Societies.  She has taught Colorado history for a local private school and has compiled a state history for home-schooled students.  

• Michael Moore
  Going North and South, Colorado's Trapper Trail

  In addition to lecturing, Mike Moore has been a staff writer for On The Trail magazine for the last eleven years. He has written over 120 articles in many different magazines on the fur trade, early western exploration and the people involved in it.  His fourth book, A View to the West, was published in February.  Mike is a member of the Western Writers of America and appears in the movie In Pursuit of a Dream, being premiered at this convention.
  
  

• Dan Rottenberg
  Jack Slade
  
  Dan Rottenberg has been the chief editor of seven publications, most recently broadstreetreview.com, a cultural arts website he launched in January 2006 with the support of the University of the Arts.  He is also the author of ten books, most recently Death of a Gunfighter, published in October 2008 by Westholme Publishing.
  
  From 2000 to 2004 he was editor of Family Business, an international quarterly magazine dealing with family-owned companies, where he remains senior editor.  From 1996 to 1998 he was editor of the Philadelphia Forum, a weekly Philadelphia opinion paper that he founded.  In 1993 he created Seven Arts, a monthly magazine based in Philadelphia. From 1981 to 1993 he edited the Welcomat, a unique Philadelphia-based weekly opinion forum, now known as Philadelphia Weekly.

  He wrote an editorial-page column for the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1978 to 1997.  He has written more than 300 articles for such magazines as Town & Country, Reader's Digest, The New York Times Magazine, Forbes, Civilization, American Benefactor, Bloomberg Personal Finance, TV Guide, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Chicago and many others. He served as a consultant in 1981 when Forbes magazine launched its annual "Forbes 400" list of wealthiest Americans.  His syndicated film commentaries appeared in monthly city magazines around the U.S. from 1971 to 1983.

  Earlier in his career he was executive editor of Philadelphia magazine, managing editor of Chicago Journalism Review, a Wall Street Journal reporter, and editor of the Commercial-Review, a daily newspaper in Portland, Indiana.
  
  

• Colleen Sievers
  Partnership Projects in Trail Recordation and Preservation

Colleen is currently the Lead Archeologist for the Bureau of Land Management Field Office in Rock Springs, Wyoming.  She has worked for both private and academic cultural consultants before joining BLM five years ago.  She will provide examples of partnership projects recording, monitoring, and preserving historic trails in southwestern Wyoming.  The strengthening of these partnerships is key in the conservation and protection of the trail remnants and their associated landscapes.  Illustrations of volunteer efforts between BLM and OCTA will include studies of the Overland Trail, the Cherokee Trail, and the National Historic Trails, including the Sublette Cutoff.

• Lee Whiteley
  Pathways to Gold: Colorado’s Cherokee Trail, 1849; Smoky Hill Trail, 1859

This is a fully-illustrated program providing an introduction and overview of the major wagon roads of Eastern Colorado.  Emphasis will be placed on the 1849-1850 Cherokee Trail, the multi-use road connecting the other primary Colorado trails: the Santa Fe Trail, the Taos Trail, the Smoky Hill Trail, and the Overland Trail.

The Smoky Hill Trail was instrumental in the founding and settling of Denver and Colorado and this year celebrates 150 years of use.  This trail was the route of the ‘59ers to the gold fields of Colorado.

This presentation will include a summary of those who used the trails, landmarks, present-day preservation, mapping, and educational projects.

Lee is a fourth generation Coloradan.  He has written several books and articles about the various trails through Colorado, including The Cherokee Trail, Bent’s Old Fort to Fort Bridger.  Besides being a member of OCTA, Lee holds memberships in the Santa Fe Trail Association, the Smoky Hill Trail Association, the Union Pacific Historical Society, and the Lincoln Highway Association.

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