Publications

News From the Plains is sent to members of OCTA quarterly as a benefit of membership. The newsletter contains news about members and the organization, convention reports, legislative action, genealogy, trail preservation and special activities along with some pieces of research, shorter than those which appear in the Overland Journal on the emigrants and the trails.

If you would like to receive your News from the Plains by email, contact Headquarters at octa@indepmo.org to request being added to the email list.

News from the Plains
Attn: Bill Martin
706 Country Club Road
Georgetown TX 78628
(512) 818 1609

• NFP Summer 2017  

• NFP newsletter Archive  

The Overland Journal is OCTA's peer-reviewed quarterly journal of scholarly research into the emigrant experience and the trails. In addition to research articles, the journal regularly includes book reviews, letters to the editor, and a page of diary quotes by Andy Hammond titled “The Look of the Elephant.” Recent issues have included “Southwestern Vignettes,” a series of articles by Patricia A. Etter on the southern emigrant trails.

The OJ is always interested in proposals for articles. Inquiries regarding proposed articles should be sent directly to:

Overland Journal
Attn: Marlene Smith-Baranzini, Editor
Overland Journal
Editorial Office
PO Box 7041
Stockton, CA 95267
(209) 242-2684

Overland Journal articles are abstracted and indexed in Historical Abstracts, America: History & Life and online in Uncover. The Overland Journal is sent to all members as a benefit of membership.

• Overland Journal Writers' Guidelines  

• OCTA Overland Journals  

OCTA publishes books devoted to specialized aspects of the trail experience. The current list of OCTA special publications is as follows:

• Rediscovered Frontiersman: Timothy Goodale, by James W. McGill
• The Look of the Elephant: The Westering Experience in the Words of Those Who Lived It, 1841-1861, by Andrew and Joanne Hammond. Paperback,Hardbound.
• Historic Inscriptions on Western Emigrant Trails, by Randy Brown. Paperback,Hardbound.
• Graves and Sites on the Oregon and California Trails, by Randy Brown and Reg Duffin.
• From the Old Northwest to the Pacific Northwest: The 1853 Oregon Trail Diaries of Patterson Fletcher Luark and Michael Fleenan Luark, edited by Howard Jablon and Kenneth R. Elkins. Paperback, Hardbound.
• The 1854 Oregon Trail Diary of Winfield Scott Ebey, edited by Susan Badger Doyle and Fred W. Dykes.
• The 1849 Trail Diaries of Elijah Preston Howell, edited by Susan Badger Doyle and Donald E. Buck.

OCTA welcomes proposals for well-written, well-researched books on the historic emigrant trails and related history. Books submitted for OCTA Special Publications are subject to a review process and are edited to maintain quality of content and presentation.

• Guidelines for Submitting to OCTA Special Publications  

OCTA’s has published educational activity books that are designed to help teachers and children learn about the historic trails west. They cover the basic questions of who, why, what, when, where, and how the historic trails developed. Reflecting the standards, they utilize a wide variety of activities based on both primary and secondary sources to discover the answers to those questions. The current activity books are:
•    Following Lewis and Clark’s Track
•    Reading, Writing, and Riding Along the Oregon-California Trails
•    Finding the Right Place
•    Here Comes the Pony
More information about them can be found under Learning Resources under the Learn heading.

• Learning Resources.