People & Stories

Life, Locations & Lineage on the Oregon and California Trails


People & Places on the Oregon and California Trails

Pioneers wrote of their travels to Oregon, California, Utah and other western locations in diaries, letters, remembrances, and newspaper articles.

These stories speak to who we are and where our dreams can take us. Those stories live on all around us: in the ruts in the ground, in the traditions of our western states, in our pageants and festivals, in the descendants of the original emigrants, in the values that we cherish, in the landscape through which the emigrants passed, and in the signatures they left behind. In fact, it’s hard to imagine what the United States would be like without having had the experience of the westward emigrants.

Emigrant Trail Certificate

Did YOUR ancestors travel the emigrant trails?

Do you have an ancestor who traveled the emigrant trails? Would you like to be recognized formally as their descendant? Provide us with documentation of their travels on the form provided, and submit it to OCTA to obtain a certificate similar to the one above, suitable for framing.

Certificate Application