BLM commemorates National Trails Day with public auto tour of the California National Historic Trail
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SALT LAKE CITY—To commemorate National Trails Day, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Salt Lake Field Office will lead a public auto tour of the California National Historic Trail across Utah’s West Desert on Saturday, June 3, 2017, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The BLM invites members of the public to take a guided auto tour and follow in the footsteps of ghosts of the past. Come spend the day safely enjoying a vicarious experience along the longest waterless stretch of any National Historic Trail in the country.
Experienced BLM guides and knowledgeable historians from the Oregon California Trail Association will lead participants across the barren desert, bringing history to life. The first stop will be the Donner Reed Museum in Grantsville and then continuing on to experience primitive roads, isolated springs, imposing mountains, barren desert playa, and shimmering mirages. Numerous stops will allow participants to leave their vehicle and stand on the California National Historic Trail blazed in 1846.
In summer 1846, pioneer emigrants headed to California were convinced by Lansford Hastings to take a cut-off route across Utah’s West Desert in an effort to shave 400 miles off the regular emigrant route. Little did they know that this route required cutting a trail through the Wasatch Mountains and embarking on a treacherous 90-mile waterless crossing of the Great Salt Lake Desert. Extreme hardship, monumental exertion, and calamity ensued. Draft animals collapsed and died, wagons were abandoned, and desperate emigrants were stranded on the desert playa north of the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Sign up is limited to the first 15 cars; a well-maintained and provisioned four-wheel drive vehicle is recommended. The tour will leave West Valley City at 8 a.m. For more details and to sign up for the tour, contact Ray Kelsey at the BLM Salt Lake Field Office no later than May 31; phone: 801-977-4300 or email: rkelsey@blm.gov.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska, on behalf of the American people. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Our mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.