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Publications

Our chapter is responsible for a considerable trail literature. Crossroads members produce a number of publications in the chapter's name such as our many trail guides. These have often accompanied field trips to the area described. And, many of our members are prolific writers and editors in their own right, producing a steady stream of worthwhile books to sate the appetite of inquisitive history buffs and trail enthusiasts around the world.

In many cases these publications are available through the online OCTA Bookstore and where possible we provide appropriate links. Some of the proceeds of the bookstore's sales of Crossroads publications are returned to our chapter and help support our many preservation activities. Purchases from Amazon.com through the Crossroads Web site also return a portion of the selling price.

If you are aware of other publications by Utah Crossroads members that have been missed, please contact the Utah Crossroads Webmaster.

Please note: Each of the links will open in a new window so you don't lose track of this page.

Chapter Publications
Trail Guide

Trailing the Pioneers

Trailing the Pioneers
A Guide to Utah's Emigrant Trails, 1829-1869

Peter H. DeLafosse, Editor

A modern day road guide for following the five major Utah emigrant trails: Bidwell-Bartleson Trail, Hastings Cutoff, Hensley's Salt Lake Cutoff, Pioneer (Mormon-Donner) Trail and Spanish Trail, while traveling along today’s highways. Provides historical background and excerpts from pioneer journals. Authors are Steven K. Madsen, Roy D. Tea, Jack B. Tykil, Rush Spedden and Will Bagley with a Selected Bibliography by Harold Schindler. Contains an index, maps and photos.

Softcover: Utah State University Press, 1996
Purchase: OCTA, Amazon, Benchmark BooksSam Weller's Books


Field Guides

Hastings Cutoff, Grantsville to Donner Springs
Roy D. Tea
Crossroads Chapter Spring Field Trip; Quotes from diaries; maps.
Purchase: OCTA

Hastings Longtripp, A Hastings Cutoff Trail Guide
Roy D. Tea
From Donner Spring to the Humboldt; 40 pp, maps, including detail of a map by T. H. Jefferson.
Purchase: OCTA

(More field guides are available and their listings will follow.)

Chapter Members' Publications
Alphabetical by Author

Will Bagley

 


Dave Bigler
Former President, OCTA

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Army of Israel
(Softcover Edition)

Army of Israel
Mormon Battallion Narratives
ISBN: 0874212944 - Paper

David L. Bigler, Will Bagley; Editors

Army of Israel compiles dozens of first-hard accounts and other primary sources to tell the story of the most unique command in U.S. military annals and its larger role to the conquest of California and opening of the West, including the blazing of such routes as the Southern California Trail, Cooke's Wagon Road, Mormon-Carson Pass Emigrant Trail and the Salt Lake Cutoff.

Hardcover: The Arthur H. Clark Co., Pub., 2000
Softcover: Utah State University Press, Pub., 2000
Available: Amazon, Benchmark BooksSam Weller's Books

 

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Forgotten Kingdom
(Softcover Edition)

Forgotten Kingdom
The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847-1896
ISBN 0874212456
- Paper, ISBN 087062282X - Cloth

David L. Bigler

Forgotten Kingdom tells of Mormon efforts to establish in Utah an independent theocratic Kingdom of God and of the resulting struggle with national republican ideology, Mormon opponents within and outside of Utah, and the federal government.

Winner, Westerners International's Book of the Year Award, 1998.

"neither faith promoting nor Mormon bashing . . . simply a well-written, informative . . . history of Utah before state-hood."—Denver Westerners Roundup.

Hardcover: The Arthur H. Clark Co., Pub., 2000
Softcover: Utah State University Press, Pub., 2000
Purchase: Amazon, Benchmark BooksSam Weller's Books

 

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Gold Discovery Journal of Azaariah Smith
(Softcover Edition)

Gold Discovery Journal of Azariah Smith
ISBN 0874212170 - Paper

David L. Bigler, Editor

Azariah Smith wrote one of only two contemporary eyewitness accounts of the discovery at Sutter's Mill in January 1848 that touched off the massive population shift known as the Gold Rush. Smith, at eighteen a member of the Mormon Battalion, also recorded the experiences of this far-command, including its march across Sonora to blaze the Southern Route to California and opening of wagon roads over the Sierra Nevada and Salt Lake Desert.

Hardcover: University of Utah Press, Pub., 1990 (out of print)
Softcover: Utah State University Press, Pub., 1996
Purchase: OCTA, Amazon, Benchmark BooksSam Weller's Books

 


Kristin Johnson
Former Editor Crossroads
"Unfortunate Emigrants" "Unfortunate Emigrants"
Narratives of the Donner Party
ISBN 0-87421-208-1 - Paper

Kristin Johnson, Editor

A collection of documents about the Donner Party, with biographical sketches of the authors and annotations. Includes works by J. Quinn Thornton, Lilburn W. Boggs, Mary Ann Graves, H. A. Wise, J. Ross Browne, Eliza W. Farnham, William C. Graves, F. H. McDougall, James F. Reed, William McCutchen, Jacob Wright Harlan, Virginia Reed, and Lovina Graves; also a roster of Donner Party members, maps, portraits of authors, bibliography, and index.

"Reading this compendium of original, descriptive accounts is compelling, engaging and unforgettable. No Western American frontier history collection can be considered complete without this astonishing book." —Midwest Book Review

Softcover: Utah State University Press, Pub., 1996
Purchase: OCTA, Amazon, Benchmark BooksSam Weller's Books

 


Michael Landon
Archivist, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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Trail of Hope

Trail of Hope
The story of the Mormon Trail
ISBN 1573452513 - Cloth

William W. Slaughter, Michael Landon

Companion volume to the PBS special. 

Hardcover: Shadow Mountain Press, Pub., 1998
Purchase: Amazon, Deseret Book, Sam Weller's Books

 


Bill Smart
Former Editor, Salt Lake Deseret News

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Over The Rim

Over the Rim
The Parley P. Pratt Exploring Expedition to Southern Utah, 1849-50
ISBN 0-87421-281-2 - Paper, ISBN 0-87421-282-0 - Cloth

William B. Smart, Donna T. Smart; Editors

Over the Rim is the first book about an important but little-known expedition sent by Brigham Young to explore southern Utah. Led by Mormon apostle Parley P. Pratt, the party traveled from Salt Lake City south across the rim of the Great Basin to the Virgin River near future St. George. They brought back to Mormon leaders their first detailed portrait of the country to the south that the church planned to settle.

Hardcover & Softcover: Utah State University Press, Pub., 2000
Purchase: AmazonSam Weller's Books

 


Frank Tortorich
Director, OCTA


Cover Photograph as Soon as Available

 

Gold Rush Trail
A Guide to the Carson River Route of the Emigrant Trail
ISBN 0-9662907-0-4

Frank Tortorich, Jr.

This is a Historical Driving guide along 33 miles for California State Highway 88. There are 36 photos and 7 maps. The book directs the reader to numerous spots where one can hike on the Emigrant trail and see the evidence where the wagons went 150 years ago. The book has been well received and is being prepared for its third printing.

"Frank Tortorich here combines the knowledge he has acquired over years of study on the Carson River route with an exceptional ability to make the story of the first Gold Rush Trail over the Sierra Nevada come to life for modern readers."—David Bigler (Past President, OCTA)

Softcover: Wagon Wheel Tours, Pub., 1998 2nd Ed.
Purchase: OCTA, Wagon Wheel Tours ($12.50 prepaid, shipping included)

 

Jack Tykal

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Etienne Provost

Etienne Provost: Man of the Mountains
ISBN 0-943604-23-0 - Paper, ISBN 0-943604-24-9 - Hardcover

Jack Tykal

The only full biography of a giant of the American fur trade of the early 19th century, his career spanned almost the entire period of the trade, from 1814 to 1850. Described as having "a corpus round as a porpoise," and as "adipose and rotonde - larding the lean earth as he walks along" as a comparison to Falstaff.

"The hardest part of historical authorship is to take . . . research and breathe relevance and life into it, making it come alive. . . . In this Tykal has succeeded - admirably." —Wild West, Feb. 1990

Hardcover & Softcover: Eagle's View Publishing, Pub., 1989
Available: Amazon, Benchmark Books, Eagle Feather Trading Company

 

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Journal of an Expedition to the Grand Prairies of the Missouri 1840

Journal of an Expedition to the Grand Prairies of the Missouri 1840
By William Fairholme
ISBN 87062-260-9
- Hardcover

Jack Tykal, Editor

A journal of a hunting expedition to the plains of today's Kansas written by a 21-year-old Lieutenant in the British Army, stationed in Montreal. A fascinating insight into mid-19th century America as he traveled with his party from Montreal to St. Louis, via Chicago, and then along the Santa Fe Trail as far as present Larned, KS. He returned via the Ohio River, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New York.

"As a journalist he (Fairholme) proves himself both observant and literate. Additionally, he had some skill as a sketch artist, and the inclusion of fourteen of his sketches . . . adds immeasurably to both the value and interest of his journal. (The book) is a unique and highly recommended contribution to American history in general and the opening up of the American West in particular." The Midwest Book Review

Hardcover: The Arthur H. Clark Co., Pub., 1996
Purchase: Amazon, Benchmark Books

 


 
Publishers and Booksellers 
Arthur H. Clark Co.
PO Box 14707
Spokane, WA 99214

Phone: (509) 928-9540; Fax: (509) 928-4364
Web site: http://www.ahclark.com. Email: clarkbks@mindspring.com

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Benchmark Books
3269 So. Main Street, Suite 250
Salt Lake City, UT 84115

Phone: (801) 486-3111, (800) 486-3112; Fax: (801) 486-3452 
No Web site. Email: benchmarkbooks@netzero.net

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Eagle Feather Trading Post
168 West 12th Street
Ogden, UT 84404

Phone: (801) 393-3991; Fax: (801) 745-0903 
No Web site. Email: eglcrafts@aol.com

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