According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, there were two trails that may have been known as the California Road at the time of the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California f ...

. A southerly route, which ran through present-day Oklahoma (then known only as

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

), along the

Canadian River The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River in the United States. It is about long, starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and Oklahoma. The drainage area is about .Okamura, Ryoko. "California Road." ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''.
Accessed August 22, 2018. Marcy Map 2

The California Road followed the route laid out by Captain Randolph B. Marcy escorting gold seekers during the spring of 1849. Starting from

Ft. Smith, Arkansas Fort Smith is the third-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 89,142. It is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Are ...

, it crossed over into

and generally followed the

Canadian River The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River in the United States. It is about long, starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and Oklahoma. The drainage area is about .Texas Panhandle The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a square-shaped area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east. It is adjacent to ...

. The trail continued across the Panhandle along the Canadian into New Mexico where it met an existing trail south out of Santa Fe to El Paso and west into California. The peak number of emigrants from the eastern United States to California was about twenty thousand on this route in 1849. The crossing of the east-west California Road with the north-south

Texas Road The Texas Road, also known as the Shawnee Trail, Sedalia Trail, or Kansas Trail, was a major trade and emigrant route to Texas across Indian Territory (later Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri). Established during the Mexican War by emigrants rushin ...

formed a natural point of settlement in Tobucksy County of the

Choctaw Nation The Choctaw Nation (Choctaw: ''Chahta Okla'') is a Native American territory covering about , occupying portions of southeastern Oklahoma in the United States. The Choctaw Nation is the third-largest federally recognized tribe in the United St ...

, a site originally called Bucklucksy. James Jackson McAlester, an employee of licensed traders Reynolds and Hannaford convinced the firm to locate a general store at that location in late 1869. This settlement eventually became

McAlester, Oklahoma McAlester is the county seat of Pittsburg County, Oklahoma. The population was 18,363 at the time of the 2010 census, a 3.4 percent increase from 17,783 at the 2000 census,Shuller, Thurman"McAlester" profile ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History an ...

. Prominent landmarks in western Indian Territory were

Rock Mary Rock Mary, in Caddo County, Oklahoma, was a prominent landmark on the California Road. It was named in 1849 for Mary Conway, the then 17-year-old niece of James Sevier Conway, the Governor of Arkansas. Mary was the eldest daughter of Dr. John R. ...

and the Antelope Hills.

The Prairie Traveler

"Another road leaves Fort Smith and runs up the south side of the Canadian River to Santa Fé and Albuquerque in New Mexico. This route is set down upon most of the maps of the present day as having been discovered and explored by various persons, but my own name seems to have been carefully excluded from the list. Whether this omission has been intentional or not, I leave for the authors to determine. I shall merely remark that I had the command and entire direction of an expedition which in 1849 discovered, explored, located, and marked out this identical wagon road from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Santa Fé, New Mexico, and that this road, for the greater portion of the distance, is the same that has been since recommended for a Pacific railway." File:Cottonwood Spring.jpg, Cottonwood Spring Texas Historical Marker just north of Jean on the southern route. File:Marcy Trail.jpg, Texas Historical Marker on Highway 82 east of Ringgold. File:Texas Historical Marker trail route.jpg, Texas Historical Marker northeast of Amarillo, on Highway 136 just north of the intersection with 245, commemorating the Josiah Gregg route.

References

{{reflist

External links

Texas Historical Marker near Amarillo

Texas Historical Marker near Adrian

Texas Historical Marker near Borger

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090914062925/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/C/CA012.html Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - California Road
Oklahoma Digital Maps: Digital Collections of Oklahoma and Indian Territory
Trails and roads in the American Old West Historic trails and roads in Missouri Historic trails and roads in Kansas Historic trails and roads in Oklahoma

The Prairie Traveler

See also

References

Further reading

External links