Rocky Mountain Map Society presents “Mapping the Historic Cherokee Trail in Colorado: Real World Applications in Trail Mapping” with Ethan Gannett

The Colorado portion of the Cherokee Trail was used to connect from the Santa Fe Trail at Bent’s Old Fort to the California Trail at Fort Bridger, Wyoming for Cherokee and white emigrants to seek their riches in the 1849 California Gold. It was a major artery for emigrants and settlers in Colorado in the 1850s-1860s, long before the Overland Stage Company claimed its routes. Ethan will bring his five years of field mapping the Cherokee Trail in Colorado for OCTA to life as he discusses the history research, historic maps, General Land Office surveys, historic journal/diary entries and newspaper articles that amass the evidence to find modern-day rut traces of the Cherokee Trail in the field. This years-long effort culminates with the highest resolution map of the Cherokee Trail in Colorado which Ethan will show at the presentation.

Ethan Gannett is the President and Mapping Chair for the Colorado-Cherokee Trail Chapter of the Oregon-California Trails Association (OCTA) where he is Vice President of the national organization. He is a retired VP of Engineering for Hewlett Packard Enterprise and lives in Fort Collins, Colorado.