OCTA Volunteers and Donors Achieve 2022-2023 Milestones!
This year, 2022 -2023 was one in which we did see a return to a normal pattern of Trail events and activities. Thanks to our members we enjoyed a successful symposium in St. Joseph, MO. with excellent presentations and excursions. We had an outstanding convention in Gering, NE with a range of excellent speakers, tours on the Oregon, California, Mormon Pioneer trials. Steve Allison, Utah Crossroads Chapter and Helen Hankins, CA/NV Chater were elected OCTA President and Vice-President, respectively. Your OCTA chapters enjoyed and completely several trail preservation and marking projects during the summer. As we approach the colder months we begin again to hold virtual meetings and presentations which I urge you to attend.
Our YouTube channel was relaunched and a major effort was made to create shorter trail videos. We believe these videos, captured in the field and showcasing the trails and the associated history, will appeal to a younger audience. Launched at the beginning of October with the Kylie McCormick video ‘It’s Our Time’, Richard Hunt and the marketing team have added new material every Friday since then. If you have not yet done so please visit the OCTA channel at the link below or search for octatrails in the YouTube app. When there – subscribe (it is free)! Once we get to 1000 subscribers we start to see a financial return.
Our association remains strong because you, our members, invest time and money. As you consider year-end giving opportunities, your support for OCTA is as essential as ever. Therefore, I ask for your help by making a year-end donation to our Annual Drive today. Our goal for this drive is $25,000 with which we aim to keep our trail advocacy and protection efforts alive. Last year’s Annual Drive continued our work to protect the trails threatened by transmission lines, pipelines, wind and solar farms, and other construction projects across the West. Progress is being made with many of the Preservation projects including, among others: mitigation of the impact of Boardman to Hemingway transmission line, the ‘R’ project in Nebraska, the Greenlink projects in Nevada and the Transwest transmission project as well as the protection of the Fernley swales, the successful mitigation project at Long Canyon/Gravelly Ford and documentary among many others. Your donation this year will keep those efforts alive.
In 2023 we need to continue working on the 4-Trails Bill to add several thousand miles of routes and segments to the Oregon, California, and Mormon National Historic Trails and the Butterfield Overland Trail.
Other projects included:
- The successful Mapping Workshop at Sun Ranch.
- Work by the Libraries and Collections committee to catalog OCTA assets, to cull old records and to protect the Mattes Library as work is done to ‘repair’ the Independence buildings.
- The Red-Carpet launch of the PBS documentary about wagon builder Doug Hansen.
- The continued development of strategy for the Three Trails Corridor in Kansas City and the riverfront jumping-off point in St Joseph, Missouri.
- The Publication of the Overland Journal and of News from the Plains.
- Work with schools and teachers.
- Website improvement and enhancement
- Work with Ensign Properties, the NPS, and the Lake Point, Utah Cemeteries and Parks Division to preserve pristine trail swales by creating a public park in Lake Point.
- Work with the National Park Service.
We need your support now if we are to continue these efforts in 2023.
Please consider, with our gratitude, a year-end gift to keep OCTA strong.
Thank you for being an OCTA member! Your membership is greatly appreciated, and if you aren’t already, I encourage you to become actively involved in protecting and promoting the trails we all love.