1992 - California NHT
The California NHT traces many of the routes that gold seekers (known as "49ers") followed to California between 1849 and 1852. After the discovery of gold in late 1848 at Sutter's Mill, a flood of 250,000 novice gold seekers and settlers headed west to California from many points in the East. The Trail starts in a variety of places along the western shore of the Missouri River and merges onto the earlier Oregon and Mormon Pioneer routes in Nebraska's Platte River Valley. On the far side of the Continental Divide at South Pass, the Trail braids as the 49ers raced west on the best routes they could find. There are over a dozen ending points in the California goldfields. All these routes total over 5,600 miles in combined lengths. The Trail is administered by the National Park Service and much hard work is carried out by volunteers to mark, map and maintain the historic and auto tour routes, The Oregon-California Trails Associationis integral to this Trail's survival.
(Scherer, Glenn, 2002, "America's National Trails: Journeys Across Land and Time, Guilford, CT: Falcon Press
pp. 42-45)