This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Last week, I heard the term "rut nuts," had to track it down, and before long ran into the Utah Crossroads chapter of the national Oregon-California Trails Association. Since 1982, OCTA has steadfastly identified, marked, and protected historic trails and wagon roads to preserve the emigrant experience.

On Sept. 23, the national organization recognized three Utah Crossroads chapter members — Dixon Ford, T. Michael Smith and Al Mulder — for their contributions to this state's historic environment.

Before there were paved roads and railways, trails connected us. In the mid-1800s, the emigrant pathway known as the Oregon Trail stretched over 2,000 miles from the Independence, Mo., to the Pacific Northwest.

Prospectors and pioneers going on to California parted ways near Fort Hall and went southwest on the California Trail. Cutting through Utah's northernmost corner, the trail passed to the Humboldt Sink, crossed the Forty-Mile Desert (reportedly not fit for man nor beast) into the Sierra Nevada and onto the Donner Pass cutoff toward Sacramento.

When a more direct shortcut appeared — a subject of great interest to the Utah Crossroads chapter — the Hastings Cutoff from the Oregon Trail at Fort Bridger, Wyo., led thousands of emigrants around the southern tip of the Great Salt Lake.

On this alternate route, they passed through Echo Canyon, went over the Wasatch Range into Emigration Canyon, endured a merciless Salt Desert crossing and arrived at Donner Spring some 20 miles north of Wendover before rejoining the California Trail near Wells, Nev.

Other diverse routes spread throughout Utah and branched into an extensive network of state trails, including the Hensley Cutoff, Overland Route, Pony Express, Old Spanish Trial and the Lincoln Highway.

All of this is fodder for the exuberant Utah Crossroads members who believe if you save the trail, you save history — even if it requires extensive travel and 90-150 pounds of lumber.

"We make T-rail posts from old railroad ties," said Jesse Peterson, the chapter's Central Overland trail coordinator. "Cut off at six feet and welded with a crosspiece on top so we can attach a plaque [of remembrance], we'll haul a post up a trail and plant it two feet deep into the ground."

Lectures, workshops and field trips are essential to keeping this history alive.

Having trained more than 15 teams of oxen to "pull under the yoke," OCTA award winner Dixon Ford of Fruit Heights recreated the Overland Trail experience by demonstrating the intelligence and power of oxen to pull pioneer-style wagons, people and goods across the West. Introducing his favorites — Thor, Zeus and then Ruff — Ford shared with thousands of city folk a rare opportunity "to interact with such magnificent animals in both appearance and disposition."

Al Mulder, who died this summer at age 92, was honored for his volunteer service in historic trail preservation. Mulder not only marked the Mormon Pioneer Trail in Utah and western Wyoming, he surveyed so many emigrant trails he has left "a legacy of trail markers in his footsteps."

In his article, "Luke and John, Where Are you?" in the Spring 2005 Overland Journal, Mulder described searching for the burial sites of Luke Halloran (of the ill-fated Donner party) and John Hargrave (a casualty from the Harlan-Young party) who were buried alongside one another "somewhere in the Tooele Valley." In a two-year research project, Mulder uncovered historic wagon wheel ruts and established paths long hidden by years of settlement.

Award winner T. Michael Smith, Utah Crossroad's preservation director, said among the countless routes he's surveyed, mapped, marked, and monitored "for any development that would pose a threat to the survival and integrity of an historic trail," his most memorable "save from destruction" is sandwiched between the Silver Island Mountains.

"Pristine, beautiful, and way out in the far western portion of our great Salt Lake Desert, it is the best remaining piece of our salt flats that we have.

"And that moves me."

Eileen Hallet Stone, author of "Hidden History of Utah," a compilation of her Salt Lake Tribune columns, may be reached at ehswriter@aol.com.

Note: According to Utah Crossroads Chapter member Roy Tea, the Hasting Road was eventually abandoned because of "the hardships suffered during the crossing by the 49ers." Special thanks to chapter members, Linda Turner and Oscar Olson.