California Road

California Road is an Oklahoma historical marker in Roger Mills County.

Roger Mills County · at junction of US-283 and OK-33, 14 miles north of Cheyenne

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

In April 1849 Capt. Randolph Marcy, commander of Fort Towson, received orders to escort the Fort Smith and California Emigrating Company through Indian Territory. The expedition departed from Fort Smith, Arkansas, and generally followed the Canadian River, past towns and trading centers as well as geographic features such as the Antelope Hills located northwest of this marker. Although the company asked for a military escort to California, Marcy’s detachment accompanied them as far as Santa Fe, New Mexico, before returning to Fort Smith via a southern route through Texas and Indian Territory that was later utilized by the Butterfield Overland Mail.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Example

The Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania stands under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

Upload your family tree and TreeAlive finds the markers near where your own ancestors lived.

See your family's markers

Start with a tree file, a FamilySearch sign in, or a WikiTree ID.

Report a problem with this page

The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

We may pass what you report to the state's marker program. Please don't include personal details.

Marker data: Oklahoma Historical Society, Historical Marker Program. Marker texts come from the Society's marker database, reproduced with the Society's written permission. Where the database describes a marker's location in words but records no coordinate, the pin on this page is ours, worked out from that description and marked approximate.
Sponsored by Oklahoma Historical Society and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation
This marker on the program's own site

California Road

More markers nearby