Along Historic Trails

Kicking off the Miramar College “Evening with the Experts” 1999-2000 lecture performance series, local author Kathleen Cordes shared her travel slides and tales of journeys along America’s National Historic Trails.

Cordes has traveled each of the 12 National Historic Trails—including the Lewis and Clark, the Iditarod and the Juan Bautista de Anza—on foot, kayak, dogsled, raft, horseback, snowshoes, bicycle, wagon train and bush plane! Her resulting book, America’s National Historic Trails—combination travel guide and history lesson with maps and color photos—provides engaging, firsthand observations on America’s pathways of adventure, history and discovery.

From the 1870 National Parks Act, passed by Congress officially establishing a national park system, to the 1970 National Trails Act, which was passed by Congress to develop a historical record and preservation system, to the recent Millennium Trails 2000 Initiative, spearheaded by Hillary Clinton, Cordes has documented the history of the United States through the landscape of our country. Her lecture and slides recalled the tragic path of Native Americans along the Trail of Tears; the movement of western pioneers over the Oregon Trail; the commerce based Santa Fe Trail “steel iron horse” routes; and the newest, shortest (54 miles) official historic trail, the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, which commemorates the civil rights march of 1965 from Selma, Alabama, to the steps of the state capitol in Montgomery—the protest march that served as a catalyst for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

A retired Miramar College professor, Cordes was named the 1997 recipient of the merit award for distinguished service by the American Association for Leisure and Recreation and the 1998 award for distinguished service to recreation by the California Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Cordes is currently serving on the White House working committee for Millennium Trails 2000 and is expecting to publish America’s National Scenic Trails in early spring 2000.