Trekking the National Frontier Trails: A Chat with Melissa Brown

Episode Overview

Hittin’ the Bricks with Kathleen is the genealogy podcast that features your questions and her answers, focusing on how place, movement, and records intersect. In this episode, host Kathleen Brandt speaks with Melissa Brown from the National Frontier Trails Museum about why Independence, Missouri became a primary jumping-off point for westward migration—and how that context changes real genealogy research.

Together, they show how to move from family lore about “going west” to documented evidence using museum resources, diaries, historic maps, and the OCTA Paper Trail index.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn

• Why Independence, Missouri became a central departure point for multiple western trails
• How river landings and shifting routes affect where records and clues appear
• How to use diaries, maps, and museum collections to verify migration stories
• Where the OCTA Paper Trail index fits into trail-based research
• Why preparation with census and other records improves on-site research results

Topics Covered

• The five major trails interpreted in Independence and why the river matters
• The Santa Fe Trail as commerce and trade, not just settlement
• Shifting river landings and movement toward Westport and beyond
• The Merle J. Mattis Research Library: diaries, letters, maps, artifacts
• Research appointments and how targeted requests save time
• Using OCTA’s Paper Trail index to search names in trail diaries
• Preparing with census and foundational records before archival visits
• Using historic maps to identify landowners, neighbors, and family connections
• The diversity of people who traveled west
• Free admission, current Santa Fe programming, and family activities

Episode Discussion & Key Moments

Kathleen and Melissa explain how understanding place-based context—especially transportation routes and economic drivers—can transform vague migration stories into traceable research paths. Independence’s role as a convergence point for trails means that records may be scattered across local, regional, and trail-specific sources, not just standard census or vital records.

Melissa outlines what researchers can expect from the Merle J. Mattis Research Library, including firsthand accounts and material culture that provide context often missing from official documents. The conversation also emphasizes preparation before archival visits, showing how prior work in census and other records allows researchers to ask more precise questions and locate relevant materials faster.

Key questions examined include:

• How do trail routes and river access shape where records are found?
• What sources move a family story from tradition to evidence?
• How can researchers use maps and diaries together to confirm identity and movement?

Resources & Research Tools Mentioned

• Merle J. Mattis Research Library (National Frontier Trails Museum)
• OCTA (Oregon-California Trails Association) Paper Trail index
• Historic maps and plat maps
• Trail diaries and letter collections
• Cen

Transcript

Welcome And Melissa Brown

John 0:00

Ladies and gentlemen from the depth supply of our country in the heartland of America, the Kansas City on the other side of the mighty Moe. Welcome to Hitting the Bricks with Kathleen, the Do-It-Yourself Genealogy podcast with your questions and her answers. I am John, your humble hobby host, and today we'll be talking with Melissa Brown from the National Frontier Trails Museum. There's lots of ground to cover, so let's start with the BRICS. And we're here with Melissa Brown from the National Frontiers Trail Museum. John and Kathleen. Kathleen. Thanks for joining us.

Kathleen 0:36

John, I know a little bit about Melissa because I remember when she worked at the Midwest Genealogy Center. And I think she should introduce herself to us and to the listeners. What do you think?

John 0:47

I think it's a good idea. Tell us about yourself, Melissa.

Melissa Brown 0:50

Well, my name is Melissa Brown. I am the Museum Services Coordinator here at the National Frontier Trails Museum. I hold a master's from the University of Central Missouri. Before coming to work here, I worked at Missouri Town for Jackson County Parks and Rec, and then I left there and went to work at the Midwest Genealogy Center. Worked there for three years, and I have now worked for the National Frontier Trails Museum for three and a half years. I have a great love of history and genealogy.

Kathleen 1:22

That's wonderful. Let's just start off with what is the National Frontier Trails Museum?

Melissa Brown 1:28

Well, the National Frontier Trails Museum covers the five major trails that went through independence. We cover Lewis and Clark. They did make in their notes about stopping on the outskirts of independence and picking fruit. Then we cover the other trails that came through here, which were the Oregon, Santa Fe, and California, and Mormon Trails. So we cover all five trails that went through independence, and that's why we are known as the Queen City of the Trails.

John 1:56

That is kind of remarkable when you think about all of those going through a single place. What was it that would converge all those trails in independence?

Melissa Brown 2:06

It was the river. Yeah. We were the furthest point that you could come from St. Louis on the river at that time. So we were the jumping off point. I tell people they all say, well, you know, St. Louis was the gateway to the west, but independence, Missouri was the jumping off point because we were where you had to jump off and get on dirt and travel to the west on the trails.

John 2:30

Yeah, I was gonna say there they might have been the gateway, but that was a little premature.

River Hub And Trail Differences

Kathleen 2:35

I guess it's the difference between the overland trails and the water trails. From New York, a lot of people traveled all the way down the coast and came up through Mississippi to catch the Missouri River from the Mississippi. And so that was a very common path to Missouri before they took the overland. Now, of course, there was another way they went, which was a long way, but that is a very fast way to get to the overland trails.

John 3:05

Once we get to independence by water or land, what happens there? What do we learn at the Frontier Trails Museum?

Melissa Brown 3:12

Well, they would usually gather and get their supplies right around the independence square, and they would gather up in groups and then they would head out west. Though we did have one, the Santa Fe Trail didn't head to Oregon or California. It went to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and that's a different trail because that was not really for uh settling, it was a commerce trail, and it was for trade, more so than people. So that one was to take goods to New Mexico, which was part of Mexico at that time, and trade goods. So that was where you would see your conestoga wagons, and it would take goods down there, bring goods back, trade goods for gold, bring money back. It was more of a commerce. Uh later on, though, people did use it to go down to Santa Fe, and then they would get on the old Spanish trail and go to California for gold.

Kathleen 4:08

What time frame are you talking about, Melissa?

Santa Fe Trade And River Shifts

Melissa Brown 4:10

The Santa Fe Trail was the first trail that actually went out of independence. It started in the early 1800s. And it actually started around Fort Osage. The Lewis and Clark Trail was first, then it came the Santa Fe Trail, and it was early 1800s, and then after this Santa Fe Trail, then it came the Oregon Trail, and then it was the Mormon and then the California Trail. Oh wow.

Kathleen 4:40

So I have this weird question just as a kid living in Kansas City. How did all this tie up with Westport or did it?

Melissa Brown 4:47

Uh yeah, it did. Westport, the river shifted, then and it was easier for the boats to go further down the river to Westport. And so they made the landing in Westport. Then they started instead of getting off in independence, instead of the boats docking in independence, they started going to Westport. So once you could travel further, that you they did travel further, and then it moved to St. Joe. So as the river shifted and they could actually navigate boats further down the river, they would go further down the river.

Kathleen 5:20

Let me ask this because just talking about the riverways in the water to get to Missouri. Did people come down to Ohio?

Melissa Brown 5:29

Now that uh I'm pro they probably did. I just don't know that. That would be a Oregon, California Trail Association question. They knew all of the ins and outs. They could tell you every little trail that went here and there. Because that's one of the things people think that there's what, you know, for most people that hear about the Oregon Trail, they think it's kind of like I-40 or I-70. It's one path, but there's so many little off branches and so many, you know, because it was really the path of least resistance, you know. It was not one little straight path. I mean, for the National Park Service, yes, they've mapped it one way, but if you were walking a trail now and a tree was down, you would cut around it, you know?

John 6:19

Right, right. So that's that's interesting and a really good point, too.

Kathleen 6:23

That brings me to another question. I remember when I did some research there, there was something, and it might have been online, and we'll talk about what your online and your resources are, but there is something called the OCTA or something like that, where there is the Oregon side here and then the Oregon side on the I mean, something on the other side in Oregon or California. What how does that work and what am I talking about?

Melissa Brown 6:50

Now, OCTA is the Oregon California Trails Association. We are partners with them in the Merle J. Mattis archives. We do house that in our archives. It used to be in the back of our museum since we're over in the the Truman Memorial Building now. Their headquarters is over near our old location, and our archives is over at that, which is part of the Missouri Marlow Railroad now, but we still maintain the archives there. And we house many, many diaries, original diaries, original letters, large amounts of books. They do have other archives that they house throughout all of their branches because their their headquarters, their main headquarters is here in Independence, but they have local branch, you know, throughout the United States.

Mattis Archives And OCTA Paper Trail

Kathleen 7:45

So you just mentioned something I did I was not aware of. You're not in the original place that I used to go visit.

Melissa Brown 7:52

You're saying you're in the Truman in the Truman Memorial Building, which is on it our address is 416 West Maple Avenue, but we're on the corner of uh Pleasant and Truman Road. If you know, uh we're a block from the Truman home.

Kathleen 8:11

Okay.

Melissa Brown 8:11

And then the Mattis research is where now? It's still in its prior location on on Pacific Avenue on 316 West Pacific. It's still there.

John 8:23

Who was Merrill Mattis?

Melissa Brown 8:25

Merrill Mattis, he was uh a park ranger for the National Park Service, and basically he was an expert historian and he did a lot of preservation for the Oregon Trail. He worked at Fort Laramie, Wyoming and Scotts Bluff, Nebraska. And so he kind of helped co-found the Oregon California Trails Association. Um, and he did like a lot of research on the trails, and he collected 1,400 books and diaries that he donated to the archives.

John 9:02

You know, this would actually be a good point, I think, when you're talking about because you've mentioned the diaries twice. Uh recently on a podcast, we had somebody who collects diaries, and and we were talking about the importance of keeping them intact and then either transcribing, getting them in some ways to support either uh cities and one place studies or sure that the documentation is preserved uh and having a very personal history uh being being able to be viewed at such an important point geographically and historically.

Kathleen 9:36

Yeah. Yeah, I agree, John, because we just talked with Angela Rodeschi on diaries in general, and I I have used the diaries at the Mattis uh research library. Years ago, before COVID. And so I love that. I mean, they would go back and pull what I was asking for, what the dates I was looking for. How do people access this this information and these resources now?

Melissa Brown 10:03

They make an appointment usually through me or Okta, and we make sure that we open it for them and we have volunteers, or I make time to go over there and we open it for them, and someone's there to pull it, just like always.

Kathleen 10:20

Okay, so over at that building. At Mattis, you have the diaries and papers. What else do you have there?

Melissa Brown 10:26

Uh, we still house the artifact for the museum, still house there. Everything that's not on display at our museum is still housed over there.

Kathleen 10:37

Okay, why would a researcher come in?

Melissa Brown 10:40

They would come in there uh to look at our diaries, our massive book collection, we have maps, and we have not only genealogy things, we have on on the trails, we have independence history, like some of our historic sites, records are there. If you're familiar with the Bingham Wagner State, we hold some of their records there. Santa Calgon, one of our famous events here in Independence, we have records from that there. Then we have maps of independence back all the way back, and then not just the trails, but fur traders and trappers and a lot of just Western history uh can be found in our archives. But we do primarily focus on the trails.

Kathleen 11:31

The National Frontier Trails Museum is the umbrella for the Ma Merrill J. Mattis Research Library, or is it two different functions a hundred percent?

Melissa Brown 11:44

I guess we kind of are the umbrella. We're we're the caretakers of it, you know, and at some point we want to house it back in with the museum. It was given to us, it was housed with us to begin with. It's just when we we moved over to the Truman Memorial Building, the decision was made for it to stay over in that building for now. And at some point in time, you know, we will be re reunited with it.

Kathleen 12:18

That is the plan. It was through the Mattis Research Library when I first got started that I actually found a book on African Americans on the trails. And I don't know why I had not associated that before, but I had never seen this collection of different books that was in that research library. And it really solved one of my brick walls, and it was one of the reasons I like when I have to dig like this.

John 12:50

And that was at the Mattis Center?

Museum Context For Genealogy Research

Kathleen 12:52

That was at the Mattis Library, yes. I want to make sure our listeners have a distinction of what they do for each repository. The National Frontier Trails Museum, what does it offer a genealogist?

Melissa Brown 13:06

The National Frontier Trails Museum offers uh is the museum itself. So they can come in here and we do have stories of people that traveled the trails available on the walls, and we have artifacts of certain individuals on display, though very limited. We do offer general history for those who want to learn what their ancestors may have experienced in a general form, so that's a good starting point for people who may need to learn the general history of the trills before they go digging deeper. As a historian and a genealogist, it's always good to know that overall history so you know how to dig and what you're digging into. Absolutely. That will help guide you when you go to and know what you're looking for when you go into the Merle J. Mattis archives because that gives you a general idea. Okay, I know in this time period, maybe putting it together with other clues. What trail are you going to be looking through? You know, maybe they went to California for the gold rush, maybe you need to look towards Oregon because they would have been going to Oregon City for land or because of religious beliefs, or maybe they you need to look towards Salt Lake City, but there's there's a lot of ways that you can search for any of those. And I love a good mystery and I love history and I love genealogy, so I'm always willing to, you know, give little tips and tricks if you got a question uh and you want to drop into the museum and run your brick wall by me. I'm always help willing to give a little help.

Kathleen 15:04

That's that's great. And Melissa, as far as that goes, how do I know what's held at the Mattis Library? Is that online? Is there a catalog?

Search The Paper Trail Index

Melissa Brown 15:14

The Oregon California Trail Association, they've done a really, really good job of helping us with that collection. Uh, you can go to their website, Google Oregon California Trail Association, and on their website they have a whole tab called Genealogy. And if you click on that, they have a section called Paper Trail. And if you go to Paper Trail, it's an index of not just the Merle J. Mattis collection, but they have an index of archives throughout the United States where the researchers have gone in and grabbed names out of diaries and everything that has to do with um the trails. And the Merle J. Mattis collection is in there very heavily because they've spent years and years and years and gotten funding to hire people to go in there and work and and scour the names. And they can type in a name and it'll come up and it'll tell you if it's in the Merle J. Mattis archives or in our archives somewhere. Okay, so it's indexed. Yes, it's indexed, yeah. I except for where they did bring uh we did get a new collection in this sum last this past summer. Uh they went to California and brought a whole U-Haul back of books and stuff from a writer that uh had passed, or I think he had passed or something, but anyways, was getting rid of all of his books. They uh Octa went out and brought a whole U-Haul back of stuff that they've been putting in the collection this year. That stuff's not you know, and more recent stuff that's coming in isn't indexed yet, but they will they will find a way to get it indexed. So, you know, just like any collection, it grows all the time.

John 17:01

Sure. That's really cool. Wait, how often do you get additions to a collection like that?

Melissa Brown 17:07

It can vary, but there's stuff that comes in all the time. Sometimes it's little stuff, sometimes it's um, you know, like that U-Haul, the worth of stuff that comes in, sometimes it's little trickles, like a year or two ago, someone brought in a box of Jim Bridger's genealogy and gave it to us. People bring in Western stuff all the time and and hand it to us.

Kathleen 17:36

So just for clarification, the National Frontier Museum is one place, the Mattis Research Library is another, and Okta is a third.

Melissa Brown 17:46

Yes, Okta is housed right behind the Merle J. Mattis archives. They're kind of like they're separate buildings but on the same lot, on the same piece of land. And what can I find there? It's mainly just their office. There it's just the office they work out of. There's really nothing for you to see in their office.

Kathleen 18:10

Is there something online with Okta that I should know about?

Melissa Brown 18:14

Uh yeah, their website has a has a you can sign up for their membership, they have their events, you can sign up for their newsletter, um, and then their paper trail, like I said, their their genealogy resources, and they they put send out a pretty good monthly email that will tell any events that are happening in this area or throughout all their other states. So you don't even have to be in Missouri if if you're in California or Oregon or whatever state you're in, it kind of lists all of the states.

John 18:52

Which is the OCTA-trails.org. Is that right?

Kathleen 18:57

Yes, I believe so. As far as the a genealogist coming in, what does a typical genealogist look like when they come in? Or do you get more historians that come in?

Melissa Brown 19:08

I get both, and really they are kind of the same because usually the historian is still researching a specific person during a specific time. They're either trying to find a needle in a haystack, and I'm like, man, I don't know how we're gonna find this person, or they know exact they've done their research and they know for a fact I have the document, and they're so easy. I can go in there very easily and bring everything out for them, and it's you know, or they're like, Well, I've heard so and so was on such and such trail, and it came through independence, so I think they will be in the you know, they have to be in here somewhere. And I'm like, Okay, that tells me a lot that way.

Plan Your Visit And Use Maps

John 20:05

You mean there's not a list they didn't just sign their name on the wall before they started walking out on the trail.

Kathleen 20:10

So, Melissa, how does a genealogist get prepared for a visit with you?

Melissa Brown 20:15

I tell them, do your research, hit paper trail first, see if you find anything there, do your work research on your census records, find out everything you can, and and know that when you come here, if you haven't found it on paper trail, it's not gonna be a 30-minute trip to to the archive. Uh if if you don't know for sure there's something and you can't tell me, okay, we're gonna we need it from this shelf, you're probably gonna be here all day. If you're shooting in the dark to dig through boxes, that's what you're gonna be doing, is you're gonna be digging through boxes all day if you don't know exactly where it's at. If you want to come and dig around, yeah, I don't mind you coming and digging around, but paper trails before frontier trails, then. Yes. If you don't have a clear path to what you're looking for, you know, you're gonna be digging for a while because not everything is indexed, but it if you don't know where you're gonna start at, it might be a while looking through boxes. We got a lot of them. I I'll warn you, you might be here a couple of years looking through them all.

John 21:24

And so so when I go in there, I can actually put my hands on artifacts and writings and things like that. That's really amazing.

Melissa Brown 21:33

So it's there. And if you love history, you might get sidetracked a lot.

John 21:37

So you know we talk about that a lot with I think Angie Rodeski and I bonded over rabbit hole research. You you look at the next shiny object and you'd rather go down that hole than keep researching the person you're researching. I could never be a professional, that's for sure.

Kathleen 21:54

Because I don't have any sort of absolutely none happening.

John 22:00

I just go, ooh, that's cool. Let me look at this for a while.

Kathleen 22:05

So is there one record, Melissa, that you would say that people are always overlooking? Is there a record set or a record type that people are always l overlooking when they come?

Melissa Brown 22:18

I would say probably maps. And I say that because I know I overlook maps myself a lot because I'm just not as familiar with maps. But I know they hold a lot of information. But I I was never one that loved maps growing up. Sometimes I find them very confusing because things change so much from maps, especially as cities were developing. But they hold so much information if you just take a lot of time to compare them and see what was actually put on them, especially when they put who owned what land, and you can find where families actually lived on those and names that were on them. So I think people do overlook them a lot.

John 23:06

Who was just talking about that? How they used ownership deeds to find out who was living where and connecting families by who lived in the surrounding area and which one was actually a relation, and which something like a Smith or a Williams or some common name. They used deeds and land maps in order to figure out who was actually related and who was an independent who was not related.

Kathleen 23:29

And that was in our John, that was in our one place studies uh podcast. And it's funny that you should you mention maps, Melissa, because my next question to you is how do maps help genealogists think differently? That was actually my next question.

John 23:46

Because Well, we know now, don't we?

Kathleen 23:49

Because you have brought up the word maps before that you all have maps, and even at the Midwest Genealogy Center, there was all those wonderful maps in those drawers back in the day. And I use them looking for land places and give me more information. But I'm also not a map person. Um so John is one of these GPS, give me my blue line, where's my map?

John 24:17

Well, yeah, but I've always liked maps too because I've always been perpetually lost until we had GPS. You know what the thing is, is that if I were involved with, let's say, Lewis and Clark, we'd all be in Canada now. So I just would still be wondering where the hell California is. You know.

Kathleen 24:37

I have one last question, Melissa. Okay. I remember that African-American man who went over trail and they wrote all about this in this book. I also have found things where women have written diaries about the trail rides where they went across. And there were also Native Americans who there was a book on them crossing the trails. Can you add to that kind of a resource more of the diversity of the people going west?

Melissa Brown 25:08

Oh yes. I mean, there was a a great diversity of those that went west. I mean, actually, in one of our exhibits in the museum called uh Gold Rush Widow is an African American woman whose African American husband r left her to go to the gold fields in California. And uh he went California trail. That just shows you there was a a wide amount of people. I mean, when land opened up in Oregon and all of these other places, it gave them the chance to own and get land. So that was a way for people who couldn't afford to buy land in Missouri or whatever, they had a chance to go and homestand land in different states. And then of course, when the gold was found in California, you know, even though most people did make it rich, there was this promise of a big payday. So, you know, people rush there to make their money, make their mark.

John 26:15

Now we just go to quick trip and ask for a scratch off.

Melissa Brown 26:18

Is that what it is, John? Yeah. Or Vegas, you know. Or Vegas.

John 26:25

Well, I was gonna ask Melissa, uh, is there anything you want to add?

Melissa Brown 26:28

I guess well, we are uh featuring the Santa Fe timeline currently. We have a special exhibit here from the Santa Fe Trails Association, alone from them in our gallery right now, and we will be having uh special programming around that currently, and it will be on display until the end of May, and so people can come in and see that. If anybody wants to relive their days of playing the Oregon Trail video game, we do have that in our museum.

John 27:04

Oh, yeah, that's a throwback. How wonderful. You know, in the museum itself, in the National Frontier Trails Museum, is there a fee to enter?

Melissa Brown 27:12

No, we are free of charge and we are open Monday through through Saturday, 10 a.m. to uh 6 p.m. And then we are uh about to start our summer hours, the first of May. Uh we will be open on Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m.

John 27:34

Fantastic.

Melissa Brown 27:35

And that will last through the summer to the end of September. And uh we outside we do have children's activities. We have a scavenger hunt that kids can do through the museum. Uh, we have a pack your wagon activity, and then for the young and and young at heart, we do have the Oregon Trail video game that can be played. I want to do the pack a wagon. Well, come on in.

John 28:00

I would be interested to know how many sets of shoes they packed when they went.

Kathleen 28:06

I think that was a dig at me, Melissa. What do you think?

John 28:10

I'm not I'm not digging. I think I'm in trouble now. But once again, it ended by getting myself into trouble. Melissa, thank you again for taking the time and chatting with us about the National Frontier Trails Museum. We appreciate the time for sure. Kathleen.

Closing Credits And Listener Email

Kathleen 28:24

Thank you. This has been wonderful. And it's great to see you again, Melissa. I was so happy to do it.

John 28:30

Well, congratulations, you made it to the end of another episode. Thanks so much for staying. Thanks to Melissa Brown for chatting with us. Thanks to Chewy Chewbacca Brandt for his unwavering lack of interest in anything we're doing. The theme song for Hittin't the Bricks was written and performed by Tony Fiskknuckle and the Alexandrites. Watch for their next appearance at a mica schist or glimmerite near you. Do you have a genealogical question for Kathleen? Drop us a line at hitting the bricks at gmail.com and let us know.