Old Spanish Trail Association

To educate communities across a six-state region using a mix of public outreach, increased signage, web-based programs, and annual conferences; to be more inclusive to our Native American and Hispanic partners; to preserve and protect the segments of our trail that are still in existence; improve our publication, Spanish Traces; and to promote and encourage public usage of these segments for recreation, wildlife viewing, scenery, and biodiversity projects.

We are actively planning and seeking funding for traveling exhibits and creating a database of Trail resources; We have secured grants to increase signage in Arizona, Colorado, and have augmented our website to include biographies and cultural resources; include and communicate with Native American and Hispanic organizations; increase membership to afford publication of Spanish Traces (3X a year); have partnered with BLM to develop and finalize Recreation and Development Strategies (an on-going project).

The Old Spanish Trail Association is organized with 13 board of directors representing six western states (New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado with ten local chapters of volunteers across the region. We utilize an Executive Director with national experience in fund-raising and education, and a professional Editor for Spanish Traces (published 3 times/year) with extensive experience with print publications and target marketing. Our organization is supported by over 300 paid memberships.

The Old Spanish Trail Association provides public awareness education via a public website and social media accounts. A multi-day educational conference is held each year. Preservation efforts are led by a Stewardship committee to help protect the trail.

We collaborate with federal land managers to develop sign plans, secure jurisdictional authority for installation and seek funding opportunities. The signage efforts will take many more years to complete across the six western states. We also contribute to ongoing efforts to develop Recreational Development plans across federal lands to increase recreational opportunities for the public to experience the historic trail corridor setting as was intended by the National Trails Systems Act.