Congress declared the Butterfield Overland Mail route the newest National Historic Trail on December 29, 2022. Businessman John Butterfield established the route in the 1850s to transport mail from Missouri to California at previously-unheard-of speeds — the route only took only 25 days, compared to 50 days for the next fastest option. Previously known as the Oxbow Route, it follows a southward curve through New Mexico and Arizona before turning north again in Southern California.

This somber trail follows the flight of the Nez Perce Indigenous peoples as they were forced away from their homelands by U.S. soldiers in 1877. The 1,170-mile trail begins in Wallowa Lake, Oregon, and stretches through Idaho and Montana until reaching Yellowstone National Park. Along the trail, visitor centers, museums, and battlefield memorials tell the story of the Nez Perce.

Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail spans 330 miles from Virgina, through the Carolinas, and into Tennessee. It traces paths that Revolutionary War fighters took ahead of the ​​Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780. About 225 miles of the trail is located in North Carolina, where it meanders along lakes, state parks, and mountain ridges.

In 1775, Spanish colonizer Juan Bautista de Anza set off on an expedition to create a settlement in the San Francisco Bay Area. His route began in Nogales, Arizona, near the present-day border of Mexico, and traveled north through the saguaro-covered mountains of the Sonoran Desert. He traveled along the California coast some 1,200 miles until finally settling in the Bay Area. Many segments of this trail are still used by hikers today.

Although it is named after Santa Fe, New Mexico, most of the Santa Fe National Historic Trail is within the state of Kansas. Between 1821 and 1880, this commercial highway was bustling with covered wagons driven by American and Mexican traders traveling across the prairies between central Missouri and Santa Fe. The trail gained a new purpose at the start of the Mexican-American War in 1846, when it was used by traveling soldiers.

For a decidedly different (but equally intriguing) trail experience from the American West’s deserts or the East Coast’s colonial past, head to the island of Hawaii. Also known as “the Big Island,” Hawaii is home to the 175-mile Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail, which traverses through hundreds of ancient Hawaiian cultural and historical sites along the island’s southeastern, southern, and western edges.

Spanning nearly 2,500 miles of vast Alaskan wilderness, the Iditarod National Historic Trail is the only winter trail within the National Trails system. Its main route, a 1,000-mile stretch between Seward and Nome, is known for its annual race events, which includes the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, an extreme marathon known for its harsh conditions, skilled mushers, and hard-working dogs.

The Trail of Tears National Historic Trail commemorates a tragic chapter in U.S. history. Beginning in 1838, troops forcibly evicted more than 16,000 Cherokee and thousands of other tribal people from their homelands, across nine states to the newly established Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. The trail offers a sobering look into this period of U.S. history and insight into the histories of the Native American nations that were displaced.

The Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route is a 680-mile series of roads, trails, rivers, and bays between Rhode Island and Virginia that played a significant role in the American Revolution. In 1781, the French army, under the command of General Rochambeau, joined forces in New York with the Continental Army under George Washington’s command. The combined forces defeated the British in a decisive victory that led to America’s independence.

Between 1607 and 1609, English Captain John Smith explored and mapped the Chesapeake Bay aboard an open boat with a small crew. The Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail is the first water-based National Historic Trail, encompassing 3,000 miles of routes throughout the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Visitors can motor, sail, or paddle the trail.

The 33-mile Chilkoot Trail stretches from Dyea, Alaska, to Lake Bennett, British Columbia. These days, it’s filled with hikers and trail runners, but back in 1897, it was full of prospectors hauling tons of heavy gear — and if they were lucky, lots of gold. Visitors will pass by hundreds of abandoned artifacts from these gold seekers, making this trail a unique open-air museum in the great Alaskan wilderness.

The Old Spanish Trail is a 2,700-mile trek that begins in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and winds through Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, before ending in Los Angeles, California. The trail was once used by settlers and traders in the early 19th century after Mexico became independent from Spain and Santa Fe flourished into a booming trade hub.

The Star-Spangled Banner Trail retraces the history of the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake Bay region of Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The route comprises 560 miles of trails that follow in the footsteps of American and British soldiers. Many of the events that happened on this trail led to the Battle of Baltimore, which inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

In addition to the country’s national parks, the National Park Service also oversees a network of 19 fascinating National Historic Trails. Hundreds of thousands of colonists, missionaries, soldiers, traders, fur trappers, settlers, explorers, Native Americans, and even letter carriers walked, paddled, or rode across vast areas of the country via these trails — long before many colonies, territories, or states even existed.

In the 1840s, tens of thousands of Mormon immigrants traveled over 1,200 miles from Illinois to the Great Basin. The Mormon Pioneer Historic Trail commemorates this route, which spans southern Iowa, traverses through central Nebraska and Wyoming, and finally ends in northern Utah. These pioneers crossed treacherous terrain due to ongoing religious conflicts in the 19th century.

Selma, Alabama, was the starting point for a famous march to Montgomery that began on March 7, 1965. That day became known as Bloody Sunday, when the peaceful marchers were viciously beaten by state troopers as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Television broadcasts of the events raised national awareness for the civil rights movement.

After prospectors struck gold in California in 1848, it led to one of the largest mass migrations in American history. A surge of over 250,000 immigrants — who would later be called “Forty-Niners” — arrived on the West Coast over the next decade. Today, a 5,000-mile historic trail spanning 10 states commemorates this history. The trail has multiple starting points in the Midwest and several ending points in California and Oregon.

Lured by the possibility of a better life in the West, in 1836, a missionary party set out from western Missouri with the first wagon train headed to Oregon. In the following decades, about 500,000 settlers embarked on the dangerous, five-month, 2,000-mile journey, also known as the “Westward Expansion.” The Oregon Trail starts near Kansas City in Independence, Missouri, and passes through seven states, ending near Portland.

The famous expedition of Lewis and Clark, officially known as the Corps of Discovery, began in St. Louis in May 1804 and headed west. The explorers were tasked by President Thomas Jefferson with mapping the western territory all the way to the Pacific Ocean. They ended in September 1806 near the mouth of the Columbia River, near the modern-day city of Astoria, Oregon.

On April 3, 1860, a group of courageous couriers began an express mail route on horseback from St. Joseph, Missouri — the westernmost place the railroad and telegraph reached at the time — to Sacramento, California. Riders rode on average 75 to 100 miles per day, switching out horses at relay stations along the way. The 1,966-mile trip took an unprecedented 10 days, less than half the time the southern stagecoach mail route took.