KC Gems Week 5: Revolutionary War Heroes and the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California Trails
Hybrid (inperson & Zoom) | Registration opens 8/14/2026 12:00 AM CDT
Travis Boley of the Oregon-California Trails Association (OCTA) will speak on the Revolutionary War soldiers buried in Jackson County and focus especially on their descendants who went on to play roles in the development of the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California Trails.
Travis Boley
For 23 years, Travis Boley has served as the Association Manager of Oregon-California Trails Association (or OCTA), headquartered in Independence, Missouri. He is by far the longest serving executive of any organization that represents the thirty-two trails that make up the National Trails System. Previously, he served stints as Executive Director of the Pony Express National Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri, as well as curator of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, and International Bowling Museum, formerly located in St. Louis. He has as producer on numerous documentaries, including the multiple award-winning In Pursuit of a Dream as well as current PBS documentaries about Death Valley, Wilson’s Creek, Gravelly Ford along the California Trail in central Nevada, and a man in South Dakota who restores and builds stagecoaches and wagons. He has authored innumerable articles on a variety of subjects, from sports to 19th century American West history. He also authored The Little Book of Bowling and created much of the content for OCTA’s YouTube channel.
He was appointed to serve on the Missouri Trails Commission by former Governor Jay Nixon and formerly served on the Independence Planning Commission. He belongs to the Independence Rotary Club and recently finished serving his second stint on their board of directors. He grew up on the Santa Fe Trail in Lexington, Missouri, just down the street from the homes of two of the founders of the Pony Express and near one of the Lewis & Clark campsites. His former home sat where the bell from the ill-fated Mormon Pioneer steamer The Saluda currently stands. He earned a BA in history from the University of Missouri – Kansas City and a masters in historical administration with an emphasis in archaeology from the University of Kansas. He was also recently inducted into his high school’s Hall of Fame for Career Achievement and the Athletic Hall of Fame, winning two state titles and one state runner-up finish in track in the 1980s.
He and his wife Steffany live in Independence, Missouri. Between them they have eight children, two of whom graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, one attends Missouri Science & Technology University in Rolla, one just completed training to be a firefighter, one runs cross country and track at Bellevue University in Nebraska, and the youngest just began her junior year at Northern Arizona University. All of them earned full ride scholarships for academics or athletics.
Steffany and Travis enjoy traveling the country and visiting historic sites with their dogs Jimmy Chew and Reggie Riggles.