Polly Aird is an independent historian whose award-winning articles have appeared in the "Utah Historical Quarterly", the "Journal of Mormon History", and "Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought". In addition, she is the author of the award-winning book, "Mormon Convert, Mormon Defector: A Scottish Immigrant in the American West, 1848-1861." She lives in Seattle, Washington.

Will Bagley is an independent historian who has written about overland emigration, frontier violence, railroads, mining, and the Mormons. Bagley has published extensively over the years and is the author and editor of many books, articles, and reviews in professional journals. Bagley is the series editor of Arthur H. Clark Company's documentary history series, "KINGDOM IN THE WEST: The Mormons and the American Frontier". Bagley has been a Wallace Stegner Centennial Fellow at the University of Utah and the Archibald Hannah, Jr. Fellow in American History at Yale University's Beinecke Library. "Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows" has won numerous awards including a Spur Award from Western Writers of America, the Bancroft History Prize from the Denver Public Library, Westerners International Best Book, and the Western History Association Caughey Book Prize for the most distinguished book on the history of the American West. "So Rugged and Mountainous: Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California, 1812-1848 "is the first of four volumes of "Overland West: The Story of the Oregon and California Trails Series. "