Our Mission

Elizabeth Drake McDonald spent years researching and documenting the life of Bob Nolan, one of the founding members of the Sons of the Pioneers. When in 2021 she generously offered to turn all of her work over to the Sons of the Pioneers for safekeeping, we asked ourselves, “How should this information be presented?” Originally, she and Nolan’s grandson Calin Coburn had presented it through a website focused solely on Nolan, but their research soon grew beyond those limits. Because Nolan was a founding member of the Pioneers, they unearthed a trove of associated historical information about the group. We hope to eventually expand on the work that McDonald and Coburn started, filling in missing details, researching other key figures connected with Nolan, the Pioneers, and western music—all while shouldering their standard of historical accuracy.

In the end we decided that this is more of a long-term project than just a website, and The Tumbleweed Trail Project was born.

This website’s mission is:

“To create a repository of historically accurate information about the trail-blazing history and enduring legacy of the music and people of the Sons of the Pioneers and to make it available for free to any interested people.”

The Tumbleweed Trail Project’s mission is:

“To introduce the influence and cultural importance of western music and the Sons of the Pioneers in the history and current state of American music and entertainment to a wider audience.”