A New Beginning

The Wilderness Trail

 

As the population of the coastal areas of Colonial Virginia and North Carolina grew, expansion west of the Appalachian Mountains became inevitable.  Until the mid seventeen hundreds, this natural barrier divided Indian territory from colonial backcountry settlements.  A few early explorers who returned from west of the mountains reported huge fertile valleys teeming with game, including limitless herds of buffalo.  An animal trail or “trace” that had been used for thousands of years provided the only practical path through the mountain range.   This trail began from points east in the Shenandoah and Yadkin Valleys, and ran west through Virginia and up the Holsten, Clinch and Powell valleys, until it reached the one traversable gap.  This pass became known as the Cumberland Gap.  The trail then crossed the Cumberland and Red rivers in Kentucky, went on to cross the Ohio River and then terminated in present-day Mason County, Ohio. At that time it was known as the “Old Warriors Path”, or “Athiamiowee” meaning “Path of the Armed Ones”. 
     After the 1750’s, reports by white explorers such as Christopher Gist and John Findlay encouraged frontiersmen like Daniel Boone, Joseph Martin, the McAfee brothers and James Harrod to risk the many dangers to enter this country.  Land speculators like Dr. Thomas Walker and Judge Richard Henderson had visions of great wealth if the lands beyond the Cumberland Gap, known by the Cherokee, Catawba and Shawnee as “Ken-ta-ke” (which meant meadowlands) could be obtained, so they encouraged settlements.  The area was known by the white frontiersmen as “Cain-tuck” or “Kentuck” and settlement began.  In 1775, Daniel Boone and thirty friends and relatives enlarged one hundred miles of the path through the gap and on to the Kentucky River.  This road promptly became known as “Boones Trace”.  It was little more than a cleared path, certainly not even capable of permitting wagon travel.  In 1796, the young state of Kentucky commissioned the development of “The Wilderness Road”, which basically improved Boones Trace.
      Many clashes occurred between the natives who claimed the area as their hunting grounds and the settlers who ignored western boundaries established by the British, and then after the revolution, by the United States Government.  The Indians resisted this western expansion, but in a relatively short period of time they were overwhelmed.  It is conservatively estimated that between 1775 and 1810, more than 300,000 individuals traversed the Wilderness Trail from North Carolina and Virginia, through the Cumberland Gap, and into the land of Kentucky in search of adventure, wealth or a better life. Countless men, women and children lost their lives along the Wilderness Trail, but nothing could stop the flow of humanity into Kentucky.