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Historic Highways of America/Volume 1/Part 2/Chapter 3

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Paths of the Mound-Building Indians and Great Game Animals (1902)
by Archer Butler Hulbert
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CHAPTER III

EARLY USE OF BUFFALO ROADS

THE first explorers that entered the interior of the American continent were dependent upon the buffalo and Indian for ways of getting about. Few of the early white men who came westward journeyed on the rivers, as the journals of Gist and Walker attest, and to the trails of the buffalo and Indian they owed their success in bringing to the seaboard the first accounts of the interior of the continent.

From Gist, Walker, and Boone the world learned the most it knew of the trans-Alleghany country prior to the Revolution. Gist pierced central Ohio and came around homeward through eastern Kentucky which Dr. Walker had explored, and Boone hunted from the Holston to the Kentucky river.

To these men three routes of travel were feasible—Indian thoroughfares, buf​falo roads, and the beds of dry streams. It seems that of the two former routes those of the Indian were easily distinguished from those of the buffalo. In Dr. Walker's Journal (1750) this is made clear from the frequent mention of the several kinds of roads he found. Of the Indian thoroughfares he writes as follows:

"April 14th. We kept down the Creek 5 miles Chiefly along the Indian Road.

"15th. Easter Sunday. Being in bad grounds for our Horses we moved 7 miles along the Indian Road, to Clover Creek.

"18th. Still cloudy. We kept down the Creek to the River along the Indian Road to where it crosses."[1]

On the other hand such specific mention of buffalo roads as the following may be noted:

"Our horse being recover'd, we travelled to the Rocky Ridge [Clinch Mountain]. I went up to the top, to look for a Pass, but found it so Rocky that I concluded not to Attempt it there. This Ridge may be known by Sight, at a distance. To the ​Eastward are many small Mountains, and a Buffaloe Road between them and the Ridge."[2]

"We kept down the Creek 2 miles further, where it meets with a large Branch coming from the South West, and thence runs through the East Ridge making a very good Pass; and a large Buffaloe Road goes from that Fork to the Creek over the West Ridge, which we took and found the Ascent and Descent tollerably easie."[3]

"In the Fork of Licking Creek is a Lick much used by Buffaloes and many large Roads lead to it."[4]

"We went up Naked Creek to the head and had a plain Buffaloe Road most of the way."[5]

"I blazed several trees four ways on the outside of the low Grounds by a Buffaloe Road, and marked my Name on Several Beech Trees."[6]

Boone, while relating the opening of his ​great road westward by way of "Warrior's Path" through Cumberland Gap, distinctly states in his autobiography that as he left the Gap in the distance he came to a point where the Warrior's Path and the buffalo road diverged. The former ran westward through what is now Danville and Louisville, while the latter went northward. Boone followed the buffalo road to the mouth of Otter creek where Boonesborough was founded.[7] Colonel Logan afterward opened a road westward toward Danville and Louisville on the general course of the Indian trail.

Thus it is plain that in the earliest days there was a marked distinction between the roads of the buffalo and the Indian, though each undoubtedly used, at times, the other's track, and in some places, such as Cumberland Gap, the buffalo and Indian tracks were identical. Dr. Walker in the quotation given above, "We went up Naked Creek to the head and had a plain Buffaloe Road most of the way," was speaking probably of the "Warrior's Path" leading directly to Cumberland Gap though not ​aware that the road he traveled was more than a buffalo path.[8]

That buffaloes were accustomed to traveling Indian routes is clearly proved by a number of incidents. It is said that when the Catawbas came up to Ohio in search of the hated Iroquois they cut off buffalo hoofs, tied them to their own feet, pursued the Indian trail and ambushed themselves. The Iroquois, following the fresh buffalo tracks, soon found themselves the victims of their own credulity.

Two instances of travelers meeting buffaloes on Indian thoroughfares and the quarrel for the right of way are to the point:

Joseph Buell, in a journey from Vincennes to the Ohio, relates this incident in his journal under date of October 4th: "In our march today, came across five buffaloes. They tried to force a passage through our column. The general ordered the men to fire on them. Three were killed and the others wounded."[9]

​Dr. Walker writes the following under the date of June 19th, 1750: "We got to Laurel Creek early this morning, and met so impudent a Bull Buffaloe that we were obliged to shoot him, or he would have been amongst us."[10]

Buffalo roads should be divided into two classes—local and transcontinental. The former were the short roads which converged from the feeding and stamping-grounds, brakes and meadows, to the licks where the animal's natural craving for salt was satisfied. The transcontinental routes were those used in migrating from one portion of the country to another, like the great route through Cumberland Gap.

Such regions as Kentucky, where there were numerous salt licks and great areas of meadow-land near by, became favorite haunts for herds of buffalo, and here their local roads are of such a nature as to be reckoned among "the national curiosities of the state." Broad, hard, and often deep, these great roads were adopted immediately by Indians and white men alike as ​highways of travel. They are thus described by some early writers:

"The roads opened by these animals may be reckoned among the national curiosities of the state [Kentucky], being generally wide enough for a carriage or waggon way, in which trees, shrubs, etc., are all trampled down, and destroyed by the irresistible impetus of the mighty phalanx."[11]

Croghan wrote in his Journal (1765): "We came to a large road which the buffaloes have beaten spacious enough for a wagon to go abreast, and leading straight into the Lick."[12]

In the MS. autobiography of General James Taylor of Newport, Kentucky, is found this statement "Big Bone Lick . . . has been a great resort of the buffalo, and the roads . . . were larger than any common ones now [1794] in the State, and in many places were worn five or six feet deep."[13]

​"A foot-path, zigzagging through the freshly made stumps of trees and past some saplings of dogwood and pawpaw, led down from the station [Bryant's] to this spring, while a much broader track sloped from the main gate on the southeastern side of the stockade to a road a little distance away and nearly fronting the fort, that was a priceless boon to the pioneers. It seemed an ancient product of human skill, but was, in fact, a 'trace,' hard and firm, made by the buffaloes alone which had thundered over it for a thousand years in their journeys to the Salt Licks."[14]

From the time Boone led the van of the pioneer hosts into the southern portion of the Ohio basin until the present day, the buffalo routes have perceptibly influenced the course of travel. Writes a Kentucky historian:

"Exploring the country from the head-waters of Cumberland river to the Ohio, they discovered its main streams, and its variety of soil and surface. By following its trodden roads, or 'traces' as the ​pioneers called them, which the buffaloes made from their grazing fields and brakes, they [Boone and his brother] found a number of the great 'licks' to which wild animals in countless multitudes commonly resorted in hunt of salt. These buffalo traces are plainly marked out to the present day."[15]

One or two references will show how common it was to refer to buffalo "traces" as the main thoroughfares of Kentucky: "Hardly had the plaudits of the pioneers for the women of Bryant's Station died on the stillness of the sultry August air ere summer breezes carried the story of the awful carnage and destruction at the Battle of the Blue Licks, from the valley of the Licking, by the buffalo traces, to the settlements on the Kentucky River."[16] " . . . It was the 16th of August when Caldwell and McKee, piloted by Simon Girty, assailed the place [Bryant's Station]. They had surrounded it during the previous night. They came like the pestilence that walks in darkness, unexpected and un​seen. They had marched along the buffalo traces or stolen through the forests without having given to any one any notice of their intention."[17]

The course of one of these famous "traces" is thus described:

"From Big Bone Lick buffalo roads led to Blue Licks, and also southwest to Drennon's Lick, in Henry County, thence to the crossing of the Kentucky just below Frankfort. From the valley of the river they then passed to the high ground east of Frankfort by a deeply worn road yet visible, known as the Buffalo Trace, to the Stamping Ground, in Scott County, a town named from the fact that the animals in vast herds would tread or stamp the earth while crowded together and moving around in the effort of those on the outside to get inside and thus secure protection from the flies. Thence they passed by the Great Crossings, so called from its being the place where they crossed Elkhorn, two miles west of Georgetown, and thence eastward to Blue Lick, May's Lick, and across the river into Ohio. Their roads formed in ​the comparatively level country the routes of the immigrants through the dense forests, impenetrable from the heavy cane, peavines, and other undergrowth. They also determined in many portions of the State not only the lines of travel and transportation, but also of settlement, as particularly shown between Maysville and Frankfort, a distance of about eighty miles, where the settlements were first made along the Buffalo road, and later the turnpike and railroad followed in close proximity to the route surveyed by this sagacious animal, which Mr. Benton said blazed the way for the railroad to the Pacific. The same idea is embodied in the vernacular of the unlettered Kentuckian who said that the then great roadmakers were 'the buffler, the Ingin, and the Ingineer.'"[18]

"May 31st, 1765. Early in the morning we went to the great Lick, where those bones are only found, about four miles from the river, on the south-east side. In our way we passed through a fine timbered clear wood; we came into a large ​road which the buffaloes have beaten, spacious enough for two wagons to go abreast, and leading straight into the Lick. It appears that there are vast quantities of these bones lying five or six feet under ground, which we discovered in the bank, at the edge of the Lick. We found here two tusks above six feet long; we carried one, with some other bones, to our boats, and set off."[19]

"Monday, Oct. 17th, 1785. Here Mr. Zane found the drove of Buffaloes which he pursued; they took up this creek to the licks. Here are large roads to the licks. Below this creek is a large bottom of fine timber. Three miles down Mr. Zane killed a fine buffalo, which induced me to encamp."[20]

Another historian, after describing the bold attack of the British and Indian horde on Bryant's Station, speaks of the route of the retreating army and its pursuers:

"It was not difficult to find the road on which the departing enemy had marched. ​They had taken what was known as the middle buffalo trace, leading along near where Paris and Millersburg now stand, to the salt springs at Blue Licks. It was easy to follow these roads which the buffalo, the pioneer engineers of the great West, had laid down as best for travel. Once having ascertained the route which the Indians pursued, the marching was rapid. . . . The enemy in front of them had showed no haste in their journey to their own land. Leaving on the morning of the 17th, they had camped some twenty miles away. During the day of the 18th they had marched about eighteen miles more, and now, on the morning of the 19th, they were only three miles in advance of their pursuers, on the east side of the Licking, at the point where the Maysville and Lexington road now crosses that stream over a suspension bridge. . . . Forming in line and riding in the narrow trace, which rarely exceeded seven or eight feet in width, two or three abreast, the pioneers soon struck a little branch, along which the trace wound its way to the bottom of the Licking River. About a mile from the ford the ​trace left the hillside and turned north-westwardly into this branch and followed it down to the mother stream. At this point some consultation was held among the officers, and it was here that Boone, whose great experience and whose thorough knowledge of the country gave his opinion much weight, suggested that, instead of following this trace and going down the river, they should follow the ridge and strike the Licking two miles above, cross at Abnee's or Bedinger's mills, and thus come down to the banks of the Licking some two and a half miles above Blue Licks, and cross the Licking into a wide valley from which, a mile eastwardly, they would gain the ridge along which the trace pursued its way into Fleming and Mason counties. . . . The command 'Forward!' rang through the woods and echoed along the hillsides, and down the fateful trace to the Blue Licks ford the cavalcade pursued its march. At the point where the trace strikes the Licking the valley is a quarter of a mile wide. It is two hundred feet on the western side, where the Kentucky pioneers emerged from the forest, and some ​eight hundred feet wide on the east side, where the foe for hours had been waiting the advance of the pursuers, whose presence by this time was thoroughly known to them. . . . Across the Licking the trace followed up the hillside of the ridge, which was rocky and barren of all trees and vegetation. For ages the buffaloes had come to these licks to find salt. Instinct had taught them the necessity of periodical visitations to these saline springs, where nature had provided this essential for animal life, and for hundreds of years, along these narrow paths, cut out of the woods by the ceaseless trampings of these mighty herds of buffalo, had come millions of these animals to find health and life in the waters which gushed from the Licking bottom. When they had satisfied nature's call for salt, these herds would climb the adjacent hills to lie down and rest through the day and sleep through the night. On these eminences thousands of them would stand and watch the incoming buffaloes as they emerged from the trace on the western side, and, plunging into the waters of the Licking, swim across the stream and ​slake nature's demand for this necessary product, which here the Great Provider for all animal life had laid up in unlimited quantity. . . . The backbone of the ridge along which the fight was to occur was about four hundred and fifty feet in width. Trigg was ordered to the right, and his route was close to the edge of the ravine which comes up from the bank of the Licking and reaches the top of the hill close to the point where the Sardis turnpike leaves the Lexington and Maysville road."[21]

The favorite paths of the settlers were these "traces" made hard as modern roads by the herds which had traversed them. Even the first main street of Lexington was almost impassable in bad weather, and was deserted for the road of the buffalo near by.[22] With the passing of the buffalo, their old routes became clogged in time with wind-strewn brush and fallen trees; but, so good was the course and so solid the footing, that the pioneers cleared these routes in preference to opening roads of ​their own. A specific illustration of this is noted by a Lexington historian:

"A buffalo 'trace' fortunately ran from this station [Bryant's] close to Lexington, and the settlers of both places joined forces in clearing it of logs, undergrowth, and other obstructions; a wise measure as subsequent events proved, for, owing to it, the troops from Lexington that went to the assistance of the besieged station, in 1782, were enabled to reach it much sooner than they could otherwise have done."[23]

" . . . The main road from Louisville to Lexington [Kentucky] passed through it [Leestown] about a mile below Frankfort. This road had been originally made by the buffaloes, and crossed the Kentucky River at one of the few places along its extended course where it was practicable to make the passage."[24]

"The roads [in Kentucky] first made by the buffaloes and adopted by the pioneers, are laid down with such accuracy that the position of those old historic places may be ascertained at this distant day by measure​ment from known objects whose positions have not changed."[25]

The important part played by buffalo roads in the development of Kentucky is noted by Mr. James Lane Allen in The Blue-Grass Region of Kentucky;[26] two notices of early road-making in that region are found in General Butler's Journal:

"Sunday, Oct. 30th. This morning several of the inhabitants came to visit us. Capt. Johnston, a sensible man, proposes he will apply to the general Court for an order to mark a road from Lexington to this place [mouth of the Miami river], which Gen. Clark and myself recommend warmly."[27]

"Sunday, Nov. 20th. We were this day informed by people from the station that the inhabitants of the Lexington and other settlements had blazed a road to the Big Bone Lick, agreeable to the proposition of Capt. Johnston of October 30th, approved and recommended by Gen. C. and myself."[28]

  1. ↑ First Explorations of Kentucky (Filson Club Pub. No. 13), p. 50.
  2. ↑ First Explorations of Kentucky (Filson Club Pub. No. 13), pp. 44–45.
  3. ↑ Id., p. 47.
  4. ↑ Id., p. 51.
  5. ↑ Id., p. 61.
  6. ↑ Id., p. 66.
  7. ↑ Boone's Autobiography.
  8. ↑ First Explorations of Kentucky (Filson Club Pub. No. 13), p. 61, note.
  9. ↑ Buell's Journal, Hildreth's "Pioneer History," p. 157.
  10. ↑ First Explorations of Kentucky (Filson Club Pub. No. 13), p. 70.
  11. ↑ M'Murtrie's Sketches of Louisville, p. 58.
  12. ↑ First Explorations of Kentucky (Filson Club Pub. No. 13), p. 169.
  13. ↑ Id., p. 170.
  14. ↑ Bryant's Station (Filson Club Pub. No. 12), pp. 74–75.
  15. ↑ Smith's History of Kentucky, p. 7.
  16. ↑ Bryant's Station (Filson Club Pub. No. 12), p. 131.
  17. ↑ Bryant's Station (Filson Club Pub. No. 12), p. 135.
  18. ↑ First Explorations of Kentucky (Filson Club Pub. No. 13), pp. 184–185.
  19. ↑ Croghan's Journal, "The Olden Time," vol. i., pp. 407–408.
  20. ↑ Gen. Butler's Journal, "The Olden Time," vol. ii. p. 450.
  21. ↑ Bryant's Station (Filson Club Pub. No. 12), pp. 159–172.
  22. ↑ Ranck's History of Lexington, Kentucky, p. 105.
  23. ↑ Ranck's History of Lexington, Kentucky, p. 29.
  24. ↑ John Filson (Filson Club Pub. No. 1), p. 18.
  25. ↑ John Filson (Filson Club Pub. No. 1), pp. 18–19.
  26. ↑ The Blue-Grass Region of Kentucky, pp. 245, 261–262, 267, 283.
  27. ↑ Gen. Butler's Journal, "The Olden Time," vol. ii., p. 458.
  28. ↑ Id., p. 484.

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