"Warriors' Path" was the early name of this route, as, for a distance at least near Cumberland Gap, the trail was a link in the great war path from the north to the south. The old "War Trail of Nations"[1] which descended the Great Kanawha and came into the New River valley was a branch trail. At a later date Daniel Boone heroically opened a road over this route to Kentucky which took the appropriate title of "Wilderness Road." Of this Wilderness Road, which played a mighty part in the opening of the first settlement in the West, Kentucky, a particular study will be made in an independent monograph.
Dr. Walker, from whose Journal extracts were made while discussing buffalo trails,[2] made his journey of exploration to Kentucky in part over the Virginia Warriors' Path. This path was also a famous traders' path by which packhorses went and came from all parts of the great expanse between the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Illinois rivers.