Wilderness Road
The Wilderness Road ( German " Wilderness Road ") was the first east-west connection across the Appalachian Mountains in the United States , on which settlers from the coastal plains on the Atlantic Ocean could get to the Midwest . It was the only route from Virginia to Kentucky for over fifty years . Their pioneer was Daniel Boone , who paved the route in 1775 on behalf of the Transylvania Company from Fort Chiswell, Virginia through the Cumberland Gap into central Kentucky. The road was later extended along old Indian trails to the waterfalls on the Ohio River near Louisville . The steep and uneven Wilderness Road was only passable on foot or on horseback, yet it was used by thousands of travelers. In 1792, the New State of Kentucky Government approved funds to upgrade the road. In 1796 the new all-weather road for carriages and transport vehicles was opened. Around 1840 the old route, which the modern highways largely follow, was abandoned.
18th century
On March 10, 1775, Daniel Boone and 35 loggers began to cut a 360-kilometer swath through the woods and across the Kentucky mountains to the Cumberland Gap on behalf of the Transylvania Company and judge Richard Henderson from North Carolina . A flood of immigrants from Scotland , Ireland and Germany moved over the Wilderness Road over the next few years . It is estimated that over 200,000 pioneers traveled west along this route and endured extreme hardships. The winter of 1778/79, for example, was so cold that the Kentucky River had an ice sheet two feet thick. The settlements along the way struggled to survive. Many cattle and pigs froze to death.
Because of the frequent Indian raids, the journey on the Wilderness Road was feared and passers-by had to be well armed. White robbers and other criminals also lurked along the route and threatened the travelers. Although the Transylvania Company had previously bought the area from the Cherokee and the Iroquois gave their approval in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, other tribes, such as the Shawnee , inhabited the region and made tenure claims. They built log cabins for the defense along the way, which were equipped with loopholes against attackers. The Shawnee warriors came from the north while the Chickamauga , who refused to sell the Cherokee land, approached from the south. The Chickamauga under their chief Dragging Canoe (canoe tug ) made a stretch of 160 kilometers unsafe for weeks. They raided only small groups, and by the fall of 1784 more than 100 travelers lost their lives on the road. Many families even came in ice and snow and crossed the streams and rivers without shoes or stockings. They often had no money and little to wear. They got their food from the forests and rivers.
Wild animals also threatened dangers. At night, travelers could hear the howling of wolves and the screams of mountain lions . Some Indians imitated these noises. You also had to be careful of bears and poisonous snakes such as copper-headed snakes and rattlesnakes that lived in the withered leaves and undergrowth.
The Wilderness Road developed as an important trade route for the first settlers in Kentucky. Horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs could be sold in markets in North and South Carolina , Maryland, and Virginia. Pigs were herded across the street to market in herds of 500 animals, and beef became the main source of income for farmers in central Kentucky. In 1792 a mail line was opened and the mail riders gained a high reputation for their courage. The settlers impatiently awaited the mail, newspapers and news from the east and other places along the way.
19th and 20th centuries
When the National Road was opened in 1818 , which ran along the Ohio River and allowed a trip to the west on flat roads, the Wilderness Road lost its importance. You could also take the steamboat across the Ohio River to the Mississippi River and back.
In the Civil War , the Wilderness Road played an important role again and was used by both armies. The Cumberland Gap changed hands four times during the war. The Southern Army marched down the road to reach Virginia . In 1864 General Ulysses S. Grant used the Wilderness Road in the campaign against Tennessee . Grant is said to have said, "With two brigades at the Cumberland Gap, I could hold the pass against the army that Napoleon brought to Moscow ."
Part of the Wilderness Road was one of the first paved roads in the USA: the old road over the mountains between the Cumberland Gap in Tennessee and Middlesboro in Kentucky was paved using a new method in 1908. At that time, there were only about 1,100 km of asphalt roads in the United States. The route later belonged to the famous Dixie Highway that connected Detroit with Miami (now US Highway 25 ).
Today the Cumberland Gap is a national park ; Portions of Wilderness Road can be viewed at Wilderness Road State Park in Virginia. About eight kilometers east of the Cumberland Gaps is a reconstructed fort at Martins Station on Wilderness Road .
literature
- Alan Axelrod: What Every American Should Know About American History (1992) Holbrook, MA. Adams Media Corp. ISBN 1-55850-309-9 .
- Tom Bodett: America's Historic Trails (1992) San Francisco James Connoly (Small World Productions). ISBN 0-912333-00-6
- Brenda Calloway: America's First Western Frontier: East Tennessee (1989) Kingsport, Tenn. The Overmountain Press. ISBN 0-932807-34-8
- Alistair Cooke: Alistair Cooke's America (1973) New York Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
- Richard B. Drake: A History of Appalachia . University Press of Kentucky (2001).
- Robert Kincaid: The Wilderness Road (1992) Kingsport, Tenn. Arcata Graphics. ISBN Unknown
- James G. Leyburn: The Scotch Irish A Social History (1962) Chapel Hill. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-4259-1 .
- Eric Newby: The Rand McNally World Atlas of Exploration (1975) London: Mitchell Beazley. ISBN 0-528-83015-5 .
- Darnell Riley: The Tennessee Blue Book (2004) Nashville: State of Tennessee.
- Parke Rouse Jr: The Great Wagon Road (2004) Richmond: The Diaz Press. ISBN 0-87517-065-X .
- James Webb: Born Fighting How the Scots-Irish Shaped America (2004) New York: Broadway Books. ISBN 0-7679-1688-3 .
- John Alexander Williams: Appalachia: A History (2002) Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-5368-2 .