I found this article from "Our State Magazine" in my "memories" folder on FaceBook. But it didn't include the "share" button. so I re-read the article, and wanted to be sure to share it somewhere, and hope to have it in my own archives here on Blogger. And if I shared it before (quite possibly) mea culpa!
The link still works for now at least.
My interest (as always) is in considering my ancestors who might have used these (or similar) roads.
In 1775, Daniel Boone "blazed" a trail for the Transylvania Company from Fort Chiswell in Virginia through the Cumberland Gap into central Kentucky. It was later lengthened, following Native American trails, to reach the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville. The Wilderness Road was steep, rough, narrow, and it could only be traversed on foot or horseback. Despite the adverse conditions, thousands of people used it.
Daniel Boone coming through Cumberland Gap by George Caleb Bingham
I've written about the Cumberland Gap, and my family's travels on the roads leading into Kentucky HERE.
And here is a clip about an ancestress that lived into her 90s, who moved into Kentucky before it became a state. Here.
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And a bit of Mary Oliver, just because...
"I thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
Sharing with Sepia Saturday
My great grandfather, J.K. Smedley, lived & worked in Oakland & San Francisco, Calif. I grew up in the East Bay & worked in Oakland & San Francisco, but never felt a connection with my great grandfather until I moved to Tuolumne County near Yosemite & read great grandfather's journal about his trip to Yosemite in 1874 which I have written about in past posts. For here I was/am driving roads he drove on - albeit in carriage & horses - more than a hundred years before. I'm tickled every time I drive on one of the roads he had driven on so long ago - probably never dreaming his future kin would live here driving those roads he wrote about in his journal all the time. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd you see the same scenery your g grandfather saw, with of course different trees. Mountains and streams and lakes don't change as much.
DeleteMy son and his wife now live in Richmond, Indiana which had given me reason to drive through the Cumberland Gap and its region a few times back and forth. The western side of the Appalachian range looks very different from the eastern side I'm most familiar with. I enjoyed the essay on old roads from Our State. When drovers of livestock reached crossroads like Asheville there must have been animal traffic jams unlike anything with cars and trucks on our modern roads. Imagine the noise and smell!
ReplyDeleteAnd I love Mary Oliver's poem!
And even before reaching Asheville, there were "stands" where animals were penned in and the drovers could have a meal and rest over night. Some of these inns are still around. I never thought of an animal traffic jam, but it would have been funny if turkeys and pigs came through at the same time! Having lived in Knoxville I guess that's the western side of the Appalachian range, and can't figure out how that looks much different than going towards Hickory NC. Maybe up in KY there's a more abrupt change?
DeleteI enjoyed your theme of featuring places connected with your ancestors. I know the pleasure that comes from walking in the steps of your ancestors, whether it be in a street, a church, or a cemetery.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post about the Cumberland Gap and its later lengthening using Native trails -- a good reminder that when European settlers arrived and moved about, there was already a substantial population here who had blazed the trails long before them, including Broadway in New York City.
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