The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-04-23
AN INDIAN TRAIL.


copyright by Dr. Charles C. Abbott.
1t was a strange coincidence, A farmer
living near by had an Indian from the
school at Carlisle, and now that the work
OF the summer was over this taciturn
youth walked daily over mill to school
house more than mile away, and the
path leading to it was az Indian trail.
Not long since met the lad on this very
path returning from school, and when he
passed l stood by an old oak and watched
him until lost among the trees, walking
where centuries ago his people had
walked when going from the mountain
village and rock shelters along an inland
creek to the distant town by the river.
AS you looked about from the old oak
there was no public road or house IN
sight; nothing but trees and bushes, huge
rocks, and one curious iutting ledge that
tradition holds ia veritable relic of pre-
historic time-a place where council fires
were lit and midnight meetings held.
Whether tradition IS true or not, the
place was a fitting one whereat to tarry
and fall a-thinking. Happy indeed could
the old oak have spoken.
Many a public road of recent date has
been built on the line OF an old trail, as
many a town and even a city have re-
placed Indian villages, but take the long
settled regions generally, the ancient
landmarks are all gone and stray pots
herd or flint arrow point in the fields is
all that is LETT to recall the days OF the
dusky aborigine.
TRACING INDIAN HIGHWAYS.
Only in the rough, rocky, irreclaimable
hills are we likely now to be successful ,
ii such traces as trail are to be soughl
for.
1t was so there Bald-top hill is of lit
tile use to the white man except for the
frewood that grows upon its sides and the
scattered game that still fingers in its
thickets. AS seen from the nearest road ,
not far off, there is nothing now to sug-
gest that an Indian ever clambered about
it. The underground hides every trace OF
the surface. but after the leaves drop and
a light snow has fallen then a curious
white line can be traced from the base to
the summit; this is the old trail.
1t is narrow path. and for SO long had
it been used by the Indians that still
when once we have had it pointed out, it
can be followed without difficulty. II
leads now from one little intervale to
another; from Farmer A to Farmer b.
But originally it was part Of their
long highway leading from Phila-
delphia to Easton, perhaps Ii
matters not. Enough to know that
then, as now, there were towns almost
wherever there was land fit for dwellings,
and paths that led from one to the other.
| 1t is clear that the Indians knew the
whole country well. The routes they
| finally chose came from long experience:
| and were as direct as the nature OF the
ground made passable.
INDIAN TOWNS, ORCHARDS AND FIELDS
The study OF trails opens up to US =;
broader view of ancient Indian life thar
we are apt to entertain.
| We find the sites of villages on the
banks of the rivers and larger inflowine
streams; travel by canoes was universal
No locality was so favorable as the opeT
valley, and here the greater number o.
| indians doubtless dWelt. But the rive
and its fertile shores could no
yield all that this people needed
They had to draw from thu
resources of the hills behind them. Thel
soon marked the whole region with net
work of trails leading to the various points
whence they drew the necessities of life
| The conditions of the present day are laiC
down on essentially the same lines a
then.
An Indian town was not temporar.
tent-site, or mere cluster OF wlgwams
here today and miles away tomorrow. No
did these people depend solely upon tn
chase Beside the trail over which 1 re
Gently passed was great clearing tina
had been an orchard. We can yet fn'
many barren spot that is rightly know
to the people of today az an Indian field
So persistently were these cornfield
cropped that at last the soil was abso
lutely exhausted. and has not yet recoV
cred its fertility.
OLD INDIAN COMMERCE AND TRAVEL.
' There was systematic bartering, too, a