Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-01-18
FAMOUS OLD ROADS.
Trails and Pixies That Have Helped to
Make History.

OF the famous old pathways which
have played a part in the history Of
this country none is more interesting
than the Santa Fe trail. Its story, so
far as the white race is concerned
goes back to 1910, when Francisco
Vasquez de Coronado led an expedi-
ton from Mexico up to what Is now
Kansas.
About fifty years later the city Of
Santa Fe was founded. Early in the
nineteenth century American traders
began finding their way to Santa Fe.
and by 1924 the first wagon trains
had left Independence, Mo. After
that business along the trail was rush.
ing. In 1925 it was made an author
lied road by congress.
It began at Westport, now Kansas
City. Fort Leavenworth was estab-
lished to protect trade along this
highway. In 1907 each school child
in the Sunflower state was asked to
contribute a cent to a fund to buy
markers for the famous old trail, and
369,166 responded.
Parallel with the Albany post road,
but keeping from two to six miles
east of the Hudson, is another ia
nous old trail. 1t was an Indian
route but was utilized by Lord Lon
don, in command of the British
forces.
The Nolichucky trace-in the south
trace rather than trail is the designa-
ton of these old pathways-led
through the Waxhaw settlement on
the Catawba river, the birthplace Of
Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk,
on across the Blue Wall" Through
the Harrowgate road. 1t leads on to
Harrodstown, in Kentucky. Boone
went through this gap in 1869.
Kentucky was peopled through the
Wilderness road that went over Cum
berland Gap by followers Of Boone,
and as you ride along that road to-
day you can see how the teams of
successive immigrants have worn
down the old road several feet below
it's original level. But this immigra-
ton passed over the gap, leaving 1t as
lonely as any other mountain pass.
No less famous Is the Natchez trace,
called by the backswoodsmen "Old
Natchez trace" or the Jackson mill
tary road. When the war broke out
with England in 1872 Jackson was
When troops were ordered to New
Orleans the infantry embarked in
boats at Natchez, but Jackson took
the cavalry across country. In the
spring they returned to NatcheZ
This old military road that he and
his soldiers cut through the virgin
wilderness is monument to his cour-
age and tenacity. Of purpose.
In Tennessee, Kentucky and Vir-
ginia the turnpikes are famous in
history and story. The Nashville pike
from Columbia, Tenn, to Nashville
was "a pike of battle" There is
death in every mile Of this pike. 1t
was a battle-ground Of the Confeder-
was on this pike and the Mount Pleas
ant pike, that runs out also from Co.
lumbia, that Buell. made up the hours
that saved Grants army at Pittsburg
Landing that Sunday night on April
6, 1862.
A picturesque, as well as most his
toric pike in Kentucky runs from
Bardstown, following the old "Wil-
derness trail" to Springfield and on
to Cumberland Gap. It is one Of the
first turnpikes built in Kentucky and
has been in operation nearly sixty
years.
Along this pike, too, Quantrell and
his famous band Of guerrilas gallop-
ed one winters day in 1868 to the
Griggsby homestead and mercilessly
slew three Federal officers who were
being entertained there. It was on
this pike that John Uri Lloyd laid the
scene Of his plot "Stringtown on the
Pike" and James Lane Allen has
added to its fame by his pen.-Taylor-
Trotwood Magazine.