Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-12-16
oLp INDIAN TRAILS
Ninety Six Was an lmportan. Point
In Indian Days.

In Indian Days.
That which men realize they need
will always create a road TO It.
have already intimated that the larger
part of the territory covered by the
old Ninety Six district was designated
under the title OF shah Kush-ahh,
which crudely translated, had made
Long Canes historic, writes DR.. j. w.
Daniels in the Southern Christian Ad-
vocate. The Indians did not, however,
localize the name as we do, 1t refer
red to a large tract of country where
canes grew in great abundance.
Therefore, from an Indian point OF
view, we have the Kush- h-ah-Kush- -ah,
sigrifying The Big Cane Break below
GreenvilIe as we'll as The Long Cane
section Of Abbeville county and Kush-
ah, Reedy river. This Indian name of
these several points was bestowed by
them because the soil of the old Nine
ty 5Six district produced canes so
abundantIy even on its uplands as well
as on the rich alluvial bottoms border
| Ing the swampy and rarely overflow
ed even down to the memory of living
men. This feature Of that section
made it rich pasture for great herds
of elk, buffalo and deer for both win
ter and summer. The collection of
these herds in these broad pasture
lands attracted the panther, packs of
wolves and prowling bears. These
animals feasted on the helpless gram
niverous herds that pastured here.
Therefore the Indians who made the
largest use of these animals both for
/ food and raiment referred to these
foothills and dales as Kush-ah- -kush-
ah, abundance of canes ard made
many paths into it on their hunting
excursions, and through 1t In their
| tramps to the ocean for commercial
purposes with the Creeks. They
traded arrowheads and flint spear
heads for salt, shells and such things
as their mountain country did not
produce. These paths were made long
before white settlers came to the ter
ritory of South Carolina. Therefore,
the Indians alluded to certain poirt
within this tract as Heena- -heena
which meant number of paths and
roads, most probably their conJunc-
ton. It Is an interesting fact that
both Of these Indian names survive
one crudely translated Long Canes and
the other half translated Honea Path.
It is also a fact full of interest that,
while the state created by statutes
many roads through upper Carolina
we look in vain for any statute Great
ing road where there was long and
we'll defined Indian trail. The old
Keeowee Trail in Abbeville county
through Anderson and Oconee to the
mountains and across them into North
Carolina and Tennessee, the old trail
| leading across Saluda Gap down
through Greenville and Laurens be-
tween Reedy and Saluda river ard the
old trail leading out from Ninety Six
to Musgrove's mill, on to Cedar
Springs in Spartanburg county, py
Cowpens, and across the mountains
are illustrations of this fact. THESE
trails were as accurately laid out as
any civil engineer could have located
them, and this is proven"by the fact
that when the needs of a great CIVIL
! zation demanded the building of rail-
roads the civil engineer followed
these trails almost exclusively, even
the long Chicasaw Trail leading out
/ from Charleston to the Creek ana
Chicasaw nation located in Georgia
and Alabama. This trail passed out
of Charleston to Augusta along what
is now the Southern Railway, then on
for five hundred miles into the then
unknown and uneXplored west. Every
foot of the old trail is now tracked by
the Iron Horse. These important
trails were inherited by the earliest
settlers as assets of their new coun- !
try and widened and developed into
roads without state legislation.
Ninety Six was, therefore, an i'm
portant point, perhaps centuries be-
fore Scotch Irish settled the country. !
The Old Keeowee Trail, the SaIuda
Cap Trail and the we'll defined trail
frcm Kings Mountain by Cedar
Springs and Musgroves, mill all had