The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1931-08-20

If one were checking up on the old
turnpikes in the United States that
are about one hundred years old and
two hundred miles long, he would
hardly expect to find one of them ly-
ing almost wholly in West Virginia
a state which did not come into eXis-
tence until 1861 and which even to-
day has many unsettled areas. But
the road is there. It is called the
Northwestern Turnpike, probably be-
cause it was located entirely in the
northwestern part of Virginia at the
time it was built. 1t runs across the
state from Winchester, Virginia, to
the Ohio River at Parkersburg. The
section of it that is in West Virginia
is 1913 miles long. This road is now
part of the coast-to-coast highway.
Practically all old roads in the east
ern part of our country follow old In
dian trails, and the Northwestern
turnpike is no exception. In sections
of the country where great forests
abounded, it was necessary for the
Indians, in getting from one place to
another, to stick closely to these trails
on account of the difficulty in travel
ing through the underbrush. This
was particularly true in what later
became West Virginia, for it was a
sort of No Mans Land among the In
dams. 1t was not used by them as
a place to live, but rather as a hunting
ground and a battlefield. The trails
were usually not more than IS inches
wide-just enough for one person at
a time-but they extended for hum
dreds of miles. One of them extended
from the northern part of New York
to the Carolinas.
The tribes were frequently at war
with one another-especially the
tribes in New York and the Southern
tribes-and the paths were used by
the Indians in going forth to battle.
To these trails may be traced two ex-
pressions in common use today-"on
the warpath," indicating that some
body is seeking a fight, and Indian
file," meaning to walk one behind an
other. Some of the paths were also
used on hunting expeditions and later,
when the white man came, for trad
ing.
The white men found these paths
and naturally followed them, on foot
and on horseback. Gradually the
trails became widened and after a
lapse of many years wheeled vehicles
could be used.
There was such trading path all
the way across what is now the State
of West Virginia even before the Rev.
olution and hunters and trappers
would bring their furs over it into
Winchester, carrying back salt, iron
and supplies. 1t became a rough
wagon road between the Revolution
and the close of the century and some
of the trading between Virginia and
Kentucky was later done over it, the
supplies being foated down the Ohio
River.
Winchester is in Virginia, as was
Parkersburg before 1861. But Win
chester is in the Shenandoah Valley
and Parkersburg is in the Ohio VAL
lev, and between the two are many
miles of mountains. Indeed, the en-
tire journey between the two cities
is over and between mountains. There
is harly a minute of the time, if you
travel during the daylight hours,
when there is not peak or ridge in
sight.
Considering the fact that the route
lies through so much mountain and
forest land and that there are so few
towns along it, one wonders why the
people of Virginia ever took the trou-
BILE to build it. The answer is that the
settlers beyond the Alleghenies want
ed a road eastward to the more set
tied parts of the State and that they
knew how to get it. They simply
brought political pressure to bear. To
this fact must be added the fact that
the building of the road was Virgin
las bid for the trade of the West
against New York, Pennsylvania and
Maryland. The Northwestern Turn
pike was regarded especially as a
rival of the National Pike, which had
been built few years before through
Maryland and Pennsylvania.
The first definite effort to secure the
road was made in 1919, when a gen.
eral law was enacted defining the linn
itations and restrictions of the pro-
posed company. The plans were I'M
satisfactory to the western counties
by reason of a failure of the state
to offer what the western counties re-
garded as reasonable assistance.
Not until the legislative session of
1880 was the matter fought to fin
ish. The western senators and dele
oates had heen demanding "internal