page_title: Avery's Trace
section_title: Families travel to the "Promised land"
hierarchical_section_title: Avery's Trace / Families travel to the "Promised land"
caption_attribution_description: English: Detail showing the location of several late-18th century frontier forts (or "stations") in the Upper Cumberland River valley of Middle Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Bledsoe's Station was located in what is now the Castalian Spring community, Mansker's Station was near Goodlettsville, and Fort Blount was just west of modern Gainesboro.
context_page_description: Avery's Trace was the principal road used by settlers travelling from the Knoxville area in East Tennessee to the Nashville area from 1788 to the mid-1830s.
  In an effort to encourage settlers to move west into the new territory of Tennessee, in 1787 North Carolina ordered a road to be cut to lead settlers into the Cumberland Settlements — from the south end of Clinch mountain to French Lick. Peter Avery, a hunter familiar with the area, directed the blazing of this trail through the wilderness.
  He had the trail laid out along trails which the Cherokee Indians had long made their own and frequently used as war paths, following passages of buffalo. It led from Fort Southwest Point at Kingston through the Cumberland Mountains up into what is now Jackson County, Tennessee to Fort Blount. From there it worked through the hills and valleys of upper Middle Tennessee to Bledsoe's Fort at Castalian Springs, then to Mansker's Fort, and finally to Fort Nashborough. These five forts provided shelter and protection for travelers along the Trace.
context_section_description: As rough and difficult as the road was, it was the major passage to the Cumberland Settlements. Lone travelers or pioneer families would load their possessions into wagons and meet fellow pioneers at the Clinch River.  When the settlers had gathered, a militia detail joined them.  They drive their horses across the Clinch River to start their journey into the unknown wilderness.  Many believed they would reach a "promised land" at the end of their journey; many sought lands they had been granted for service to the new country. They faced a long and tortuous trail with many hazards.
  Pioneers camped along the way, cooking over campfires and sleeping under the stars. As the days wore on, they were occasionally fortunate enough to find families living along the Trace who gave them shelter and food for themselves and their horses, but these were few and far between. One traveler recorded that "the houses are so far apart from each other that you seldom see more than two or three in a day." High prices were sometimes charged for any shelter or food. The land they traveled through was rich with beautiful hills and valleys full of canebrakes, giant trees and tangled vines. Many of those who made the journey described it as 300 miles (480 km) of wilderness — one inhabited by wolves, mountain lions, coyotes, deer and buffalo herds.  Along the Trace, settlers turned off for their individual land grants.  By the last fort, Fort Nashborough, often only the militia remained. The soldiers usually picked up another group of settlers going back East. A traveler reported that families were constantly moving in and out of the area, "back to whence they came or onward to other settlements."
caption: Detail showing the location of several late-18th century frontier forts (or "stations") in the Upper Cumberland River valley of Middle Tennessee.
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