Backcountry Notes

The Great Trading Path.  When the first Europeans crossed through the mountain passes into the Great Valley of the Appalachian Mountains, they found a road.  Developed by the use of Native Americans over centuries, this foot-traveled road stretched from New York to Alabama.  It was known as the Great Trading Path and the Warrior Path and significant portions would eventually be incorporated into horse-and-wagon roads by European settlers.

The Great Wagon Road, which ran from Pennsylvania to Georgia, was the primary route for settlers moving into the Backcountry in Colonial and Early American times.  The road began at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and took a northwesterly course through a favorably-low area of the eastern front of the Appalachian mountain range.  In the Great Valley, the road eventually hooked up with the Great Trading Path, forming a natural channel of travel and trade which persists, in modern forms, to this day.

The section of the road known as the “Great Philadelphia Wagon Road” in Colonial times ran through the southern Pennsylvania region now known as Pennsylvania Dutch Country, passing through the towns of Lancaster and York.  Once across the Blue Ridge front the road entered the Cumberland Valley, part of the Great Appalachian Valley, joining the Great Trading Path which it followed through western Maryland to the vicinity of Williams' Ferry on the Potomac River.   There were several ferry crossings along the Potomac, leading into what is now the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, and from there to Winchester at the head of the Valley of Virginia.

In Virginia, the road was generally known as the “Great Wagon Road,” the reference to Philadelphia being omitted.  It was also called the "Valley Pike."  The Great Wagon Road ran southwest through the Shenandoah Valley to “Big Lick” in the Roanoke Valley.  The main branch of the Great Wagon Road passed through the Roanoke River Gap and then turned south to North Carolina, this section of the road often being called the "Carolina Road."  In Colonial times, the road entered North Carolina near Salem (now Winston-Salem) and ended at a ford on the Yadkin River; it was later extended to Charlotte, and then to Augusta, Georgia.  The Carolina Road provided a primary means of settlement of the North Carolina Piedmont.

The Great Road.  A second branch, known simply as the “Great Road,” left Big Lick at the present site of Roanoke and ran southwest to the Holston River Valley, going through Fort Chiswell and Wolf Hill (Abingdon), Virginia, into northeast Tennessee.  From the Abingdon area, the Wilderness Road was developed into Kentucky by Daniel Boone.  The Great Road was the primary settlement route for Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee, while the Wilderness Road provided settlement routes to Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, and Indiana.

The wagon roads were originally widened and “improved” by settlers and residents, who used logs and rocks to reinforce the way.  Settlers traveled on foot and horseback and used Conestoga wagons to carry their belongings.  Contrary to popular myth, Conestoga wagons were not the same as the “Prairie Schooners” used to settle the American West.  Built in New York and Pennsylvania, the Conestoga wagons were generally about 26 feet in length and did not have a driver's seat; the horses or mules typically were led by someone walking ahead, or riding on one of the horses or mules, and only rarely were controlled by reins with the driver standing inside the wagon.  The distinctive feature of the Conestoga wagon was its slightly-bowed floor, with a low point in the center of its length; the bowed floor caused items packed in the wagon to shift to the center, and therefore maintain balance, when crossing rough terrain.

The original route of the Great Wagon Road is shown on the 1751 Fry-Jefferson Map, more formally titled “Map of the Inhabited part of Virginia, containing the whole province of Maryland with Part of Pensilvania, New Jersey and North Carolina. 1751,” which was drawn by Thomas Fry and Peter Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson's father).  On this map, the road is identified as “The Great Road from the Yadkin River thro Virginia to Philadelphia distant 455 Miles.”  For an image of the Library of Congress' copy of the map, see:

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?ammem/gmd:@field(NUMBER+@band(g3880+ct000370))

In Virginia, the Great Wagon Road and its Great Road extension can be located by finding U. S. Route 11 on a highway map.  In 1834, The Valley Turnpike Company was incorporated to improve and maintain the road from Winchester and Harrisonburg. Later extended to Staunton, the "Valley Pike" was operated as a toll road for many years.  The road was taken over by the state in 1918 and was designated U.S. Route 11 in 1926.  Route 11, also called “Lee Highway,” was a primary channel of commerce until the building of Interstate 81 parallel to its route.

From Roanoke into North Carolina, the “Carolina Road” extension was incorporated into U. S. Route 220.  This branch of the road was used by the early Moravian settlers who founded the towns of Wachovia and Salem, N.C.  From the Salem area, secondary branches led south, southeast, and southwest into the central Piedmont.   

The story of the Backcountry is in many ways defined by the development of the Great Wagon Road and its extensions.  Because the Blue Ridge escarpment formed a barrier to travel, broken only at long intervals by usable passes, settlement, travel and trade south of Philadelphia were substantially constrained within the eastern coastal areas of European settlement.  The geography proved to be a boon to the Backcountry settlers, as I will detail in another post, giving them a high degree of protection from the patrician society and plantation economy of the coastal areas.