HISTORICAL SKETCHES
OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA
PUBLICATION No. 12 - 1978
The Boone Trail
By
Emory L. Hamilton
The
earliest known path through Southwest Virginia was an ancient buffalo
and Indian trace. When and who was the first white man to travel over
this trace we have no way of ascertaining at this late date.
That
hunters had been on this trace much earlier than most historians think
can be proven by the Journal of Dr. Thomas Walker when he was
commissioned by the Loyal Land Company in 1750 to make an exploration of
lands which they had been granted. On April 9, 1750, Dr. Walker makes
this entry in his Journal:
"We traveled to a river, which I supposed to be that which the
hunters call Clinche's River, from Clinch, a hunter who first found
it."
This
entry shows beyond doubt that the trace and river were known to hunters
prior to 1750. Later in the 1760's when long hunts became more
profitable and more frequent this ancient trace became known, far and
wide, as the Hunters Trace, and the very word "Hunters" still
clings as an identifying name for
certain
places such as Hunter's Valley in Scott County, Virginia.
This
trace, as all roads do, had several converging paths leading into it.
The first long hunts were organized along the New River and later on
Holston River, near Chilhowie. From these points three paths were well
known. One lead from the Holston by way of Saltville down through Elk
Garden to Castlewood.
The
second from Abingdon through Little Moccasin Gap to Castlewood. The
third ran from Abingdon via Bristol and down Reedy Creek and veered
northwest before reaching Long Island (Kingsport) across Pine Mountain
through Moccasin Gap, linking up with the main Hunters Trace at Little
Lick (Duffield), where it passed over Kane's Gap onto Wallens Creek and
down the Powell Valley to Cumberland Gap. This latter path later became
the main branch of the Great Wilderness Road.
The
first two paths which converged at Castlewood to form a single trace
from that place through Powell Valley to Cumberland Gap ran down the
brow of a low hill on the south side of Clinch River at Dungannon, north
of the present bridge and was shown on the first map of the area made by
Daniel Smith
in
1774 as "Hunter's Ford." The crossing later became known as
"Osborne's Ford" after Stephen Osborne settled at the site.
From Hunter's Ford the path led down a valley on the north side of
Clinch River between Nuckner's Ridge and Stone Mountain, and known to
this day in Scott County as Hunter's Valley. It crossed Big Stony Creek
at a place once known as Ka, Virginia, then out Hunter's Valley through
Rye Cove to Sunbright, and across Kane's Gap onto Wallen's Creek. At
Little Flat Lick all three traces became one before entering Kane's Gap
and thence down Powell Valley to Cumberland Gap.
Daniel
Boone was familiar, no doubt, with all three traces. Boone's first trip
into Southwest Virginia, was probably about 1767 when he camped at
Abingdon and named it Wolf Hills. He came into the Valley of the Holston
a number of times in 1767 and 1768.
Daniel
Bryan, Boone's nephew and namesake, in 1843, wrote to Dr. Lyman C.
Draper, the following account of Boone's trip through this section into
Holston Valley and on into Kentucky. This trip is certainly that made by
Boone in 1769, for it was John Finley, a noted long hunter whose
acquaintance Boone had made in Braddock's Army and who first told Boone
of Kentucky, who led him through
Cumberland
Gap in 1769, Boone having missed the Gap on two previous searches.
Bryan's description of the route follows:
"Boone agreed to go and took John Stewart, as his companion, John
Finley, James Holden, James Mooney and William Conley, six in all."
"On the first day of May, 1769, started from Boone's on the Head of
Yadkin they took their course westwardly crossing the Blue or Big
Mountain to the three forks of the New River lower down called Kenaway,
thence over Stone Mountain to a place called the Stares (Stairs), thence
over the Iron Mountain into Holston Valley, then across the valley to
Moccasin Gap in the Clinch Mountain. I, Daniel Bryan have traveled the
same route. They then continued their route or course westwardly
crossing Waldens Ridge and Powell Mountain into Powell Valley, then down
the Valley leaving Cumberland Mount but a little to their right, so on
to Cumberland Gap." (Draper Mss)
Daniel
Bryan, here traces Boone's first trip over the entire distance of the
Wilderness Road.
In
1773, Boone, accompanied by Benjamin Cutberth went to Kentucky to hunt
and no doubt, to locate a place for his intended settlement. It was on
the return from this trip that Boone met with Captains William
Russell and David Gass at Castlewood, and induced them to join him in an
attempted settlement in
Kentucky.
Returning
to the Yadkin Valley, Boone sold his farm and on September 25, 1773,
started with his party of settlers to Kentucky. The Bryan party, Boone's
relatives, were to rendevous with him in Powell Valley and make the most
dangerous part of the journey together.
Somewhere
in the vicinity of Abingdon, Boone sent his son, James, with John and
Richard Mendenhall, across country to inform Russell and Gass that the
party was on their way and to get flour, tools, and cattle for the
settlement. Either at Castlewood, or along the way, the little party was
joined by Isaac Crabtree and a boy by the name of Drake, son of Joseph
Drake who was killed by Indians at
Boonesboro
in 1778. Both of these young men lived with their parents on the road
leading from the Holston to the Salt Works, (now Saltville). It is the
belief of this writer that this party traveled from Abingdon to
Castlewood, through Little Moccasin Gap, much as the road runs today.
Leaving
Captain William Russell's place at Castlewood, along with his son, Henry
Russell and two Negro servants belonging to Russell, the party started
forward on a section of the old Hunters Path previously described. They
were to join Boone's main party in Powell Valley. They traveled down the
south side of Clinch River, crossing Hunter's Ford, through Hunters
Valley and across Powell Mountain at Kane's Gap, onto the head of Wallen
Creek, when darkness came upon them and they went into camp at the old
ford of Wallen's Creek on October 9, 1773. At daybreak on the next day,
as everyone knows, the small party was set upon and masscreed by the
Indians, with the exception of Isaac Crabtree and one of the Negro
slaves.
Logical
reasoning tells us that Boone did not travel to Castlewood with his main
party, or else he would have sent his son to inform Russell and Gass of
his movements. It is the belief of this writer that Boone and his main
party used the third artery described as one of the converging paths of
the old Hunters Trace, and this is also the consensus of the late R. M.
Addington, in his History of Scott County, Virginia, Addington details
this route through Scott County, and I quote herewith:
"It is not possible with the data at hand, to trace with absolute
certainty, the location of the Kentucky Path at every point throughout
its length. Like other roads, both then and now, it was subject to such
alterations as suited the fancy of convenience of those who traveled
over it, and divergence was, of course, always possible between the
'gaps'. Moccasin Gap, was no doubt, reached from the Holston settlements
by more than one way. In general, however, the following description of
the Kentucky Path may be taken as fairly accurate in so far as its
passage through Scott County is concerned. It passed from Shelby's Fort
(now Bristol) down Reedy Creek to the Blockhouse. Boone's original place
of rendevous, however, did not usually take him as far west as the site
of Kingsport. He traveled down Reedy Creek to the neighborhood of
Peltier, and then turned north to the Virginia-Tennessee boundary line,
thence by the
way
of the Blockhouse to the ford just above Holston Bridge. From this ford
he took a northwest course, passing over Little Pine Mountain at a point
where its elevation has been greatly reduced by Big Moccasin Creek. He
then passed through Big Moccasin Gap, the great eastern gateway of the
Kentucky Path. Thence up Little Moccasin Valley in the low divide which
separates Little Moccasin from Troublesome Creek. At or near the Old
Virginia and Southern depot at Speers Ferry, the path turned aside from
the narrow valley of Troublesome Creek, and passed along the south side
of a limestone hill to the north of the late J. M. Horton residence,
until it reached a narrow ravine at Horton's Chapel. Here it dropped
down the ravine to the ford at Speer's Ferry. Persons yet alive remember
and point out the depression of the old Trace where it passed along the
side of the limestone ridge from the old Virginia and Southern depot to
Horton's Chapel. (See deeds Michael Darter, George Graham and George
George.)
"After crossing Clinch River at Speers Ferry, the path passed up
the west bank of the same to the Ford of Stock Creek." (Present
site of Clinchport). From Clinchport it followed the meanders of Big
Stock creek up almost to the Natural Tunnel. Here it turned to the left
around Tunnel Hill by way of Horton's
Summit,
to the Little Flat Lick (now Duffield), near the new schoolhouse at
Duffield. It may be stated in this connection that foot travelers and
pack horse trains often passed up the Devil's Race Path Branch to the
top of Purchase Ridge, and then descended into the valley of the North
Fork of Clinch, near the Little
Flat
Lick. Little Flat Lick it seems was one of the best known places on the
Kentucky Path. Not one of the early travelers over the Path, who has
left an account of his itinerary, has failed to mention Little Flat
Lick.
"From Little Flat Lick, there seems to have been, at least, two
ways of reached Powells Valley. One of these, and this was probably the
oldest, passed over Powells Mountain at or near Kane's Gap, and
descended into Powells Valley not far from the head of Wallen's Creek,
where Scott's Fort was located.
The
other, and this was no doubt, the route taken by wagons, passed from
Little Flat Lick down the valley to the North Fork of Clinch, by way of
Pattonsville, over Powell Mountain to Stickleyville very much as the
present wagon road runs."
After
the massacre of Boone and Russell's sons it was a well established fact
that Daniel boone brought his family and his brother, Squire Boone, back
to Castlewood and lived in a cabin on the farm of Captain David Gass. In
1774 he was in command of troops at Moore's and Blackmore's Forts on the
Clinch. The court of Washington County, Virginia, invested him with the
rank of Lieutenant and then Captain of Militia, the only military rank
he ever held.
It
was from Castlewood in 1774 that Daniel Boone and Michael Stoner were
sent to warn land surveyors in Kentucky of a possible war by the Shawnee
Indians. This time, from best evidence available, they traveled through
Pound Gap in Wise County, which Boone called "Sounding Gap,"
to the falls of the Ohio and back through Cumberland Gap to Castlewood.
In
the early spring of 1775, Daniel Boone and a party of about thirty men
blazed a trail from the Holston into Kentucky. This road was no doubt
the one described by Addington, and it was only a trail, suitable for
pack horses and foot travelers, and not for wagons, except from the
Holston to Martin's Station in Lee County (site of Jonesville). It was
over this route that Boone set out from Castlewood in the spring of 1775
to found the permanent settlement of Boonesboro.
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