Subject: [OHIO] Wagon Roads to Ohio From: glenys@sonic.net To: Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman 73777,25 Date: 9-Nov-98 23:39 Meanwhile installment #4 - Wheeling Rivals Pittsburgh: During parts of the year, the lower water levels and obstructions of the loop of the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to Wheeling made navigation difficult for the flatboats. Once Wheeling had been reached, it was relatively free floating all the way to New Orleans. In the early 1790s, a cut-off trail below Pittsburgh leading to Wheeling was developed. A family could leave Braddock's Road at Union-town, Pennsylvania, then head Northwest to Brownsville. After crossing the Monongahela River, the trail led to the present-day town of Washington, and finally to Wheeling. (Today this is route US Highway 40). At first, this cut-off was no more than a path, suitable for pack teams only - but an important overland route to the Ohio River. But by 1796, the pack trail was improved to allow wagon traffic to pass. As a result of its location on the Ohio River and with this overland road access, Wheeling began to rival Pittsburgh as the "Gateway to the West". From Wheeling, the journey down river to Marietta and Rufas Putnam's land office was only a three to four day boat ride. Zane's Trace One of the first land grants on the Ohio River went to a man named Ebenezer Zane, considered the founder of Wheeling, Virginia (now WV). Zane had control of the land on both sides of the river and operated a ferry. With a virtual monopoly on ferry traffic at that point, he became a very prosperous man. Crossing the Ohio River from Wheeling gave access to an Indian trail into the interior of the Ohio country. Rufas Putnam's land holdings were nearby and the creation of the new US Military District, the Fed. Govt. saw the need for upgrading the trail to provide access to these newly opened lands. In 1796 Ebenezer Zane contracted with the Fed. Govt. to construct the first wagon road into the Ohio country. The road began at the Ohio River opposite wheeling, then moved West on the same route today as US Highway 40 (and Interstate 70) to the settlement at Zanesville, then southwest to Chillicothe, and south to the Ohio River again. A ferry ride across the Ohio River landed at Limestone, Kentucky (now Maysville), where a road connnection from Lexington to the Ohio River was already well-traveled in the 1790's. When Zanes Trace was first blazed, the dense forests of Ohio meant that road construction consisted of cutting the trees, leaving the stumps, and clearing out any underbrush to creat a "trace" of a road. The passing wagons tended to form two rows of ruts, which were often the only visible evidence of a road surface. Grading or leveling improvements were made only at places where is was impossible to pass by wagon. On Zane's Trace, travelers referred to a "stumped" wagon as one that had been highcentered on a stump or stuck between stumps - and the word is still used today (when we are "Stumped" over something) (maybe like lost families ??:)))- my note, sorry <g> Southern routes to the Ohio River, ca 1800: Head your wagon towards Lexington, Kentucky. From Virginia, Maryland, or Pennsylvania, take the Great Valley Road to the Cumberland Gap and the Wilderness Road to Lexington. From the Mississippi River, take the Natchez Trace to Nashville. From Knoxville, take the Nashville Road, then north to Lexington. From Lexington, go north to the Ohio River at Maysville and connect with Zane's Trace into the Ohio Country, or build a flatboar and float down the Ohio River. >From NJ or PA begin at Philadelphia, head west to Lancaster thence to Hagerstown in MD keep pointed west to Cumberland thence to Wheeling and on to the Zanes Trail. Get to Zanesville and decide where to go from there. (Looks pretty much to me like your choice was Chillicothe, OH then Limestone, KY where you could divert to Cincinnati or continue southwest to Lexington then Nashville). Next: "Appeal of the Ohio Country" --- >>Glenys Rasmussen<< http://www.sonic.net/~glenys/ >>"My home lies wide a thousand miles, In the Never-Never Land." (Henry Lawson)<<