In a message dated 6/15/2008 9:22:08 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: Shirley, Thank you, What is the name of the book about the great wagon road that you mentioned? And that brings up another question. In about 1786 Hugh Gibbs is paid for guarding a group of people going to KY through the Cumberland Gap. But I would have thought it was easier to just float down the Ohio River and then over to Logan Co. Perhaps he went through the CG and then went and got his Mother and siblings. Stephanie The book is called "The Great Wagon Road." By a local historian who died just recently. Parke Rouse, Jr., formerly of Williamsburg. I have a copy but I think I've packaged it to send to Dawne at the Chestnut Ridge Historical Society. They are going to get copies of my material. The subject is so vast. For 2 hundred years, the colonies had been settled, parceled out to favorite "sons." The Mass. Colony, the throne, different loyal subjects of the throne. Virginia had a charter that granted it all the land that the other colonies didn't own at the time they were created, so Virginia was aggressive in surveying and claiming land. The Mason Dixon survey ended that idea and boundaries were established for Virginia and the other colonies. But migration from the Old Countries didn't stop when available land was gone. The old Braddock Road was created by Gen. Braddock and G. Washington's armies long before the Rev. They needed a way to transport troops and heavy artillery across the Alleghenies to the French territory at Fort Duquesne. When a Virginia woman was kidnapped by natives and taken to the north, she escaped and traveled back by the New River that crossed the mountains. She drew a detailed map for G. Washington. I forget her name, but I read her autobiography. The Youghiogheny River was another way to travel overland but had to bypass on land the falls and the white water in the mountains. Forbes Road was created across the mountains to Westmoreland Co., but water canals were also being built fairly early. Forbes Road crossed Chestnut Ridge in Westmoreland Co. It followed Indian trails, as well. That just barely touches on the migrations from the populous east to the dangerous west. So the later immigrants took those dangerous trails. Enterprising settlers made "lodging" places and those links became a roadway, like The Great Wagon Road. But again, the travelers found the best land taken, so they continued to move to lesser settled areas. Dangerous yes, but dying in a strange land of starvation with land all around them was more eminent. Once Fort Duquesne was taken from the French and their native allies, Pittsburgh was born and the great route to the interior of the country, the Ohio River, was available. The Ohio River is not a slow float. It can be a wild river with several rivers flowing into it from the north and east... Youghiogheny River eventually joins the Mononghelia River and that together with the Allegheny River creates the Ohio River in Pittsburgh. Even in my lifetime they flooded regularly, causing the Ohio River to flood across its banks. My husband's group lost 2 men to the River. Not only that, the natives held many places and they would attack the barges, sometimes so silently a child could die before the parents were aware of the attack. There was another danger not published as much, but not all the boaters were scrupulous and there was a danger from them to helpless travelers. So water travel held the same dangers as overland travel. The Cumberland Gap came fairly late in the eastern migration to the interior lands. I don't know as much about it, but when my husband and I drove down the mountain, it was the first time in my life I was terrified...and we'd driven the Alps in Italy, too. We've never been back that way. I wrote to Parke Rouse, Jr. before he died and asked his opinion why travelers would chose one route over another if the destination was the same? He agreed that sometimes a more difficult route was taken to make the group more cohesive by similar experiences. I can hardly imagine anyone from Fayette Co. (once a portion of Westmoreland Co.) not taking the Ohio River. (It settled in my mind that my HARDINGs were NOT from Fayette Co. but were from the eastern portion of PA. He wrote of overland travel, not water travel.) Or an eastern Pennsylvanian crossing the mountains to travel down the Ohio River when they could travel The Old Wagon Road to the Cumberland Gap. Questions you can think about when you think about GIBBS in KY and Cumberland Co. (Different place from the Cumberland Gap, of course.) And yes, men did frequently travel the route first to stake out land and then return to get their families. Sometimes they were able to persuade entire villages to travel with them. Sometimes, if you read the histories of the churches in America, you will see entire congregations moving across mountains and the experience molding them into a solid unit in another area. I also have a book, "The Christianizing of America," that gives solid history on the denominations and how they took "free" people--free from government, religion, and social mores in the new unsettled areas-- and created a Christian nation. That was written by Jon Butler and won awards for his history. Well worth purchasing, one of those few books I won't let go. Oh gee, I do go on. If there is anything specific I can help you with, I'll try, but you do need to study the history of migration before and after the Revolution. There are many maps available, some really simple showing "roads" but not particularly in conjunction with waterways. That is the perfect map, but it would be complicated. It can't show the shallows or the falls or the white water in the rivers, or the suddenly humongous sheer wall that has to be skirted or the fault that has to be scrambled up by sheer physical effort. Shirley and some of my husband's relatives died on the river crossing from KY to OH Territory. **************Vote for your city's best dining and nightlife. City's Best 2008. (http://citysbest.aol.com?ncid=aolacg00050000000102)