POSTED AT BETTY'S REQUEST. "bettyw" <bettyw@i-55.com> I keep seeing messages re: The Wilderness Road to Kentucky. I have tried a couple of times to reply to the list I guess it is, but keep getting the message that it is not in the right format. I don't have a clue as to what they are talking about, so I quite trying to post a reply. I was however able to get a message thru to you before, so I will try it this way again. Someone asked the question as to where the Road to Ky went thru Scott Co., Va. Well I can't for all of the places, but I can tell you part of it. The best I can get it from everything I have read is that it followed what was then called the Reedy Creek Road, which followed what is now called the Bloomingdale Road/Bloomingdale Pike. It runs SW I guess it is from Bristol, VA/TN to just on the western outskirts of Kingsport, TN. When you get to the community called Bloomingdale, there is a road that turns west or right off B-dale Pike called Wadlow Gap Rd. This road goes from Sullivan Co., Tn into Scott County, VA., which is just a couple of miles from the turnoff at B-Dale Pike and Wadlow Gap. The road crossed the N. Fork of the Holston River and comes out on the Hilton Hwy ( I guess it has a Rt #, but I don't know it off the top of my head.) You take a left on the Hilton's Hwy and just a 1/2 mile or so, runs into the Rd. from Kingsport, Tn that goes to Gate City, at what is called Moccasin Gap, Va. (There again, since I don't have a map in front of me, I don't remember the Rt #'s. So to get back to the Wilderness Rd. or Daniel Boone's Trail as some have called it, When you go down Wadlow Gap Rd, before you get to the Holston River, there is a road that crosses Wadlow Gap Rs, which is called E. Carters Valley Rd. (which is in Scott Co, Va). This Rd. run kinda of parallel to B-Dale Pike. It goes on down and crosses back into Sullivan Co., Tn and crosses the Hwy to Gate City (the one I mentioned above) a little farther to the east then the Hilton's Hwy. The Rd. then runs on into Hawkins Co., Tn. and on down. Now as you are coming down E. Carters Valley Rd., before you cross over Wadlow Gap Rd., there is a little dirt/gravel road that turns right or west and goes down into what we always referred to "the Holler". Just a little one lane rutty path almost. This road goes 2 or 3 miles and crosses the North Fork of the Holston River a few miles northwest of where the Wadlow Gap Rd. crosses. The only thing is you can't cross it by car. There is the remains of an old swinging bridge across the river there,( which is no longer safe to cross). Way back when, the swinging bridge was not there, but this is where Daniel Boone crossed the river and went on thru ti KY. After crossing the river there, the road went left and came back into Wadlow Gap Rd, on thru Moccassin Gap, right thru Gate City, Va and thru Duffield and on into KY. I am not exactly sure where it crossed into Ky from that point, but am pretty sure up to that point. The reason I know this is because I was born down that 'Holler" and some of my relatives lived there until about 11 or 12 years ago, when they sold their place and moved to Hiltons. The river was just a 1/4 of a mile or so from their house. At the top of the holler, there used to be a stone house that was referred to as the "Block House" I remember it when I was a kid. Some of my relatives lived in it for a while. The house has been burned down for many years, but the stone chimney still stands. Right beside the road near where the house stood, is a monument that says that was the way to Ky. It states that travelers would stop there and wait until enough travelers were assembled so that they could safely travel on into KY. I have pictures of this monument, that were taken close enough so that they can be read with the naked eye. When I get my scanner working, I will scan the picture and try to e-mail it too you. Feel free to share this with your subscribers and if you have any questions that I need to clear up, let me know and I will see if I can state a little differently. I was born down that 'holler' in Scott Co, Va but grew up in Bloomingdale, Sullivan Co., TN a few miles from there. My grandparents owned a old hilly farm down that holler and I spent a lot of my first 8 years there. I walked quite a few time from that holler across the hill to Bloomingdale with my grandma when I was little. Unless you lived in that area, one might not realize where that road is. Betty Bishop Willoughby bettyw@i-55.com -----Original Message----- From: Edgar A. Howard <ehoward@conknet.com> To: SW_VA-L@rootsweb.com <SW_VA-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Thursday, February 25, 1999 12:40 PM Subject: Re: The Wilderness Road to Kentucky <<From Abingdon (Wolf Hills), the road followed the trail known as Reedy Creek road to present Kingsport, Tenn.. I can look from the hill where I live and see part of that old road today..and I can walk through the woods and find places where the banks are eight or ten feet high where the pioneer wagons wore the earth away.>>> I wish this person would show me this path. We know where Reedy Creek road was in the Wallace and Wyndale area. It was Black Hollow road but did not run to Butt which is where Black Hollow meets Hwy 19. So where did it turn north toward Abingdon. I think it is near Garrett creek meets Black Hollow road. << When Judge Henderson of N.C. traded a bunch of junk to the Cherokees for land in Ky., he hired Daniel Boone to recruit men >> I read that is was a sizable amount of cash and then the Cherokee told them that the Shawnee would not respect the title. Which was true, the Shawnee killed many settlers. -eddie . . . get a life. Eternal Life! ==== SW_VA Mailing List ==== #1 When you have a new email address please UNSUBSCRIBE from the old BEFORE you lose it; and SUBCRIBE from the NEW address as soon as you get access to it. If you fail to do this please send the old and new address to: ehoward@conknet.com and the Mailing List name -sysop . . . get a life. Eternal Life!