History of Skaggs Trace - TopicsExpress

History of Skaggs Trace The Skaggs Trace was a hunters trail leading from Flat Lick to the Dicks (now Dix River in Lincoln County. It was named for Henry or Richard Skaggs, who hunted in Kentucky as early as 1769. Skaggs Trace left the Warriors Path at Flat Lick in Knox County, Crossed Stinking Creek, and headed northwest along the west branch of Turkey Creek, almost as U.S. 25E does today. It passed north of present-day Barbourville, westward along Poplar Branch of Richland Creek, then northward across several western branches of the Middle Fork. It crossed Robinson Creek, passed Raccoon Spring, and reached Laurel River at happy Hollow Branch. The old trace went through what is now the Levi Jackson SMe Park and followed the Little Laurel River northward, passing what is now London to the east. From the headwaters of the Little Laurel River, it went to the headwaters of Hazel Patch Creek, down the creek to the Rockcastic River, down that river to Skeggs Creek, and up Skeggs Creek to the headwaters. From there it crossed over the Little Negro Creek, a branch of Dicks River and went down Dicks River to Crab Orchard and Stanford. This road was extended through Harrodsburg to Louisville by 1779. It is believed that more pioneer families used Skaggs Trace than Boones Trace when journeying to Kentucky. See Robert L. Kincaid, The Wilderness Road (Middlesborougk KY., 1966); Neat Hammon, Early Roads into Kentucky, Register 68 (April 1970):118-23. Neat 0. Hammon Long before the white man first came to the country now called Kentucky, many traces or trails were well known and used by the various tribes of Indians. In most cases these traces followed game trails beaten down by hundreds of years of use by the great herds of buffalo, elk and deer in their periodic travel from grazing areas to salt springs and from there to fresh water and back to grazing areas again. In addition these game herds made seasonal migrations from winter bedding grounds to spring and summer range, in each case visiting periodically the many salt springs which abounded throughout the area. These game trails and salt springs played an important role in the history of early settlement of eastern Kentucky, being used by both Indians and white hunters in search of meat as well as routes of travel. It is well known by those who have hunted big game or worked in the cattle country of the west that game such as deer and elk, as well as domestic or range cattle, have an instinctive ability to select the most favorable routes through difficult terrain for their travels from grass to salt to water and back to grass again. Many of our major cross-country highways of today, as well as less traveled routes, followed the route originally occupied by game trails or cow paths. It is said that many of the streets of Boston, Massachusetts were originally laid out by following cow paths. The Indians that traveled across Kentucky usually followed a series of game trails, shifting from one to another in order to keep their travel in the desired direction. This same procedure was followed by Daniel Boone and his companions on their first trip to Kentucky. They were able to travel nearly to the Rockcastle River by following game trails before they had to travel cross-country to reach the area they were headed for. While the more lightly forested areas of early Kentucky abounded in game trails, only a few had been connected and marked by Indians or white men in their travels across the country now included in the Daniel Boone National Forest. Probably one of the best known Indian trails of the North Carolina-Virginia frontier country was the Warriors Path. This ancient trail, used by all of the tribes in their north-south travel, started at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers where they join to form the Ohio River, and where the modern city of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania is located. It followed the Ohio south to the mouth of the Kanawha River, then up the Kanawha and along New River, cross the divide to the headwaters of the Clinch River, down the Clinch and across the divide to Powells Valley which it followed to Cumberland Gap. From Cumberland Gap Skaggs Trace turns north crossing the Cumberland River near the present city of Pineville, Kentucky and, continuing north through Flat Lick, it crossed the divide between the Cumberland River and the Kentucky River to the head of Goose Creek. Continuing slightly west of north, it followed down Goose Creek and, passing close to the present town of Manchester, Kentucky in Clay County, it proceeded northwest to the vicinity of Gray Hawk, Kentucky in Jackson County, where it crossed through Sand Gap to the headwaters of Station Camp Creek. Then Boone Trace following Station Camp Creek it crossed the Kentucky River near the present town of Irvine and, continuing west and north, crossed the Red River near its junction with the Kentucky, continuing north up Lulbegrud Creek to the vicinity of Es-kip-pa-kith-i-ki (Indian Old Fields). Just north of Indian Old Fields (which is about ten miles from Winchester, Kentucky) this famous trail forked, one branch turning northeast and, passing in the vicinity of the present day city of Mount Sterling, followed Slate Creek to its mouth where it crossed the Licking River near the present-day city of Portsmouth, Ohio. From that point, it continued up the Scioto River and on to Lake Erie. While one branch of this trail turned northeast at Es-kip-pa-kith-i-ki, the other branch continued north to the upper Blue Licks where it crossed the Licking River and continued in a northeast direction, crossing the Ohio at the mouth of Salt Lick Creek. Just before reaching the vicinity of the present day town of Flemingsburg, a third fork took off to the left and ran due north reaching the Ohio River at the mouth of Cabin Creek. Probably no single trail or road has played such an important role in the early settlement and development of that part of Kentucky in which lies the Daniel Boone National Forest Skaggs Trace. Used by all travelers acrossing that land now known as Kentucky. Most of the early hunters entering Kentucky by way of Cumberland Gap followed portions of it. In most cases, however, their destinations lay to the west of the country traversed by this famous trail where buffalo trails and hunters traces led to the west and the northwest. Even as late as the Civil War the terrain traversed by Skaggs Trace was recommended by a Union Army captain to Union General George W. Morgan, commander of Union forces at Cumberland Gap, as the most desirable route of his withdrawal from Cumberland Gap to the country north of the Ohio River. Many of the present-day highways of Kentucky had their beginnings long before men, either red or white, appeared on the scene. In many cases our present day roads follow the routes taken by buffalo to and from salt springs, cane patches and grazing areas for hundreds of years before man. These buffalo traces, broad and well trampled, followed with uncanny sureness the most favorable terrain for travel. For this reason these traces were often determining factors in the location of Indian villages, principal routes of cross-country travel and the early exploration and settlement of the state by the white pioneer. As the country developed, the pioneer improved these traces which were normally along ridges or high ground which was drier during winter and spring. For this reason it is possible that early roads on these locations were known as highways. Kentucky was a land of the buffalo. When Henry Skaggs first visited in 1764, herds of buffalo were everywhere. Travel was made easy by selecting a buffalo trace, running in the general direction. By following it through hazel thickets, cane breaks or forests, you were sure of a good travel route. The Long Hunters were quick to take advantage of this route. As early as 1779, the matter of building a highway to the west was studied by the Virginia Assembly. Boone Trace from Hazel Patch to the mouth of Otter Creek on the Kentucky River is one known pioneer trail that Daniel Boone can called his own. Initially it was located and marked in the spring of 1775, by Daniel Boone and a party of 20 experienced woodsmen, employed by Judge Richard Henderson of the Transylvania Company, for that purpose. Skaggs Trace was used to bring Boone’s party to Hazel Patch Ky, then Boone Trace was necessary to guide the settlers to the colony the Transylvania Company proposed to establish along the Kentucky River on land they had acquired through the illegal treaty with the Cherokee Indians. Beginning at Cumberland Gap the Skaggs Trace followed the ancient Warriors Path northward, crossing the Cumberland River at the present location of the city of Pineville and continuing in a northerly direction to Flat Lick. Here the Skaggs trace left the Warriors Path and followed a buffalo trail, previously marked and used by Skaggs Long Hunters, which lead to the northwest. Skaggs Trace continued in this direction crossing the Laurel and Little Laurel rivers, through the site of the present city of London, to a large area covered with a dense growth of hazel which soon became a landmark on the trace for the many thousands of people who traveled it. This area, called the Hazel Patch, still is known by that name to this day. Continuing across the Rockcastle River near the mouth of Roundstone Creek, Skaggs Trace followed a stream called Skaggs Creek, to its headwaters where it crossed through a low gap from the watershed of the Cumberland River to the watershed of the Kentucky River. Skaggs Trace was little more than a marked line through the wilderness. Its tread was rough and narrow, and marked by Skaggs Long Hunters blazes on trees. It was suitable for travel only by saddle horses, packhorses and on foot. Even for the strong, the trip was exhausting as well as hazardous. An item in the Kentucky Gazette, published in Lexington on November 1, 1783, states, A large company will meet at the Crab Orchard on the 19th of November in order to start the next day through the wilderness. It is very dangerous on account of the Indians and it is hoped that each person will go well armed. The marking of the Skaggs Trace was completed on April 1, 1775. For the next 21 years this trace was to be the only route of travel between Cumberland Gap and the Bluegrass of Kentucky. It is estimated that at the height of the influx of settlers following the Revolution, at least 20,000 prospective settlers travelled this trace in a 12 month period. Judge Richard Henderson, head of the Transylvania Company, with a party of about 40, later followed Skaggs Trace along the newly marked trace by about three weeks. Accompanying Judge Hendersons party were Benjamin Logan and William Gillespie, together with several slaves, who had joined the caravan at Powells Valley for protection on the trip to Kentucky. When the party arrived at the Hazel Patch, the Boone Trace continued to the north. At this point a Skaggs Trace, which Boone and Stoner had taken the previous year enroute to the Falls of the Ohio, lead to the west. Logan and Gillespie and their slaves left the Henderson party at this point and proceeded on the western trace to a point near the present day town of Stanford, Kentucky, where they established a station and grew a crop of corn in the summer of 1775. This station became known as Logans Fort. Later the name was changed to St. Asaphs. The hunter trail that these men followed from the Hazel Patch was later known as Skaggs Trace in honor of one of the long-hunters who established it Henry Skaggs and his brothers. From the beginning the danger from Indian attack was always present for travelers of the Skaggs Trace. Colonel William Whitley, who had built the first brick house in Kentucky five miles west of Crab Orchard and had named it Sportsman Hill, made repeated attempts to protect the travelers on the Skaggs Trace and to apprehend parties of Indians who attacked them. In October of 1784, Colonel Whitley received word that a party had been attacked on the SkaggsTrace at the head of Skaggs Creek and that a number had been killed and women and children taken prisoner. Colonel Whitley and 21 riflemen hurried to the scene to find six scalped and mangled bodies. After burying them they took the trail of the Indians. After a day and night of hard riding they came upon the Indians in camp wearing some of the clothes taken from the white victims. Taken by surprise two Indians were killed at the first fire, the rest scattering in the woods. A Mrs. McClure, her baby, and a black woman were rescued. Mrs. McClure told them that the Indians had attacked their camp at night. She and her four children hid in the woods. The baby cried allowing the Indians to find them. They killed and scalped the three older children and took her and the baby prisoner. They had forced her to cook a meal for them in spite of the fresh scalps of her children stretched on hoops to dry. Colonel Whitley took the victims back to Sportsman Hill where Mrs. McClure was eventually united with her husband who had escaped in the darkness. Actions like this were common along the Skaggs Trace. In another case, Whitley and his men followed a party of Chickamauga Indians into Tennessee after an attack. He eventually caught them and recovered 28 stolen horses, a large amount of stolen goods, $50 in cash and eight fresh scalps. No white captives were found. For many years parties of renegade Cherokee and Chicamauga Indians lurked along Skaggs Trace, attacking small parties of travellers, but avoiding parties large enough to defend themselves. One of the major massacres on the Skaggs Trace took place on the night of October 3, 1786. A party of 30 travelers on their way to Fort Boonesborough camped for the night at a spring in what is now the Levi Jackson Wilderness Road State Park near London, Kentucky. The leaders were the prominent McNitt, Ford and Barnes families and their servants from Virginia. During the night a band of Chicamauga Indians attacked the camp, killed and scalped 21 persons, took five women prisoner and carried away all horses, cattle, and household goods. Items they did not carry off they destroyed. Pillows and bedticks were torn open and the feathers scattered over the ground. It is told that one woman hid herself in a hollow tree during the attack and, while hidden there, gave birth to a child. They were found the next day and taken to the settlement where she was reunited with her husband who had escaped the attack. At that time Colonel Whitley was absent from his home on a trip to Virginia, and the Indians were not followed. On March 21, 1793, Thomas Ross, the first mail carrier over the postal route established in the fall of 1792, was following the route from Holston to Danville, Kentucky, accompanied by two other men. They were fired on at the crossing of Little Laurel River but were not hit. After riding hard about a quarter of a mile they ran into a large ambush. Ross was killed and the other two wounded. Captain John Wilkinson and 13 militia men went to the scene and found Rosss body, cut into strips and hung on bushes. They gathered the remains and buried them by the roadside. Five days later, on March 26, 1793, Colonel Whitley received word of another massacre on the Skaggs Trace, five miles south of the Hazel Patch. With a company of rangers he hurried to the scene where a party consisting of nine men, two women and eight children, led by James McFarland, had been ambushed as they were riding along the Trace. The men had dismounted and, in close formation, returned the fire of the Indians holding the attackers off for about 15 minutes. After that the attacking Indians had moved in and killed or made prisoners of all of the party but four. Colonel Whitley tracked the Indians to their camp, scattered them and rescued a little girl and recovered much of the stolen goods. By the spring of 1774, the Chickmaugas ambushed a party traveling Skaggs Trace at Richland Creek, killing two Baptist preachers and two ministers of the Dunkard Order. They were found next day by another party who buried them beside Skaggs Trace. Colonel Whitley at last determined to end these many attacks on travelers on the Boone and Skaggs Traces. Recruiting a force of over 500 men he moved into the Tennessee country and took by surprise the Indian towns of Nickajack and Running Water, burning both towns and killing 52 warriors as well as taking prisoner 19 squaws and children, with a loss to his own forces of one killed and a few wounded. This attack pretty much put an end to the murders along the Boone Trace which, from that time forward, was comparatively safe for travel. Throughout the early history of Kentucky, particularly that having any reference to travel from Cumberland Gap to the Bluegrass on SkaggsTrace, Mention of Woods Block House. The best description of Woods Block House is offered by an article in The Sentinel-Echo, a newspaper of London, Kentucky, under date of August 20, 1942. The article was written by Russell Dyche, owner and editor of that newspaper and long a student of the early history of eastern Kentucky. Editor Dyches statement on Woods Block House follows, The first building, certainly the first permanent building, in Laurel County, Kentucky was the Woods Block House at The Hazel Patch, which was erected beside Hazel Patch Creek about a half-mile above the present US-25. It was also the first shelter intended to be permanent in the vast wilderness between the new and the old settlements. It was at the junction of the Boone Trace, from Cumberland Gap to Boonesborough, and the Skaggs Trace, to the Crab Orchard, an outpost in the new settlement. According to the log of John Filson, who made the trip in 1784, the distance from the Hazel Patch to Cumberland Gap was 62 miles and to Crab Orchard 38 miles. Combining Filsons measurements with distances recorded by Bishop Asbury on his trip to Madison Courthouse in 1790, gives us 85 miles to Boonesborough, which possibly is 15 miles more than it should have been. The road seemed long to Bishop Asbury. Charles Robert Baugh, in an article on McFarlands Defeat, published in the Lexington Herald, January 20, 1907, mentiones the Woods Block House. As authority, he gives his own grandmother who was born nearby on the Wilderness Road in 1807, and other old people he had known in his youth. Says Baugh, There was no living person in (what is now) Laurel County and probably none in the territory between Cumberland Gap and Fort Estill in Madison County, except one lone man living in a block house on Hazel Patch Creek beside the Trace. He was called John Woods, but it was said that his real name was a long German one and that he had adopted the name Woods for the convenience of his friends. Just why Woods lived alone so far from the other settlements I am unable to say, but it may be that he was put there by one Ramey who owned a large body of land in that section under a survey made in 1785. This is said to have been the same John Woods who was surveyor in Laurel County after it was established in 1825; and in the first assessment of Laurel County (Commissioners Book 1827) is listed John Woods, Sr., who had 1,000 acres of land on the waters of Rockcastle River, and John Woods, Jr., who listed himself and one horse. William Chenault, in his Early History of Madison County, published in the Register of Kentucky Historical Society, April, 1932, relates, Archy Woods, Sr., and his brother John in 1784, established Woods Station on Dreaming Creek near Richmond. Bishop Asbury in his Journal reported how, We then pushed through Little and Big Laurel to the Hazel Patch, Hoods Station . . . . . (lapse in text). This undoubtedly was Woods Block House, maybe a typographical error or maybe the Bishop couldnt understand the mans German. This was Wednesday, April 10, 1793. It is possible that Bishop Asbury also visited this same place one year earlier, Tuesday, April 3, 1792 when he says, After crossing the Laurel River, which we were compelled to swim, we came to Rockcastle Station, where we found such a set of sinners as made it next to hell itself. Our corn here cost us a dollar per bushel. The next morning Bishop Asbury says he, Swam Rockcastle River and the West Fork thereof. So the two locations could not have been far apart, and if they were different the Woods Block House was probably built between the two trips. In 1793, Bishop Asbury mentions, The deserted station, which possibly was the Rockcastle Station of 1792 . . . . . (portion of news article omitted). The site of Woods Block House has been definitely located by several of the older citizens of that section who in their youth played among its tumbled down logs. Large quantities of stone used in its construction may still be seen there. It has been appropriately marked by one of the twenty native stone monuments erected by the Laurel County, Kentucky Sesquicentennial Committee, and the monument carried carved in stone, legends of the more important events mentioned in this brief article. Though located in the heart of the Daniel Boone National Forest, the site of Woods Block House still remains in private ownership. During the last 20 years several attempts have been made to acquire this piece of land with the objective of establishing it as a historic site, reconstructing Woods Block House and possibly rebuilding a portion of the Boone Trace in either direction as an attraction for visitors to the national forest to give them the feel of the old Boone Trace. The site of Woods Block House is marked by a large stone set there in 1941 by the Kentucky Historical Society. This stone, frequently referred to as the Hazel Patch Marker, is located eight miles north of London, in Laurel County, Kentucky on Hazel Patch Creek. The carving on this stone reads, Woods Block House, The Hazel Patch 1796, Skaggs Trace — 1795, 1775 — Boone Trace — 1795, and Bishop Francis Asbury lodged here April 10, 1793. This stone is still in place and should be one of the historic spots in the Daniel Boone National Forest. It was at this point that Skaggs Trace took off to the west from the Boone Trace and lead to the Crab Orchard, to Logans Fort and eventually clear to the Falls of the Ohio. When Governor Isaac Shelby took office as Kentuckys first governor on June 4, 1792, he was fully aware of the need of a good route of transportation linking the new Commonwealth of Kentucky with the states east of the mountains.Over this narrow trail had poured more than 70,000 people, eager for the new lands of Kentucky. Each year brought an increasing number of settlers to claim their share of the promised land. Clearly the road which served it must be made into a highway capable of vehicular travel. Governor Shelby passed-the-hat among his friends, starting the fund with his own pledge of three pounds. Judge Harry Innes and Colonel Levi Todd were named treasurers of this fund with Colonel John Logan and Colonel James Knox commissioned to direct and supervise the work. Logan was elected to keep the account book while Knox recruited the workmen and directed the work. For 21 days Logan and Knox worked their crews on the road between Crab Orchard and Cumberland Gap trimming, widening and rerouting in an effort to shorten the distance. At the finish of the work the gash through the forest looked fresh and clean but not much improvement in the trafficability of the route had been achieved. In November 1795, Governor Shelby approved a legislature act which recognized that it was the interest of the Commonwealth to construct a good wagon road to Virginia. The summer of 1796, was occupied by Knox and Crockett in implementing the act and getting the work underway. The appropriation of 2,000 pounds was little enough to finance the construction of a road, such as was specified in the act, from Crab Orchard to Cumberland Gap, a distance of nearly 100 miles through virgin forests, over rough and rocky terrain and across many creeks and rivers subject to periodic flooding. It was apparent that the route would have to be selected carefully. Where the Boone Trace had been laid out for foot and horse travel, and in many cases followed a buffalo trace or a hunters path, the new route must be selected for wheeled vehicle travel with careful consideration given to soil stability and drainage, to grade and to stream crossings suitable for bridging or for fording with wagons or carriages. The surveyors laying out the new road changed the route materially in many places from that taken by the Boone Trace. From the beginning point at Crab Orchard to the Hazel Patch the new route passed to the north of the original Skaggs Trace and through the site of the present towns of Brodhead, Mount Vernon and Livingston. At the Hazel Patch it crossed the creek some five miles below the junction of the Boone Trace and Skaggs Trace at Woods Block House and did not join the original Skaggs Trace until it reached the site of the present city of London, where it crossed to the east of the original route and did not again approach the Boone Trace, until it rejoined it at Flat Lick to the eastern terminus of the new road at Cumberland Gap. This new road was now the true Wilderness Road. Throughout the writings of the early settlement of Kentucky, the Boone Trace and the Skaggs Trace are often confused. These were two separate routes that were used at different periods of history and were traveled by different types of transportation. The Boone Trace was a footpath and horse trail marked by Daniel Boone and his woodsmen for people to travel on foot, on horseback and to carry supplies on packhorses. From Martins Station in Powells Valley, travel by wheeled vehicles on the Boone Trace was impossible. You will remember that Judge Henderson and his party started from Sycamore Shoals with much of their equipment and supplies for founding the new colony on heavily loaded wagons. On reaching Powells Valley they had to build shelters for their wagons, store a part of their cargo and pack the rest on horses for the journey to Boonesborough. This situation continued for 21 years, 1775-1796. In addition the terminus of the two routes differed. Skaggs Trace began at Cumberland Gap but at Hazel Patch Boone Trace went to Fort Boonesborough. The western way Skaggs Trace went toward Crab Orchard. The period of use of the Boone Trace was 1775-1796, while that of Skaggs Trace 1769 -1796. After 1796 Skaggs Trace was called the Wilderness Road and has continued to the present time. With the completion of the new road by Knox and Crockett, it became officially named The Wilderness Road and was so named to the public by an announcement in the Kentucky Gazette of October 15, 1796 which read, THE WILDERNESS ROAD from Cumberland Gap to the settlements in Kentucky is now completed. Waggons loaded with a ton weight, may pass with ease, with four good horses, — Travellers will find no difficulty in procuring such necessaries as they stand in need of on the road; and the abundant crop now growing in Kentucky, will afford the emigrants a certainty of being supplied with every necessary of life on the most convenient terms. Joseph Crockett, James Knox, Commissioners. It is known that more pioneer families used Skaggs Trace than Boones Trace when journeying to Kentucky. See Robert L. Kincaid, The Wilderness Road (Middlesborougk KY., 1966); Neat Hammon, Early Roads into Kentucky, Register 68 (April 1970):118-23. Neat 0. Hammon.