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RetracingGreat Indian Trading Path
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<br /> By TOM FOWLER
<br /> Guest columnist ;* 4 '• — i:' t ': IF
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<br /> m S i " y ' •�.Y. t ,�r y 0
<br /> n a War unny morning in }. i
<br /> ONovember, I leave my home inIF
<br /> IF
<br /> Durham d y r ?- µper ;an drive out of town in search r I,t _ ; ' . % ti:
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<br /> of the Great Indian Trading Path F ^< , �' ' x- ,+ i%;
<br /> I cross the Eno River at Hillsborough :�r �.
<br /> and pass the reconstructed Indian ''r > 4 ?'l , 'i ''
<br /> r ., l: - 9 t S3�
<br /> village of Occaneechi. West of town, I I c '' < ! ;•A
<br /> cross back over the Eno and glance upu-'; �' C
<br /> river. I spot the railroad bridge ` f"6 < { r ? ` : i ¢�
<br /> spanning the water just beyond the sitefill �' ' . ;, 1`
<br /> of an old ford, Once over the bridge, ;a � - 'r � .
<br /> Where the road bends slightly to the d� ° „ • t ' ! 1 N
<br /> right, I drive onto the Great Indian ^ t'` , 1
<br /> Trading Path t . '
<br /> My plan is ' ` z: �O
<br /> GUEST to follow the '�" ' w� .. s., ' 4 O
<br /> COLUMNIST path 90 miles is
<br /> or so to the
<br /> famous 3`£ .t
<br /> trading ford on the Yadkin River near -" � ; ,
<br /> Salisbury, Three hundred years ago, in :i. ►r: .' '
<br /> February of 1701, John Lawson took ,A itIF
<br /> about a week to cover this same route 1 IF
<br /> . 0"F
<br /> on foot, I hope to make it to the ford in
<br /> time for a late lunch,
<br /> The Great Indian Trading Path HERALD SUN FILE PHOTOJBILL WILLCM
<br /> connected the area of Virginia near Tom Magnuson looks at a berm along a major east-west Colonial era trail route
<br /> present-day Petersburg with the near the Ben Johnson Dam outside Hillsborough last September, The depression
<br /> Catawba Indian lands near present- where he Is standing was created from the indentation of thousands of wagon IF I
<br /> day Charlotte. wheels passing through , Magnuson started the Trade Path Association to create if
<br /> Used by the native population long before the appearance of Europeans, a hiking trail along the trade route. IFearly maps show the path crossing the
<br /> Yadkin and then cutting across Piedmont rivers before the advent of =" c " `', T r= IF F
<br /> present-day Davidson, Randolph, bridges.
<br /> Guilford, Alamance and Orange Find the fords, and you'll find the _ . ., ;; ; r : _;,, ... ,, ,; ';Fir : : .
<br /> counties. A teen aged Daniel Boone footpaths, Find the footpaths, and i- A Yemnantof iha Great IndFitian 7radmg iIF 41 .
<br /> probably walked the path with his You'll find the villages, Magnuson Path can_be seen along a section, of the , i _
<br /> parents in 1750 when the Boone family says. ; ?l?oets .Walk, at Ayr Mount Historio:Slte, 376r ; IF t'1'I
<br /> moved down from Pennsylvania to From Alamance, I drive N.C. 62 to , St .Marys . Roed;in liilisboroitgit : . - ; ; _:',
<br /> lkO
<br /> make a new home on the forks of the Julian. This road also may follow the KF;�'At= more lnfdtmatibn, about the trading ; I ':� C7
<br /> Yadkin, course of the path, Old roadbeds in the path.end related. matters; 6tieck outlti`e' _F, _
<br /> George Washington traveled on a woods crisscross the right of way of Ireding'Nth, Preservation AsSi6d , ion!Neb D
<br /> part of the path during his Southern N.C. 62, Driving through Julian, I find 4.� srteat+vwjviraadinjp6th,&A or read lofin ', ':j=; "p
<br /> tour in 1791. The path continued to be myself on a secondary road that, Lawsori's "A:New Voyage to Carolina" {L1NC ! (T7
<br /> heavily used into the 19th century. according to the road sign, is named c Press. 1967 'oiigitraflyputilistied 1Z09):1 ; : r
<br /> Interstate 85 and various other "Colonial Trading Path." It may not "` l "" -`T _ _
<br /> roads; farms and towns have obscured satisfy a historian, but I feel I'm on whereon stands the Indian Town and
<br /> much of the path. The small country the right path. Fort. . . . This most pleasant River may r
<br /> roads to the south of and parallel to I- I follow New Salem Road into be something broader than the _
<br /> 85 were probably built directly on top, Randolph County. A trading path Thames h Kingston, keeping a I Tl
<br /> or just to one side, of the trading path, scholar from the 1950s, Douglas continual Yings t n, keep Noise F .
<br /> M
<br /> I stare into Rights, p g
<br /> the woods I still marvel at the surr val of believed with its reverberating on the bright
<br /> on either Marble Rocks, It is beautified with a -
<br /> side of the thefragments of the path's old traveled numerous Train of Swans, and other
<br /> road For roadbed that I found and I Iaope through thous h extraordina of ry
<br /> not common,
<br /> signs of the Randolph g ry Pleasing to the
<br /> old County's Eye'"
<br /> roadbed there• are many more remnants for I travel east on Long Ferry Road
<br /> Caraway and turn left on Dukeville Road. At
<br /> but see Magnuson to locate and preserve. Mountains the end of this road is the Yadkin and
<br /> nothing& and that the trading ford. Although the
<br /> Churches Keyauwoe backwater of High Rock Lake now of
<br /> often were covers the ford the islands in the
<br /> built along the trading path, and an old where Lawson spent a night in 1701, Yadkin River that made up a part of
<br /> cemetery may be a clue as to the probably had its name transformed the ford are visible in dry seasons. ItIF
<br /> location of the path. into Caraway over the centuries. has been dry this fall, so I amF.
<br /> I stop at the church at Hawfields. In Driving down Flint Hill Road optimistic.
<br /> the woods adjoining the old cemetery, through the Caraway Mountains, I d is the road
<br /> But at the end of the
<br /> at the edge of a plowed field, I find a turn onto U.S. 64 and immediately large and imposing he roa Ile power
<br /> broad, deep depression in the land. It cross Caraway Creek. Archaeologists ng'and a
<br /> parki station with visitor
<br /> runs straight down a slight incline, have located the site of an Indian chain link fence between parki the parking
<br /> about 20 feet across and about 5 feet village in the bottom lands of Caraway lot and the river. I park, find a gate in
<br /> below the level of the surrounding Creek that they believe is Lawson's the fence and a short trail down to the
<br /> land. The forest has grown up in the Keyauwee 1bwn, Yadkin, L can see the islands across
<br /> road bed. I am standing in a remnant I cross the Uhwarrie River on U.S. the still water in the mid-afternoon
<br /> of the trading path. 64, Somewhere nearby is the trading sunlight. I am standing close by the
<br /> Driving along country roads that paths ford across the Uhwarrie — famous trading ford near where
<br /> approximate the route of the path, in probably identifiable even today. I Lawson must have lingered where
<br /> years
<br /> the small village of Alamance, I spot a soon turn off U.S. 64 following roads
<br /> historical marker that reads: "Trading that head due west, agog ths old
<br /> ish 1 could see the pa '
<br /> Path: Colonial trading route, dating High Rock Lake now covers the roadbed angling down to a of
<br /> from 17th century, from Petersburg, section of the Yadkin before me so I ew
<br /> flowing and reyerberating Yadkin, but
<br /> Virginia to Catawba and Waxhaw turn northwest, away from the path, to I'm content with what I have seen onIF
<br /> Indians in Carolina passed nearby." find a crossing, my days travel. ' '
<br /> Indeed, the path is nearby. Earlier iFill
<br /> n I join Interstate 85 for a stretch nied historian Tom before I exit on U.S. 70 just before I still marvel at the survival of the
<br /> Magnuson on the fall, I accomp bli hike he guided crossing the Yadkin. On the far side of fragments of the path's old roadbed
<br /> along a section of the path that still the river, another historical marker that I found, and I hope there are
<br /> exists south of Great Alamance Creek, proclaims: "Trading Ford: On famous many more remnants for Magnuson to
<br /> On this hike, our group followed the trading path used by Indians and early locate and preserve.
<br /> Some day soon, maybe I can help
<br /> well defined road bed, forested over settlers. There Greene retreating search for the trading path's fords
<br /> with secondary growth, for almost a from Cornwallis crossed on Feb, 2, over the Uhwarrie, Rocky and Haw
<br /> mile to a ford of the creek. 1781. East 1 mi.
<br /> Magnuson, of the Trading Patti In early February of 1701, Lawson rivers,
<br /> Preservation Association, told us stayed several days at Sapona, the 7bm Fowler is a member of the 71•ading
<br /> about his study of the path and efforts Indian town at the trading ford. Path Organization and has been working
<br /> to preserve its heritage. Locating the Calling the Yadkin the Sapona River, with 7bm Magnuson in preparationfor a
<br /> remnants of the path often depends on he described the locale as follows: re-enactment hike on Feb. 17. He is a hike
<br /> discovering the river fords that "1W�e reach'd the fertile and leader with the Eno River Association
<br /> provided the only passage across ^ pleasant Banks of Sapona River, ut and grew in Chapel HiII. He now Byes
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