Transportation
8
Before trucks and cars in the 1900s, before steam locomotives in the 1800s, and before long-hunters' packhorses in the 1700s, long-distance traffic crossed Cumberland Gap on foot in both directions. For no one knows how many centuries, Indians used a wide game trail to ascend this important pass. The first Englishman known to have walked over Cumberland Gap was backwoods trader Gabriel Arthur, a 1674 captive of the Shawnee. In 1750 Thomas Walker and in 1769 Daniel Boone explored Kentucky by following the already existing Warriors' Path north. One hundred miles to the south in the foothills of the Great Smokies lay the principal towns of the Cherokee, and one hundred fifty miles to the north, where the Scioto River joins the Ohio, lay the principal towns of the Shawnee. Bitter enemies over many generations, these two tribes regularly attacked each other. To reach the enemy's home ground, both Cherokee and Shawnee traveled one of the best-known long-range trails crossing the Appalachians. The Shawnee called the trail Athiamiowee, and English-speakers in the 1750s began calling it the Warriors' Path.
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Kentucky · United States
