The Wilderness road to Kentucky : its location and features . say about its difficulties. In Browns journal, for ex-ample, which is the most detailed and thoughtful account of theroad, not a complaint of it is given. In Calks picturesque recordthere are difficulties innumerable, but no complaints of them. Someparts of the road are spoken of as rough, but in no place is there asuggestion given that their passage was a particular hardship. Thatis not, of course, evidence in favor of tlie cliaracter of the road; it is,rather, evidence of the sturdy qualities of the men who traveledit. The great d
The Wilderness road to Kentucky : its location and features . say about its difficulties. In Browns journal, for ex-ample, which is the most detailed and thoughtful account of theroad, not a complaint of it is given. In Calks picturesque recordthere are difficulties innumerable, but no complaints of them. Someparts of the road are spoken of as rough, but in no place is there asuggestion given that their passage was a particular hardship. Thatis not, of course, evidence in favor of tlie cliaracter of the road; it is,rather, evidence of the sturdy qualities of the men who traveledit. The great difficulty of the journey was the danger of late as 1790 this was a menace. The travelers protected them-selves by waiting at the Block House, or Crab Orchard, until partiesof sufficient strength could Ije collected to defend themselves againstattack by wandering parties of Indians. They counted the strengthof these parties by the numl)er of guns in them. Thus Brown men-tions that his party set out from the Block House with l^ men and 2: ^^^t:W^ -. yL ^Wi!^-,v*^3*- r .* ^t^1^ The Wilderness Road approaching the old Ford along the bank of North Fork of Hoist on. River in left of pictnre The General Course and Features of the Road [69] 10 guns. Speed has published many advertisements from the Ken-tucky Gazette that parties would start from Crab Orchard to gothrough the wilderness on definite dates, and some of these advertise-ments exhorted the men to come armed. They evidently did not setmuch store on their traveling companions who were without guns. It is interesting to consider how rapidly the early pioneertravelers used to cover this route on foot. In 1774, before the Wilder-ness Road was marked out, Boone and Michael Stoner went from theClinch to the Falls of the Ohio and back, (about 700 miles,) on footin sixty-two days. Boones party in 1775 made the ^200 miles fromthe Block House to the site of Fort Estill in 15 days. William Brownrecords that it took him 7 davs
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Keywords: ., bookauthorpuseywil, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookyear1921
