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COLLIDING MONUMENTS Product Review Angle Points Vision to Design Traverse PC a Question of Ethics Lake Wobegon Trail FORKS of THE APRIL 2015 COLLIDING MONUMENTS Product Review Angle Points Vision to Design Traverse PC A question of ethics Lake Wobegon Trail FORKS OF THE Road to theThe Indiana Wilderness Buffalo Traces “So, today, we are blessed with a copy he 1770 Colonial of John Filson’s find a dotted line emanating north- Americans were eager westerly from the Cumberland Gap. to discover and open Map of Kentucky, As we follow this faint dotted line, we new lands west of come across these words: “Road to the the densely forested to view and be Wilderness.” It is on this Ancient Trace TAppalachian Mountains. For Surveyor enlightened by. that westward expansion of America and Mapmaker, John Filson, the oppor- ” took a foothold, literally one foot after tunities west of the Mountains, were another. Tantalizing images of the vast endless. After several months of exploring along the ancient unknown danced across the faces of the Colonial Readers as hoof packed Traces and long hours spent in the company of they studied this first Map of “Kentucke,” while reading Filson‘s men such as John Harrod, Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone, somewhat bigger than life stories of the great Daniel Boone. he now had the verbal geographic notes necessary to create Many, many, centuries have passed, since the glaciers his first map of Kentucky. The virgin forests and vast blue retreated to Canada. That event opened the Northwest Territory green grasslands west of the Cumberland Gap needed a map to to migration. Once these roaming bands of grazing animals and guide the impending onslaught of hungry immigrants coming their Human followers, began traversing the terrain north of the west along the “Road to the Wilderness.” With a map to guide Ohio River, they, through many retracements, established these them and a hero such as Daniel Boone to protect them, many first Footpath Trails. Eventually, the best way west or east, became families would pull up and head west. So, today, we are blessed forks in the overall route. If there were floods in Indiana, the herds with a copy of John Filson’s Map of Kentucky, to view and be moved north to shallow crossings of Silver Creek, then Falling enlightened by. On Filson’s map, in the lower right corner, we Run, then Little and Big Indian Creeks and Blue River. Some » D.J.RUCKMAN, PS Displayed with permission • The American Surveyor • April 2015 • Copyright 2015 Cheves Media • www.Amerisurv.com Road to the Wilderness Surveyor John Filson—1st map of Kentucky 1784. PERMISSION BY THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY. Displayed with permission • The American Surveyor • April 2015 • Copyright 2015 Cheves Media • www.Amerisurv.com years violent tornadoes ripped up the trees, jaggedly blocking the Forks. Once canopy trees were uprooted, briars took over forcing the travelers to find new forks to proceed on their way. Over that vast timeframe, millions of wild animals created the Forks of The Wilderness Road. The summer migrations pointed their noses to the westerly winds. They crossed over the Appalachians through the Cumberland Gap, meandered through the lush Bluegrass Region, and then instinctively they knew to bear towards the Great Stone Bridge at the Falls of the Ohio at present day Louisville. Thence, this cross-continent trace, (here called The Buffalo Road ), followed the limestone outcrop across the churning rapids, climbing the high banks of the Ohio River, crossing Silver Creek, thence splitting into numerous forks as it wound up the steep knob hill country through Clark, Floyd, Harrison, and Washington Counties in Indiana. These necessary forks of the trace come together at the beneficial French Lick Springs; thence continued westward to the shallow shoals and natural ford of the wild Ou-A-Batch-ee, (Wabash) River at the French J. Rufsell 1794 Map of Kentucky. Permission by The Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky. settlement of Vincennes; thence, nearly due west, across present day Illinois; thence, across the Mississippi, to the vast freedom of the grasslands. These facts are discoverable by studying Filson’s historic map, and a “If your Fork of the Trail meets the Footpath second map of Kentucky, Published in 1794, Criteria, and can be seen to continue for which clearly show the connection of the Wilderness Road and the Buffalo Road. long distances, then, indeed you may be Filson’s dotted line, indicating the “Road to the Wilderness,” gently winds northwest- traveling the very first Footpaths into your erly across the present State of Kentucky, neck of the Great Wilderness. meandering through the lush Bluegrass as ” it travels into Louisville along present day SR 60. At Louisville, this Kain-Tuck-ee resulted in multiple footpaths. One way not pick up on John Filson’s name for the Fork of The Wilderness Road crosses the to tell if you have found a portion of these Trace—The Road to the Wilderness. Instead, Ohio River Falls Limestone Bridge; but forks, is to walk it and observe whether you they simply called it the Buffalo Road. alas, here is where historians have missed are traveling the most direct and efficient In July 1805, Surveyor William Rector the broader truth of this Wilderness Road. way forward, navigating the ever changing was hired to Survey and Map the Buffalo The Southern Indiana portion of this 2000 terrain, by foot. If your Fork of the Trail Road from the west line of the Clarks Grant mile long TRACE was named the Buffalo meets the Footpath Criteria, and can be seen to the east line of the Vincennes Tract, as Road, as if it was a singular roadway, to continue for long distances, then, indeed recently laid out by George Washington’s which it is not. As a Boundary Surveyor, you may be traveling the very first Footpaths friend, the fearless Surveyor Thomas working mainly in Kentucky and Indiana, into your neck of the Great Wilderness. Freeman. Young and strong, Mr. Freeman I have found 7 forks of this “Road to the Indiana and the vast Northwest had marked the Vincennes line with Peace Wilderness,” winding up the steep Clark, Territory is “The Wilderness” noted on Trees. To create a Peace Line Tree, Freeman Floyd, Harrison, Washington County Knobs. Filson’s Map. The Ohio River Falls Natural and his Survey crew drove an iron wedge These many forks come together again at Stone Bridge is where the Kentucky into the heart of a young 8” or so diameter major stream and river crossings. Alternative Wilderness Road emptied into the “The tree, splitting the live tree about 5 feet above Forks were discovered by the ranging hard Indiana Buffalo Road.” They are portions the ground. Freeman then inserted a 4” by pressed animals, who knew that if they of a transcontinental migratory trace aptly 3’ log into the split tree, wherein the line were stopped, the Claws in the Night would named “Lan-An-Zo-Kee-Mo-Wee,” by the tree continued to grow around the inserted devour them; so onward they trekked which native Delaware tribal peoples. History did log creating this unique line marker. The Displayed with permission • The American Surveyor • April 2015 • Copyright 2015 Cheves Media • www.Amerisurv.com duty of Rector was to map all the twists and first clue that the Trace was not a singular- river fords. Standing below the fast flowing turns of the Trace, then strike a line running ity, but instead had many forks. Legendary spring at Beck’s Mill, I think back to the southeasterly from the Freeman Peace Tree Purdue Professor Kenneth Curtis was at days, wherein the ever thirsty herds, drank line of the Vincennes Tract to the Clarks that meeting and noted that his comparison their fill and lounged in the valley pastures. Grant, with the new line being at least one of the two sets of notes, also, did not agree Grazing to their hearts content, before half (½) mile north of the most northerly on a single path for this Trace—which had continuing on their way to the summer or turn of the Buffalo Road. No easy feat to led to speculation that one set of notes were winter pastures. The Trace is a two way accomplish, but Rector and his Compass incorrect as to the exact location of the road, going west to the Great Plains in the and Chain Survey Crew were able, after Trace. However, my findings of multiple spring and then returning east to the herd several months, to complete this new 10:00 forks dispel the notion that Rector’s original and tribe’s winter home in Kentucky and Greenville Treaty Line. Since Rector could Survey was inaccurate. The truth is that Tennessee. Millions of sore, tired hooves not survey all the forks up the steep knobs, both sets of notes do accurately show where and feet forever left their footprints behind. he simply picked a fork and stuck to it, the forks of the Trace are located. Many times over the past 45 years, I have thusly creating the illusion that the Buffalo How the buffalo and migrating herds stood alone on an abandoned portion of the Road (Wilderness Road) was a singularity. were able to go directly from the springs Trace, amid wild briar lands, old forest and Now, once Surveyed and marked, that at Greenville to the spring, at Beck’s Mill; new growth areas where there once were fork could be controlled and patrolled by thence directly to the springs at French productive farms. Silently I have paused the expanding Colonies, giving a bit of Lick, is an amazing feat of navigation from there, mainly to chart my next boundary false comfort to the buyers of this Indiana water hole to water hole.
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