Historic Highways of America

Volume 2: Indian Thoroughfares

A series of monographs on the History of America as portrayed in the evolution of its Highways of War, Commerce, and Social Expansion. Comprising the following volumes: Paths of the Mound-Building Indians and Great Game Animals. Indian Thoroughfares. Washington's Road: The First Chapter of the Old French War. Braddock's Road. The Old Glade (Forbes's) Road. Boone's Wilderness Road. Portage Paths: The Keys of the Continent. Military Roads of the Mississippi Basin. Waterways of Westward Expansion. The Cumberland Road. Pioneer Roads of America (two volumes). The Great American Canals (two volumes). The Future of Road-Making in America. THE brave missionaries in Canada called the Indian trails of the North "Roads of Iron" because they were so difficult to follow. Holland, writing of the famous Bay Path in Massachusetts, gave them the name "Threads of Soil." They were all that these names imply and much more. They opened a new continent to its explorers, conquerors, and pioneers. This monograph purposes to show the routes of the more important Indian thoroughfares of America, to suggest the importance of study of them, to prove that the courses can be identified and followed today, and to induce readers whom this subject may attract to do some work along these lines. To one who is imaginative the old days will come back: the trail and forest are again peopled, border armies hurry by, and the long stream of immigration floods the land.