The “Great Wagon Road” was an improved trail through the Great Appalachian Valley from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, and from there to Georgia. The heavily traveled Great Wagon Road was the primary route for the early settlement of the Southern United States.
The Great Wagon Road started near the port of Philadelphia and passed through the towns of Lancaster and York in southeastern Pennsylvania. Turning southwest, the road crossed the Potomac River and entered the Shenandoah Valley near Martinsburg, West Virginia.
It continued south in the valley via the Great Warriors’ Trail (also called the Indian Road), which was established by centuries of Indian travel over ancient trails created by migrating buffalo herds. The Shenandoah portion of the road is also known as the Valley Pike.
The Treaty of Lancaster in 1744 had established colonists’ rights to settle along the Indian Road. Although traffic on the road increased after the treaty, it was reduced from 1756 to 1763 due to the French and Indian War. After the war ended, it was said to be the most heavily traveled main road in America.
South of the Shenandoah Valley, the road reached the Roanoke River at the town of Big Lick (today, Roanoke). South of Roanoke, the Great Wagon Road was also called the Carolina Road. At Roanoke, a road forked southwest, leading into the upper New River Valley and on through Abingdon, Virginia to the Holston River in the upper Tennessee Valley.
After 1748, the Great Wagon Road passed from Roanoke through the Maggodee Gap to the east side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The road continued south through the Piedmont region.
It then passed through the present-day North Carolina towns of Winston-Salem, Salisbury, and Charlotte, and sites of earlier Indian settlements on the historic Indian Trading Path.
The Great Wagon Road ultimately reached Augusta Georgia, on the Savannah River, a distance of more than 800 miles from Philadelphia.
It was never an ideal route. Settlers, produce wagons and herds of livestock all used this route. Road conditions varied from deep mud to thick dust, mixed with animal waste. Obviously most travelers preferred high and dry roads, with periodic water sources…. But in colonial America, that was often not an option.
Sources
Wikipedia
ncpedia.org
legendsofamerica.com
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