Avery's Trace was the principal road used by settlers travelling from the Knoxville area in East Tennessee to the Nashville area from 1788 to the mid-1830s.
In an effort to encourage settlers to move west into the new territory of Tennessee, in 1787 North Carolina ordered a road to be cut to lead settlers into the Cumberland Settlements — from the south end of Clinch mountain (in East Tennessee) to French Lick (Nashville). Peter Avery, a hunter familiar with the area, directed the blazing of this trail through the wilderness.
He had the trail laid out along trails which the Cherokee Indians had long made their own and frequently used as war paths, following passages of buffalo. It led from Fort Southwest Point at Kingston through the Cumberland Mountains up into what is now Jackson County, Tennessee to Fort Blount. From there it worked through the hills and valleys of upper Middle Tennessee to Bledsoe's Fort at Castalian Springs, then to Mansker's Fort (near modern Goodlettsville), and finally to Fort Nashborough. These five forts provided shelter and protection for travelers along the Trace.
Read more about Avery's Trace: First Travelers On The Trace, Trace Passes Through Cherokee Land, Trace Widened To A Wagon Road, Families Travel To The "Promised Land", Notable Travelers On The Trace
Famous quotes containing the words avery and/or trace:
“Eh, what’s up Doc?”
—Tex Avery [Fred Avery] (1907–1980)
“Of moral purpose I see no trace in Nature. That is an article of exclusively human manufacture—and very much to our credit.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)