Avery's Trace - Families Travel To The "Promised Land"

Families Travel To The "Promised Land"

As rough and difficult as the road was, it was the major passage to the Cumberland Settlements. Lone travelers or pioneer families would load their possessions into wagons and meet fellow pioneers at the Clinch River. When the settlers had gathered, a militia detail joined them. They drive their horses across the Clinch River to start their journey into the unknown wilderness. Many believed they would reach a "promised land" at the end of their journey; many sought lands they had been granted for service to the new country. They faced a long and tortuous trail with many hazards.

Pioneers camped along the way, cooking over campfires and sleeping under the stars. As the days wore on, they were occasionally fortunate enough to find families living along the Trace who gave them shelter and food for themselves and their horses, but these were few and far between. One traveler recorded that "the houses are so far apart from each other that you seldom see more than two or three in a day." High prices were sometimes charged for any shelter or food. The land they traveled through was rich with beautiful hills and valleys full of canebrakes, giant trees and tangled vines. Many of those who made the journey described it as 300 miles (480 km) of wilderness — one inhabited by wolves, mountain lions, coyotes, deer and buffalo herds. Along the Trace, settlers turned off for their individual land grants. By the last fort, Fort Nashborough, often only the militia remained. The soldiers usually picked up another group of settlers going back East. A traveler reported that families were constantly moving in and out of the area, "back to whence they came or onward to other settlements."