Mocassin Gap/Johnson County
The road from Creal Springs enters Johnson County a little to the east of Lake of Egypt. There it turns southeast, running up the Shawnee Hills alongside Wagon Creek.
On the original survey plats, a short segment of the Lusk's Ferry Road is labeled in Section 19, T11S, R4E. This segment lines up with the Wagon Creek Road, and is pointed toward modern Reynoldsburg, three miles (5 km) southeast, which some sources cite as having been on the road. (The road is not, however, shown on the map at the location of Reynoldsburg.) The Shawnee summit is between the mapped segment and Reynoldsburg, so this area was probably once called Mocassin Gap. Modern U.S. Route 45 crosses this area, but perpendicular to the apparent route of the old road.
The short, mapped segment of the road between Wagon Creek and Reynoldsburg shows the road going down a steep grade to Sugar Creek. A high ridge lies between Sugar Creek and Reynoldsburg. From the top of the ridge, a modern road runs down to Mocassin Gap and Reynoldsburg. This is probably the route of the old road: except for the missing Sugar Creek crossing, there would be a modern road all the way from Creal Springs to Reynoldsburg.
Crossing the Sugar Creek valley and the ensuing ridge was probably very difficult. Having reached the ridge overlooking Sugar Creek, it would have been far easier to go southwest toward Tunnel Hill, circling around the watershed back east toward Reynoldsburg. A line of modern roads follows this route. Alternatively, it would have been much simpler to have gone in a zig zag from Creal Springs to New Burnside, through the gap along modern U.S. Route 45, and then back east to Reynoldsburg. The original route may be hard to spot in this area because it was abandoned early on for the simpler routes followed by the modern roads.
- TopoQuest, Sugar Creek
Read more about this topic: Lusk's Ferry Road
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