The Cumberland Gap National Historical Park on the Kentucky/Tennessee border is a very interesting place to visit. Daniel Boone’s “Wilderness Trail” used to Cumberland Gap to do its final crossing of the Appalachians to get into and settle Kentucky.
And it has a barefoot connection.
[A repost.]
Many, many of the settlers walked the path barefoot.
They’d come down the Great Valley Road to Roanoke, and then the Wilderness Trail ran from there through the Cumberland Gap and finally up to Lexington.
We have a description from “The Journal of the Rev. Francis Asbury”, in his entry of October 14, 1803, while in Tennessee:
What a road we have passed! certainly the worst on the whole continent, even in the best weather; yet, bad as it was, there were four or five hundred crossing the rude hills whilst we were: I was powerfully struck with the consideration, that there were at least as many thousand emigrants annually from east to west: we must take care to send preachers after these people. We have made one thousand and eighty miles from Philadelphia; and now, was a detail of sufferings might I give, fatiguing to me to write, and perhaps to my friends to read! A man who is well mounted, will scorn to complain of the roads, when he sees men, women, and children, almost naked, paddling bare-foot and bare-legged along, or labouring up the rocky hills, whilst those who are best off have only a horse for two or three children to ride at once.
They’ve “restored” much of the Wilderness Trail in the park, even going so far as to remove the road that used to go over the Gap and replacing it with a tunnel. Here is a picture of the restored trail in the area:
Notice anything peculiar? Yup: crushed limestone gravel. I guarantee you that the trail in the late 1700s/early 1800s did not have crushed limestone gravel on it. (The Park Service did that because, as the Reverend pointed out above, the trail really did get horribly mucky in the rain.) It is rather disappointing that walking the trail these days really cannot be done comfortably barefoot.
They did make an homage to the barefooted travelers, though. At their entrance to the trail, they created an interesting concrete apron in which they deliberately embedded footprints evocative of all the people (and animals) who used the trail.
For instance, here you can see footprints of horses, dogs, barefoot children and barefoot adults:
Yes, some were even shod:
Inside the Visitor’s Center, they also have a historical display of the various users of that area. Their display regarding the Native Americans says:
This woman might have traveled from the Ohio River Vally as far south as the Gulf of Mexico to have obtained her shell beads and copper gorget. She and several people from her tribe would have spent weeks preparing cakes of salt, and drying tobacco and flowers to take to their southern trading partners. They would have returned with colorful bird feathers, shell, stones, reptile teeth, minerals, pelts, and herbs not available at home.
This picture is not particularly well-exposed, but what it shows is a transparent panel in front of that sign, and the Native American woman superimposed on the panel:
The woman is barefoot, as it likely that the Native Americans often were. Yes, they wore moccasins, but they also went barefoot quite a bit (particularly if it was wet, and particularly if it was not cold).
It was nice to see the National Park Service get that right.
You know it is interesting to think a lot of the things that ancient peoples traded are still desirable today. Handmade objects, pottery, beads, shells, rare feathers, and pretty stones – present them nicely and people will desire them.
Think how many people would love to have a (found on the ground rather than plucked) eagle feather or something made from pearl. In fact, one of the oldest and crudest resources we have ever used and traded is leather, fur pelts, and horn, yet these are associated now with wealth and high society. I really disapprove of animal-sourced resources (unless they are just found on the ground, like a single feather), but it is interesting to think about.