Historic Highways of America Volume VII Part 2

"As soon as circ.u.mstances will admit, the posts contemplated at Picque town, Lormie's stores, and at the old Tawa towns, at the head of navigation, on Au Glaize river, will be established for the reception, and as the deposites, for stores and supplies, by water carriage, which is now determined to be perfectly practicable, in proper season; I am, therefore, decidedly of opinion, that _this_ route ought to be totally abandoned, and _that_ adopted, as the most economical, sure, and certain mode of supplying those important posts, at Grand Glaize and the Miami villages, and to facilitate an effective operation towards the _Detroit_ and Sandusky, should that measure eventually be found necessary; add to this, that it would afford a much better chain for the general protection of the frontiers, which, with a block house at the landing place, on the _Wabash_, eight miles southwest of the post at the Miami villages, [southern end of the Maumee-Wabash portage path on Little River] would give us possession of all the portages between the heads of the navigable waters of the Gulfs of Mexico and St. Lawrence, and serve as a barrier between the different tribes of Indians...."[28] In the treaty of Greenville, signed by the confederated nations and the United States authorities, the reserved tracts indicate the line of policy previously suggested by General Wayne, and the following section emphasizes the strategic meaning of the portages of the interior of the West: "And the said Indian tribes will allow to the people of the United States, a free pa.s.sage by land and by water, as one and the other shall be found convenient, through their country, along the chain of posts hereinbefore mentioned; that is to say, from the commencement of the portage aforesaid, at or near Loramie's store, thence, along said portage to the St. Mary's, and down the same to fort Wayne, and then down the Miami to lake Erie; again, from the commencement of the portage at or near Loramie's store, along the portage; from thence to the river Auglaize, and down the same to its junction with the Miami at fort Defiance; again, from the commencement of the portage aforesaid, to Sandusky river and down the same to Sandusky bay and lake Erie, and from Sandusky to the post which shall be taken at or near the foot of the rapids of the Miami of the lake; and from thence to Detroit. Again, from the mouth of Chicago, to the commencement of the portage between that river and the Illinois, and down the Illinois river to the Mississippi; also, from fort Wayne, along the portage foresaid, which leads to the Wabash and then down the Wabash to the Ohio."[29]

As a site for forts the old portage paths came to take an important place in the social order of things. In many parts settlements were safe only within the immediate vicinity of a fort. Often they were safe only within the palisade walls of upright logs;[30] and around these interior fortresses the first lands were cleared and the first grain sowed. They were trading posts as well as forts--indeed many of the portage forts were originally only armed trading stations located at the portages because these were common routes of travel. Around them the Indians raised their huts when the semi-annual hunting seasons were over. Thus on the portage, settlements sprang up about the forts to which the military regime had no objection--though such settlements were discouraged equally by those devoted to the earliest fur trade and to missionary expansion.[31] But military officers found their one hope of retaining the land lay in allying the Indians firmly with them. The attempts of the French so to s.h.i.+ft the seats of the Indian tribes in the West that the English could not trade with them or deflect them from French interest forms an interesting chapter in the early rivalry for Indian support.[32] This never appeared more acute than at Fort Duquesne in 1758 when Forbes's army was approaching and the brave missionary Post was among the Delawares urging them to leave the region about the fort and abandon the French.

These portage forts being, oftentimes, half-way places, were convenient points for conventions and treaties. The Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768) was one of the most important in our national history; other conventions, such as at Fort Watauga (1775), Fort Miami (1791), Greenville (1795), and Portage des Sioux (1815), are instances of important conventions meeting at half-way fortresses on or near the portage pa.s.sageways.

When the pioneer era of expansion dawned, these worn paths, in many cases, became filled with the eager throngs hastening westward to occupy the empire beyond the mountains. The roads the armies had cut during the era of military conquest became the main lines of the expansive movement and only the waterways which gave access to the Ohio River or the Great Lakes were of great importance. The two important roadways which served as portages were the Genesee Road from the Mohawk to Buffalo, and Braddock's Road from Alexandria, Virginia to Brownsville (Redstone Old Fort), Pennsylvania. The heavier freight of later days tended to lengthen the old portages, as each terminus had to be located at a depth of water which would float many hundred-weight. But, as in the old days of canoes, the stage of water still determined the length of portage.

Freight sent over the Alleghenies for the lower Ohio River ports of Indiana and Kentucky was s.h.i.+pped at Brownsville if the Monongahela contained a good stage of water; if not, the wagons continued onward to Wheeling with their loads. Old residents at such points as Rome, New York; Watertown, Pennsylvania; Akron, Ohio; Fort Wayne, Indiana remember vividly the pioneer day of the portages when barrels of salt and flour, every known implement of iron, mill stones, jugs and barrels of liquor, household goods, seeds, and saddles composed the heterogeneous loads that were dragged or rolled or hauled or "packed" over the portages of the West. Strenuous individuals have been known to roll a whiskey barrel halfway across a twenty-mile portage.

With the settling of the country and a new century came a new age of road-building. Travel until now had been on north and south routes--on portage paths, which usually ran north and south between the heads of rivers which flowed north or south, on routes of the buffalo, which the herds had laid on north and south lines during their annual migrations, and on Indian trails which had been worn deep by the nations of the north and those of the south during their immemorial conflicts. The main east and west land routes, such as Forbes's and Braddock's, were now to be replaced by well-made thoroughfares. In the building of certain of these, the dominating influence of water transportation, and, consequently, the strategic routes between them, were considered of utmost importance. This is emphasized strikingly in the building of the c.u.mberland National Road across the Alleghenies by the United States Government (1806-1818). In the Act pa.s.sed by Congress enabling the people of Ohio to form a state we read: "That one-twentieth of the net proceeds of the lands lying within said State sold by Congress shall be applied to the laying out and making public roads leading from the navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic, to the Ohio."[33] The Commissioners appointed according to law by President Jefferson surveyed the territory through which the road should pa.s.s and met at c.u.mberland, Maryland for consultation. In their report of 1806 they said: "In this consultation the governing objects were:

1. Shortness of distance between navigable points on the eastern and western waters.

2. A point on the Monongahela best calculated to equalize the advantages of this portage in the country within reach of it.

3. A point on the Ohio river most capable of combining certainty of navigation with road accommodation; embracing, in this estimate, remote points westwardly, as well as present and probable population on the north and south.

4. Best mode of diffusing benefits with least distance of road."

In their choice of c.u.mberland as the eastern terminus for this national road the question of portage entered largely into consideration: "... it was found that a high range of mountains, called Dan's, stretching across from Gwynn's to the Potomac, above this point, precluded the opportunity of extending a route from this point in a proper direction, and left no alternative but pa.s.sing by Gwynn's; the distance from c.u.mberland to Gwynn's being upward of a mile less than from the upper point, which lies ten miles by water above c.u.mberland, the Commissioners were not permitted to hesitate in preferring a point which shortens the portage, as well as the Potomac navigation."

After outlining the route of the road, the Commissioners summed up matters as follows: "... it will lay about twenty-four and a half miles in Maryland, seventy-five and a half in Pennsylvania, and twelve miles in Virginia; ... this route ... has a capacity at least equal to any other in extending advantages of a highway; and at the same time establishes the shortest portage between the points already navigated, and on the way accommodates other and nearer points to which navigation may be extended, and still shorten the portage.... Under these circ.u.mstances the portage may be thus stated:

"From c.u.mberland to Monongahela, sixty-six and one-half miles. From c.u.mberland to a point in measure with Connelsville, on the Youghiogeny river, fifty-one and one-half miles. From c.u.mberland to a point in measure with the lower end of the falls of the Youghiogeny, which will lie two miles north of the public road, forty-three miles. From c.u.mberland to the intersection of the route with the Youghiogeny river, thirty-four miles.... The point which this route locates, at the west foot of Laurel Hill, having cleared the whole of the Alleghany mountain, is so situated as to extend the advantages of an easy way through the great barrier, with more equal justice to the best parts of the country between Laurel Hill and the Ohio. Lines from this point to Pittsburg and Morgantown, diverging nearly at the same angle, open upon equal terms to all parts of the western country that can make use of this portage; and which may include the settlements from Pittsburg up Big Beaver, to the Connecticut reserve, on Lake Erie, as well as those on the southern borders of the Ohio and all the intermediate country."

Thus it is clear that our one great national turnpike was, in reality, a portage path. Upon this same general principle many of our first highways were built, in an era when inland water navigation, on ca.n.a.l and river, was considered the secret of commercial prosperity.

With the building of ca.n.a.ls, the ancient portages again became prominent because of geographical position; in every state the portage paths marked the summit levels. In the cases of such important works as the Erie Ca.n.a.l and the Ohio Ca.n.a.l the portages between the Mohawk and Wood Creek in New York and between the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas in Ohio were of vital importance. In many instances, at the points where the old portages mark the spots of least elevation, two ca.n.a.ls are found converging from three or four valleys.

It is quite impossible for us to realize the importance attached to the portage routes in days when steam navigation and locomotion were not dreamed of. This is suggested by the clause of the famous Ordinance of 1787 in which they were again declared to be "common highways forever free." Was.h.i.+ngton's serious study of this subject is exceedingly interesting--not less so because many of his plans which seemed to many idle dreaming were completely realized not long after his death.[34]

With the advent of the era of railway building, and as the number of the s.h.i.+ning rails increase yearly at these geographical centers, the strategic nature of the portage routes has been and is still being strongly emphasized. Engineering art is now defying nature everywhere, and daring feats of bridge-building are daily accomplished; but the old routes and pa.s.ses still remain the most practicable, and in the long run pay best. In spite of the fact that tunnels can go wherever money dictates, and bridges can be swung across the most baffling chasms, at the same time the fiercest struggles for rights of way (outside the cities) are being waged today for the portage paths first trod by the Indian.

PART II

A Catalogue of American Portages

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

As introductory to the description of the more noted American portages, it will be advantageous to present them at a bird's-eye view in the form of a comparative chart stating the names and termini of each, with a remark concerning its specific function:

_Portage Route._ _Water Termini._ _Remarks._ ----------------------------------------------------------------------

St. Johns--St. Grand River--Wagan. This and the two Lawrence. following are important land pa.s.ses in the water route up the St.

Johns to Canada.

Same. Touladi--Trois Pistoles.

Same. Ashberish--Trois Pistoles.

Same. Temiscouata--Riviere Route of present post du Loup. road between same points.

Same. St. Francis--Lake Short but difficult Pohenegamook, to head portage.

of La Fourche branch of Riviere du Loup.

Same. Black River--Ouelle. Morris Map describes this as an express route.

Same. North-West Branch of "Grand Portage."

St. John River--Riviere du Sud.

Same. Lake Etchemin route. Route of Etchemin Indians to Quebec.

Kennebec--St. Riviere des Probably the most Lawrence. Loups--Moosehead practicable route from Lake--Riviere Quebec up the Chaudiere Chaudiere. and over the divide into the Kennebec River.

Same. Dead River--Chaudiere Probably the most ("The Terrible practicable route from Carrying-place"). the south by way of the Kennebec to Quebec.

Arnold's route.

Connecticut--St. Same. Important Indian route Francis. from Canada into New Hamps.h.i.+re.

Connecticut-- Otter Creek--Black(?) Route from French Lake Champlain. River. ports on Lake Champlain to the Connecticut Valley.

Hudson--Lake Hudson--Lake George. The "Grand Pa.s.s" from Champlain. the Hudson Valley toward Canada. Followed by Dieskau, Johnson, Montcalm, Abercrombie and Burgoyne.

Same. Hudson--Wood Creek--Lake Portage to Fort Ann.

George.

St. Lawrence-- St. Lawrence--Richelieu. Last portage in the Lake Champlain. "Grand Pa.s.s" from New York to Montreal.

Hudson--Lake Mohawk--Wood Creek Strategic portage in Ontario. (feeder of Lake Oneida). the route from Albany and New York to Oswego and Niagara.

Mohawk-- Mohawk--Lake Otsego. Route from Central Susquehanna. New York to Pennsylvania.

Niagara. Portage around Niagara Another route around Falls. Niagara Falls was by portage from western extremity of Lake Ontario to Grand River.

Chautauqua. Chautauqua Celoron's Route to the Creek--Chautauqua Lake. Ohio.

Lake Erie-- Lake Erie--French Creek. Marin's Route to Allegheny. Fort Duquesne.

Ohio River-- Cuyahoga--Tuscarawas. Route from Muskingum Lake Erie. to Lake Erie.