Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 2).djvu/98

92 "Warriors' Path" was the early name of this route, as, for a distance at least near Cumberland Gap, the trail was a link in the great war path from the north to the south. The old "War Trail of Nations" which descended the Great Kanawha and came into the New River valley was a branch trail. At a later date Daniel Boone heroically opened a road over this route to Kentucky which took the appropriate title of "Wilderness Road." Of this Wilderness Road, which played a mighty part in the opening of the first settlement in the West, Kentucky, a particular study will be made in an independent monograph.

Dr. Walker, from whose Journal extracts were made while discussing buffalo trails, made his journey of exploration to Kentucky in part over the Virginia Warriors' Path. This path was also a famous traders' path by which packhorses went and came from all parts of the great expanse between the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Illinois rivers.