History of the Midland Trail

The route known as the Midland Trail began as a buffalo trail adapted into one of the many Native American pathways that cross West Virginia.

In 1774, General Andrew Lewis used the Midland Trail to lead an army of roughly 1,000 Virginia militiamen from present-day Lewisburg, WV to the Ohio River. On October 10, 1774 Lewis and his men defeated an opposing confederation of Native Americans under Cornstalk, a battle which had a significant impact on diminishing Native power in the area and allowing further white expansion.

The Midland Trail remained an important transportation route as American settlers expanded into the region. Starting in the 1780s, Virginia constructed the Old State Road, which by 1800 reached the Ohio River. This state road followed the path of the Midland Trail as well as Lewis’ 1774 pathway. The Old State Road received constant improvements in the early 1800s and between 1820 and 1824 the James River Company to construct a more established and practical route as part of the James River & Kanawha Canal Project. This included opening covered bridges at the Greenbrier and Gauley Rivers and changing the route to connect with Montgomery’s Ferry above Charleston. The fully improved road was complete by 1832 and remained a main east-west thoroughfare for the region through the 1860s.

Today, the Midland Trail is the name of a cross-country route established in the 1930s as U.S. 60. The entire route stretches from the Chesapeake to the Pacific Ocean and was constructed during the period where the emergence of the automobile spurred the creation of national road systems. In West Virginia, the establishment of U.S. 60 as a national highway and tourist route led to a period of revitalization; the road had fallen into disrepair and only seen local use after the construction of the Chesapeake & Ohio railway in 1873 which provided a quicker and more comfortable mode of transportation through the region. The section between Charleston and White Sulphur Springs was designated a state scenic highway in 1988, the state’s first such designation. This same portion was designated a national scenic byway in 2000, and the remainder of the route (from Charleston to the border with Kentucky) was designated a state scenic highway at that point. 

Sources:

Peyton, Billy Joe. “James River & Kanawha Turnpike.” The West Virginia Encyclopedia. Accessed September 2, 2020. https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/978.

Jeter, Garrett C. “Andrew Lewis.” The West Virginia Encyclopedia. Accessed September 2, 2020. http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1358.

Spencer, Darla S. “Indian Trails.” The West Virginia Encyclopedia. Accessed September 2, 2020. https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/837

Rowe, Larry L. “Midland Trail.” The West Virginia Encyclopedia. Accessed September 2, 2020. http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1778. 

Suggested Reading on Native Trails and Networks:

Hudson, Angela Pulley. Creek Paths and Federal Roads: Indians, Settlers, and Slaves and the Making of the American South. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2010.

Levy, Philip. Fellow Travelers: Indian and Europeans Contesting the Early American Trail. Gainesville, University Press of Florida, 2007.

Tate, Michael L. Indians and Emigrants: Encounters on the Overland Trails. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 2006.

Rice, Otis K, and Stephen W. Brown. West Virginia: A History, Second Edition. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1993.

Wallace, Paul A. W. Indian Paths of Pennsylvania. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1971.

Myer, William E. Indian Trails of the Southeast. Washington: Bureau of American Ethnology, 1928.

Sturtevant, William C., ed. Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 15: Northeast. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1978.

Welch, Paul D. Moundville’s Economy. Tuscaloosa, University of Alabama Press, 1991.

Wilcox, Ohio Indian Trails. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, 2015.