Following the old paths: Warrior’s Path project could bring National Park recognized trail through Carter County

By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times

The roots of the Warrior’s Path stretch way back. Back to a time before the woodland buffalo, to when mammoths and mastodons blazed game trails that early hunters followed.

There are millennia of history here in eastern Kentucky related to the area represented by the Warrior’s Path project. But for the purpose of the story Max Hammond wants to tell, we only have to go back a little over 200 years, to the war of 1812.

That was when Jim Plummer’s great, great grandfather, Col. John Plummer, found a number of artifacts that help paint a different picture of prehistoric Kentucky than the one we’ve often been led to believe.

Kentucky, Max Hammond explained during presentations before both the Grayson and Olive Hill city councils, was instrumental in that war. Not only did Kentucky iron provide cannon balls for the war, but early Kentucky settlers – still the rugged frontiersman of their time – were among the most effective soldiers in the war.

There was one more thing that Kentucky added to the war effort – bat dung. Bat guano, collected from the caves around Carter County, was an essential source of saltpeter, or potassium nitrate, a key ingredient in early gunpowder blends.

It was while scouting sources of saltpeter that Col. Plummer came across a number of gorgeous artifacts that have remained in his family down to the present day – and that give us a more vibrant picture of the ancient cultures who once called Kentucky home.

Most of us grew up with the story that Kentucky was a hunting ground and battle ground for native groups, but that they didn’t call the state home. But the artifacts that Plummer collected show us that not only was Kentucky – including Carter County – occupied by Native tribes, it has a long history of Native occupation, industry, and trade.

Carter Caves chert, a type of flint used for making stone tools, was a much sought after crafting material. It has been found in artifacts from across the country, indicating that it was widely traded. Furthermore, examples of the Clovis style point, a fluted spear point named for samples found in the Clovis, New Mexico area in the late 1920s, were collected here in Carter County decades before they were “identified” in New Mexico.

There were other artifacts found in the areas around the caves to indicate that Carter County was one of the nexus points in a vast trade network. These include artifacts made from copper mined in the Great Lakes region and conch shells brought from coastal areas. Taken together, they are strong circumstantial evidence for an ancient trade route and long-term habitation of the area.

But they aren’t all the evidence that this ancient path passed through Carter County. There are also the enigmatic “watchers,” prominent standing stones – ranging from about a foot to several feet tall – with simple carved faces on them. Though their exact purpose remains unknown, Hammond and Plummer believe they were used to mark significant locations, including spots along the Warrior’s Path.  

In addition to this Hammond has a collection of older maps, from the first French and, later, English explorers to come through the area, that indicate a trade route. But the clincher is an account of a 1793 raid by a group of Cherokee and Shawnee that sent the Native people’s fleeing from settlers in the area around modern day Mt. Sterling through Menifee County and then to Haldeman where they eventually followed a branch of Tygart Creek to the area around modern day Olive Hill. From there they split, with part of the group following Tygart Creek toward modern South Shore, and the other half going overland toward Grayson, where they followed the Little Sandy to Greenup. From there both groups followed the Ohio River to meet up near the abandoned Shannoah, or Lower Shawneetown, in modern day South Portsmouth, Kentucky.

Along the way they killed a portion of the captives, in an area of Menifee County, near modern Cave Run Lake, that bears the name Murder Branch today. But they took the rest with them across the Ohio River. Those captives eventually earned or bought their freedom and returned home, and it’s from them that we have the account of the path taken by the raiding party.

It’s this account that also gives the path its name, the Warrior’s Path, even though for most of its history it was used more for peaceful commerce than raiding and hostage taking, Hammond explained. But it also shows that, like many trade corridors, the Warrior’s Path was less a defined and concrete route than it was a web of intertwined routes, all leading in a general direction.

“It isn’t just a path,” Hammond told Grayson City Council. “It’s a corridor.”

By making it that once more, Hammond says, this time for various forms of recreation, the Warrior’s Path project is guaranteed National Park Service (NPS) recognition through their Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program.

Hammond said he’s been guaranteed of the NPS recognition for the project, but only if it is a multi-use trail. That means hiking, biking, motorized vehicles, kayaks, and even horseback riding. That NPS recognition could be a boon to tourism in the parks, and could help connect Carter Caves and Grayson Lake – the Heart of the Parks – with other area parks like Greenbo and Cave Run.

Hammond said the project is already well underway, and has support at the state and federal level. But he came to the Grayson and Olive Hill councils seeking moral support for the project. He said he isn’t asking either city for any funding for any part of the project, but he did ask the city of Olive Hill for support on an unrelated path that could tie-in to the larger project, to be funded through grants.

Both communities said they would look closer at the project and consider resolutions in support of the trail. This could include a museum space featuring artifacts collected in the local area, like the Plummer collection.

For more information, visit http://www.warriorspath.org online.  

Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com