FRENCH LICK, Ind. (AP) - Before people dominated Indiana’s landscape, bison moved through the state, migrating to and from the Great Plains. Often those bison trails were used by traveling Indians and settlers coming into the state. They later formed some of the roads that people still use.
A group of interested Hoosiers has begun searching for the remnants of Indiana’s oldest trail, known as the Buffalo Trace. It was the main trail worn into the land by herds of bison as well as other animals. The Trace - another word for trail - came up through Kentucky, crossed Indiana and passed into Illinois and was used by bison herds that at times numbered in the thousands.
Recently, 22 people - county surveyors, former surveyors, archeologists, research scientists, U.S. Forest Service workers and others - spent a day in French Lick talking about the Buffalo Trace and walking along a creek in an area south of the town where the Trace may have been, The Herald-Times reported (https://bit.ly/1D8aTnL ). The group shared information they have discovered about the Buffalo Trace, showing maps from the early 1800s that had a road that followed the old bison trail across southern Indiana, with smaller trails that led to the salt licks and springs that were near where French Lick now stands.
The group first met in December after Angie Doyle, heritage program manager and tribal liaison with the Hoosier National Forest, wrote an article that appeared in The Times-Mail. After the article was published, she was inundated with phone calls and emails from people who were interested or who knew where a segment of the Buffalo Trace was located.
“I’ve been trying to identify segments of the Trace for many years,” Doyle said. “I thought, I’m going to put all of these people together and introduce them to each other.” Her first action was to set up an email group to allow them to all correspond.
Then in December, the group met for the first time at the Bedford office of the Hoosier National Forest. Since then, there have been monthly meetings as the group has formed committees and begun working to develop a mission statement and work toward locating portions of the Buffalo Trace.
One of the accomplishments has been a mission statement the group has created that includes its goals. The basic mission is to research, locate and preserve the location and historical significance of the Buffalo Trace in southern Indiana. The goals have been the basis of working groups that will:
. Use historical records to determine the location for the primary trail from the Ohio River at Clarksville to the Wabash River in Vincennes.
. Physically locate the remaining remnants of the Trace in all the counties, which include Clark, Floyd, Harrison, Crawford, Orange, Dubois, Pike and Knox.
. Preserve the historical information and document its significance by publishing a brochure and developing other resources that will educate the public about the Buffalo Trace.
. Produce a final document compiling all that the group has learned in time to have it be part of Indiana’s bicentennial celebration in 2016. This may include adding signs, developing a website, having re-enactors and having special events.
The group has signed an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service, making it a volunteer project through the federal agency. All the hours of work done will be tracked as they move forward, Doyle said.
One part of the project that takes hours is actually walking through fields and along creeks, looking for signs of the Buffalo Trace. David Drake, a retired surveyor from Orange County, shared the recent findings from some treks he took in Orange County with fellow surveyor Tom Moore. The two were using the 1805 survey by William Rector, who surveyed the Buffalo Trace to establish the Indian treaty lines through the state. Rector followed the Trace, establishing on paper where it was located and then had to mark a line for the treaty that was at least a half-mile north of the most northerly turn of the Trace.
Drake said he used old maps to locate parts of the Trace just south of French Lick, but other segments were missing. Some parts follow roads but end in fields and woods before picking up again on another road. The area the group walked was one of the locations Drake believes may contain part of the Trace. The land is owned by Drake’s relative. In one area, the Rector map showed the Trace traveling up a hill.
“It went up a hill and we couldn’t figure out why,” he said. After walking up the hill, Drake and Moore discovered depressions in the earth where there were once salt licks, something bison would seek out. And on the other side of the hill, Drake found the Trace traveled down the hill.
“Rector surveyed the Trace, and we’re re-surveying the Trace,” said David Ruckman, a retired surveyor and author who is helping locate the Trace in the counties beginning at the Falls of the Ohio. Ruckman points out that the Trace was actually used by other animals before the bison used it, and many parts of it are now used as roads by people. “They used these trails and the buffalo came along and widened them,” he said.
Ruckman said there is actually not just one Trace but many trails, all going in the same direction. Some of the reasons for more than one trail is creeks and rivers that would flood, making the bison change which crossing they used in high and low water.
“It’s not a single path,” he said. “It’s multiple paths, and they all converge at these river crossings, like at the Falls of the Ohio.”
Ruckman is certain that the Buffalo Trace can be found about 800 feet south of Daisy Lane and Graybrook Lane in New Albany. That’s where the bison crossed the Ohio River from Kentucky. It’s often the river crossings that are easiest to locate, Ruckman said.
That trail then travels through southern Indiana to just south of Vincennes, close to where Fort Knox II is located, crossing the Wabash River into Illinois. The trail is known as the Buffalo Trail in Illinois and crosses that state and continues all the way to the Rocky Mountains, Ruckman said.
“It’s a transcontinental road that connects to others,” he explained, adding that it’s difficult to locate the trail in the Great Plains because the topography was so vast and wide the bison herds would spread out, taking different paths.
One of the goals for Ruckman is to use GPS, notes and photographs to create a path that can be used to make a 3-D flyover in Google Earth. That could be viewed by anyone interested in the Buffalo Trace and would be something to share during the state’s bicentennial.
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Information from: The Herald Times, https://www.heraldtimesonline.com
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