Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 1).djvu/130

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126
PATHS OF GREAT GAME ANIMALS

their own. A specific illustration of this is noted by a Lexington historian:

"A buffalo 'trace' fortunately ran from this station [Bryant's] close to Lexington, and the settlers of both places joined forces in clearing it of logs, undergrowth, and other obstructions; a wise measure as subsequent events proved, for, owing to it, the troops from Lexington that went to the assistance of the besieged station, in 1782, were enabled to reach it much sooner than they could otherwise have done."[1]

" . . . The main road from Louisville to Lexington [Kentucky] passed through it [Leestown] about a mile below Frankfort. This road had been originally made by the buffaloes, and crossed the Kentucky River at one of the few places along its extended course where it was practicable to make the passage."[2]

"The roads [in Kentucky] first made by the buffaloes and adopted by the pioneers, are laid down with such accuracy that the position of those old historic places may be ascertained at this distant day by measure-

  1. Ranck's History of Lexington, Kentucky, p. 29.
  2. John Filson (Filson Club Pub. No. 1), p. 18.