This path was used by animals and Native Americans long before Anglos found it.

Peak travel was from around 1790 to 1820. Settlers floated products down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to Natchez or New Orleans on wooden flatboats.

The Trace was their way back home--on foot or horseback--and they left deep gullies, further eroded by rain and wind. Eventually, steamboats replaced this months-long trek.