On the other hand such specific mention of buffalo roads as the following may be noted:
“Our horse being recover’d, we travelled to the Rocky Ridge [Clinch Mountain]. I went up to the top, to look for a Pass, but found it so Rocky that I concluded not to Attempt it there. This Ridge may be known by Sight, at a distance. To the Eastward are many small Mountains, and a Buffaloe Road between them and the Ridge.”[95]
“We kept down the Creek 2 miles further, where it meets with a large Branch coming from the South West, and thence runs through the East Ridge making a very good Pass; and a large Buffaloe Road goes from that Fork to the Creek over the West Ridge, which we took and found the Ascent and Descent tollerably easie.”[96]
“In the Fork of Licking Creek is a Lick much used by Buffaloes and many large Roads lead to it.”[97]
“We went up Naked Creek to the head and had a plain Buffaloe Road most of the way.”[98]
“I blazed several trees four ways on the outside of the low Grounds by a Buffaloe Road, and marked my Name on Several Beech Trees.”[99]
Boone, while relating the opening of his great road westward by way of “Warrior’s Path” through Cumberland Gap, distinctly states in his autobiography that as he left the Gap in the distance he came to a point where the Warrior’s Path and the buffalo road diverged. The former ran westward through what is now Danville and Louisville, while the latter went northward. Boone followed the buffalo road to the mouth of Otter creek where Boonesborough was founded.[100] Colonel Logan afterward opened a road westward toward Danville and Louisville on the general course of the Indian trail.
Thus it is plain that in the earliest days there was a marked distinction between the roads of the buffalo and the Indian, though each undoubtedly used, at times, the other’s track, and in some places, such as Cumberland Gap, the buffalo and Indian tracks were identical. Dr. Walker in the quotation given above, “We went up Naked Creek to the head and had a plain Buffaloe Road most of the way,” was speaking probably of the “Warrior’s Path” leading directly to Cumberland Gap though not aware that the road he traveled was more than a buffalo path.[101]
That buffaloes were accustomed to traveling Indian routes is clearly proved by a number of incidents. It is said that when the Catawbas came up to Ohio in search of the hated Iroquois they cut off buffalo hoofs, tied them to their own feet, pursued the Indian trail and ambushed themselves. The Iroquois, following the fresh buffalo tracks, soon found themselves the victims of their own credulity.
Two instances of travelers meeting buffaloes on Indian thoroughfares and the quarrel for the right of way are to the point: