Portage Paths: The Keys of the Continent

by Archer Butler Hulbert

The Scioto and Miami rivers were not as large as the Muskingum but were easily plied at most seasons by the light canoe. The Sandusky and Auglaize (emptying into the Maumee) offered a waterway which, with portages, took the traveler from Lake Erie to the Ohio by these routes. That they were uncertain and difficult courses is shown by the records of Croghan and Bonnécamps.[66]

The spot of ground at the head of the Great Miami (from the source of Loramie Creek to the head of the St. Mary and Auglaize) was a more important point than one would believe without considerable investigation. Looking at the matter from the olden view-point it seems that this was one of the strategic points in the West in the canoe age. Here on Loramie Creek three routes focused—those of the St. Mary, Auglaize, and Miami rivers. Here, near the mouth of Loramie Creek, English traders erected a trading station almost contemporaneous with Céloron’s journey; from their point of vantage the French drove them away, and here the earliest French store was built. This stood near the mouth of the creek in Miami County (Ohio) while sixteen miles up the creek at the beginning of the shortest portage was the location of famed Loramie’s Store of later date and known to half a continent for half a century. The carrying place across to Girty’s town (George not Simon Girty) was five miles to what is now St. Marys, Shelby County on the St. Mary River. Toward this point Harmar and Wayne both struck in 1790 and 1794, Wayne building Fort Loramie at that end of the portage path mentioned. A stone raised near the mouth of Loramie Creek was one of the corner stones of the old Indian treaty line mentioned in the treaties of Fort Stanwix (1784), Fort McIntosh (1786), Fort Harmar (1789) and Greenville (1795). Loramie Creek was known thereby as the “Standing Stone fork of the Great Miami.” One of the remarkable features of the Loramie portage was the deadened trees to be seen here—indicative of busy canoe-building.

At the head of the Maumee—the “Miami river of Lake Erie”—a portage path led to the Wabash. It began on the left bank of the St. Mary River, a short distance above its junction with the St. Joseph, and ran eight miles to Little River, the first branch of the Wabash. This route from the Lakes to the Mississippi, at first of least importance, became finally the most important of the five great French passage ways southwest. It was discovered to be the shortest route from the capital of New France to the Mississippi and Illinois settlements and has been appropriately called “the Indian Appian Way.” The importance of this route in the history of the Old Northwest has been effectively presented by Elbert Jay Benton.[67]

The voyager’s canoes followed the Ottawa river from Montreal, then by portage to Lake Nipissing, and to Georgian bay, an eastern arm of Lake Huron, and thence by the northern lakes to Green bay, the Fox, and by portage to the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers. It was the most natural route because in every way it was the line of least resistance. It avoided the near approaches to the Iroquois Indian limits and led directly to the numerous Indian haunts around the greater lakes. As the objective point for the westward expeditions was gradually moved farther south into the Mississippi basin, shorter routes across the territory, later known as the Old Northwest, were used. The Wisconsin portage soon yielded in point of frequency of use to those at the South end of Lake Michigan. The route up the Illinois river and by portage into the Chicago river and Lake Michigan was followed by Joliet and Marquette on their return from the discovery of the Mississippi. A few years later La Salle followed the coast of Lake Michigan to the St. Joseph river and up that stream, thence by a portage to the Kankakee, and so again to the usual destination—points on the Illinois and the Mississippi.

“About this time, in the course of the evolution of new routes leading to the Mississippi, occurred the first use of the Wabash river by white explorers. This stream was occasionally reached in the earliest period by leaving Lake Michigan on the St. Joseph river and then by a short portage to the headwaters of a northern branch of the Wabash, but the more important way to reach it was by the ‘Miami river of Lake Erie’ and a short portage. Of the five great portage routes,[68] this was the last one to come into general use by the whites.... Many have tried to trace La Salle’s voyage of 1670 by the Wabash river. Joliet’s map of 1674, which locates La Salle’s route by way of Lake Erie and the Wabash, has been used in support of this contention. But the route laid down is clearly a later interpolation and adds nothing directly to the argument. It is, however, most significant that within a few years La Salle had become in some manner fully aware of this Wabash route and the advantages it offered. During the years that he was in command at Ft. Frontenac, he appears to have been evolving great schemes for appeasing the Iroquois and for opening up an easy channel of trade to the Mississippi Valley by the Maumee and Wabash; but by 1682 he seems to have temporarily abandoned this plan, ‘because,’ he says, ‘I could no longer go to the Illinois but by the Lakes Huron and Illinois, as the other routes which I have discovered by the head of Lake Erie and by the southern coast of the same, have become too dangerous by frequent encounters with the Iroquois who are always on that shore.’ La Salle’s description of the territory between Lake Erie and Lake Michigan indicates a familiarity with this region scarcely possible save from personal observation. In a letter written November 9, 1680, he says, ‘There is at the end of Lake Erie ten leagues below the strait a river by which we could shorten the route to the Illinois very much. It is navigable to canoes to within two leagues of the route now in use.’[69] ... his [La Salle’s] representations were the first to direct the attention of the French to the regions south and west of Lake Erie.”[70]

Perhaps the most historic campaign in which the Wabash route played a part was Hamilton’s journey across it in 1778 when he went to the recapture of Vincennes.[71] From the standpoint of this present study this campaign is of particular interest, as it was one of the exceedingly few instances in which a military movement was made by water on the lesser rivers of the West. It is remarkable that though the two important posts west of the Alleghenies, Detroit and Pittsburg, were through many years, in the possession of bitter enemies, neither one ever conquered or hardly attempted to conquer the other. A hundred plans for the capture of Detroit were conceived in Fort Pitt, and many a commander of Fort Detroit was determined to subdue Fort Pitt.[72] Yet it can almost be said that nothing of the kind was ever actually attempted, unless McIntosh’s campaign be considered such an attempt. This was because the journey between them could be accomplished only by a long, tedious land march over the Great Trail,[73] or by a desperate journey over small inland streams and the portages between them. Difficult as the land journey over the Indian trail would seem, it is clear that it was considered preferable to any water route in Revolutionary days.[74]

Thus Hamilton’s campaign over the Wabash route upon Vincennes was an exceptional feat, successfully accomplished after great hardships and delays. Clark’s marvelously intrepid recapture of this fort by wading through the drowned lands of the Wabash has so far eclipsed all other events of that campaign that the heroism of other actors has been forgotten.

On October 28, 1778,[75] Hamilton left the Miamis’ town, where he held conferences with the Indians, and proceeded to Pied-froid, on the other side of the river St. Joseph.

The day following the gun-boat was placed on the carriage with great difficulty. Two officers were left to forward the boats from the portage, and Hamilton walked to the further end of the carrying place, three leagues, where the provisions were collected. He ordered two officers with the six-pounder and ammunition to go down to carry in pirogues. “This carry is one of the sources of the Wabash,” Hamilton wrote in his Journal, “and takes its rise on the level plain, which is a height of land near the Miamis town. The carry is called ‘petite rivière.’[76] Where the pirogues were first launched, it is only wide enough for one boat, and is much embarrassed with logs and stumps. About four miles below is a beaver dam,[77] and to these animals the traders are indebted for the conveniency of bringing their peltry by water from the Indian posts on the waters of the Ouabache.[78] On my return met Lieut. Du Vernet with seven pirogues loaded. Ordered him to proceed and join Lieut. St. Cosme, who was below the dam with some men employed to clear the chemin couvert, the narrow part of the carry, so narrow and embarrassed with logs under water and boughs overhead that it required a great deal of work to make it passable for our small craft.”

On October 30, Hamilton sent Lieutenant De Quindre with seven pirogues loaded with provisions, and fourteen men, to follow Lieut. Du Vernet. In the evening he went to the dam which had been cut there to give a passage for the pirogues; and by sinking a batteau in the gap, and stopping the water with sods and paddles, he raised the water.