Book retraces route of Turkey Foot Road
MOUNT SAVAGE, Md. – Along the northwestern Maryland and southwestern Pennsylvania border, an Indian trail led traders, drovers, travelers and settlers into the American frontier. The primitive road that evolved from this ancient route spawned scattered settlements that are towns today. “In Search of the Turkey Foot Road: From Fort Cumberland to the North Fork of the Youghiogheny,” by Lannie Dietle and Michael McKenzie, retraces this historic and nearly forgotten route, highlighting the part between Cumberland, Md., and Confluence, Somerset County.
The Mount Savage Historical Society in Mount Savage, Md., is publishing the 342-page work, as announced by President Dennis Lashley.
The Turkey Foot Road, known by different names, continues to define area residents as descendants of those who braved the elements and events of the early American wilderness to make homes, and leave legacies in a boundless new land of opportunity.
Dietle, McKenzie, and editor Nancy E. Thoerig found they share ancestors who traveled and settled along this road. They suspect that many thousands of Americans similarly can trace their lineage to settlers along the historic transportation corridor.
A press release about the book said the book relies on maps, property surveys, aerial photographs, crop marks, landscape scars, oral traditions and local guides, including Harry Ringler Sr., mayor of Salisbury, Pa. and Francis Bridges, Mount Savage amateur historian and archaeologist, to delineate the route in detail. Assisted with global-positioning coordinates, a dedicated hiker might set out to walk the 18th century route from Cumberland to Harnedsville, Pa. The authors also identify key points between Harnedsville and Pittsburgh.
“In its heyday,” Dietle summarized in the final chapter, “the Turkey Foot Road was an early route west.
“It helped to settle the towns and environs that interest us most: Barrelville and Mount Savage in Maryland; Wellersburg, Pocahontas, and Salisbury in Pennsylvania.”
Dietle continued, “The road also serviced points farther west, such as Springs, Savage, Confluence, Harnedsville, and so forth, all the way to Pittsburgh. By 1820, the United States population had grown to 9.6 million, and about half of it had moved west of Cumberland. As this tremendous migration and population growth occurred, some of the people along the Turkey Foot Road moved on, helping to settle and populate the great American west.”
The antecedent to the Turkey Foot Road, traditionally called the Turkey Foot Trail, was an Indian trading path.
In 1749, the colonies of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland, at the request of the Miami Indians, improved this route to facilitate easier trade between Pickawillany (Piqua), Ohio and Wills Creek (Cumberland), Md.
English trade flourished along the primary corridor into the contested Ohio territory, and tensions with the French mounted.
The early Turkey Foot Road, the authors contend, provoked the first large-scale attack of the French and Indian War at Pickawillany in 1752, the book reveals.
George Washington made the earliest mention of Turkey Foot, the authors found, in reference to the confluence of the Casselman River and Laurel Hill Creek with the Youghiogheny River, at present-day Confluence. Most likely, the authors believe, the road takes its name from this destination.
Drawing upon his ancestral connections and childhood memories in Somerset County, Dietle wrote from his home in Houston, Texas, where he works as principal designer for an engineering firm that makes seals for oilfield equipment.
Descended from one of the first settlers in Mount Savage, McKenzie led the project’s local research endeavors. He lives in Barrelville and works as a diesel locomotive mechanic at the CSX shop in Cumberland.
Proceeds benefit the Mount Savage Historical Society. Visit online at www.mtsavage.info to see sample pages, a general overview and chapter summaries and biographies for the co-authors, editor and contributors as well as to contact Becky Korns, the historical society’s secretary, to order.