Portage Paths: The Keys of the Continent

It is clear that the route from Quebec to the Kennebec was by way of “des loups” River to Moosehead Lake—named, writes Finley, “from a very remarkable Mountain [on] the S side about nine miles down. the Indians say that it resembles a moose deer stooping.” It is equally clear that the route from the Kennebec to Quebec was by way of the western branch, the Dead River and the Chaudière.

This route was made historic by Arnold’s famous campaign of 1775 and has recently been described with intense feeling by Professor Justin H. Smith.[41]

“Arnold’s men found lower Dead River, as we can see from their journals, much as it now is. On both sides luxuriant grass covered the plain, or faded out in the reaches of poorer soil; tall evergreens, rather thinly planted, soughed and swayed above it; while here and there a glimpse could be had of goodly mountains, the confines of the valley.” Professor Smith graphically describes the trials of those who traveled by water. Those who attempted to travel the “Kenebec Road” suffered even worse: “The land parties fared no better. It was impossible to keep along the river. Detours and wide circuits multiplied all distances. Swollen rivulets had to be followed up until a narrow place was found and a tree could be felled across for a bridge. Once, if not more than once, a party marched for miles up a stream only to discover that it was not Dead River at all. At night many of the men were unable to find the boats and had to bivouac as they could, without supper and without breakfast.” At last the brave band neared the portage to the north-flowing waters. Despite their distressing fatigues “there was only one thought:” writes Professor Smith, “advance; and the army set forward as rapidly as possible on the twenty-fifth and longest portage, four miles and a quarter over the Height of Land. For once their misfortunes wore the look of blessings: there was little freight. The provisions weighed only four or five pounds per man. A large part of the gunpowder proved to be damaged, and was thrown away.... The bateaux had broken up one by one, until some of the companies had scarcely any left. Morgan had preserved seven, and was determined on taking them across, for there was no other way to transport his military stores down the Chaudière; but resolution of such a temper was now beyond mere men. An attempt was made to trail the bateaux up a brook that enters Arnold Pond; but the attempt had to be given up, and each company, except Morgan’s, took only a single boat over the portage.

“Even in this light order, the troops were hardly able to conquer the mountain. There was a trail, to be sure, and Steele’s pioneers had bettered it; but a mountain trail, even when good, is not a highway, except in altitude. ‘Rubbish’ had been collecting here ever since creation, as it seemed to Morrison, and a handful of tired men could not remove it all in a few days’ time. Ten acres of trees blown down across the path had to be left there. A wet place half a mile wide could not be rooted up. Rocks, dead logs, gorges, and precipices had to be stumbled over. The snow, hiding pitfalls and stones, betrayed many a foot into a wrench and a bruise. Those who carried the boats—and no doubt all carried in turn—suffered still more, for bateaux and carriers often fell together pell-mell down a slope into the snow. ‘The Terrible Carrying-place’—that was the soldiers’ name for it.”

The portages between the Connecticut River and the Canadian waters were of great local importance during the Old French War and the Revolution; they were not as important to the country at large as those of the northeast. The two of special significance were routes to the St. Francis River, Lake Memframagog and Otter Creek (flowing into Lake Champlain). Fort Number Four “had been built by Massachusetts when it was supposed to be within its limits. It was projected by Colonel Stoddard, of Northampton, and was well situated, in connection with the other forts, on the western frontier, to command all the paths, by which the Indians travelled from Canada to New-England.”[42] This fort was on the celebrated highway from the Connecticut across country to Fort Edward on the Hudson River, so largely traveled throughout the period of military operations. In 1755 during Sir William Johnston’s campaign against Fort Crown Point, New Hampshire raised five hundred men, under the command of Colonel Joseph Blanchard. “The Governor,” writes Belknap, “ordered them to Connecticut river, to build a fort at Cohos, supposing it to be in their way to Crown Point. They first marched to Baker’s-town, where they began to build batteaux, and consumed time and provisions to no purpose. By Shirley’s advice they quitted that futile employment, and made a fatiguing march through the woods, by the way of Number-four, to Albany.”[43] The failure to capture Crown Point this year brought down a scourge of Indians upon New Hampshire, particularly from the St. Francis River, between which and the Connecticut there was “a safe and easy communication by short carrying-places.”[44] But the white men found this route ere long and themselves carried destruction up the St. Francis Valley.[45]

When in 1759, General Amherst was preparing to complete Wolfe’s victory by reducing the remainder of Canada, eight hundred New Hampshire men proceeded under Colonel John Goffe to Fort Number Four. “But instead of taking the old route, to Albany, they cut a road through the woods, directly toward Crown Point. In this work they made such dispatch, as to join that part of the army which Amherst had left at Crown Point, twelve days before their embarkation.”[46] This road was built over the portage to Otter Creek. It “began at Wentworth’s ferry, two miles above the fort at No. 4, and was cut 26 miles; at the end of which, they found a path, made the year before; in which they passed over the mountain to Otter Creek; where they found a good road, which led to Crown Point. Their stores were brought in waggons, as far as the 26 miles extended; and then transported on horses over the mountains. A drove of cattle for the supply of the army went from No. 4, by this route to Crown Point.”[47] This carrying place is conspicuously marked on a Board of Trade Map of 1755 in the British Public Records Office and described “From Crown Point to Stephens Fort about 60 Miles N. 25° W nearly.”[48] Fort Stephens is placed on the “Konektikut or Long R.” near the mouth of Black River. “A Survey of Lake Champlain” by William Brassier dated 1762 shows the line of this road southeast of Crown Point passing up Otter Creek. The legend reads “The Road was opened by the New Hampshire Regiments during the last War.”[49]

CHAPTER III

The strategic value of the “Great Pass” from New York by way of the Hudson, Lakes George and Champlain, and the Richelieu River has already been emphasized. The important military points on the route were the portages from the Hudson to Lake George, from Lake George to Lake Champlain, the narrows at Crown Point, and the portage from Chambly to La Prairie on the St. Lawrence. These portages are marked on numerous early maps; the Hudson-Lake George portage is quite accurately drawn on Colonel Romer’s Map of 1700.[50] From that year on throughout the century the greater accuracy with which it is mapped illustrates its growing importance.

One of the most interesting early descriptions of this famous pass is given on a “Map of part of New York, comprehending the country between New York and Quebec, the river Connecticut, &c., to shew ‘the way from Albany to Canada ... part by land and part by water;’ drawn about 1720.”[51] The route is thus described:

Another itinerary is given in a “Sketch of the Indian Country on the north of New York” presented “to the board by Maj^r. gov^r. Winthrop:[52]

Perhaps the most detailed description of the Pass is given by a former prisoner among the French who has written the following observations on a copy of a “French Draught of Lake Champlain & Lake George.”[53] The text shows that the date of the observations is about 1756:

“From Fort Edward to Fort William Henry, on Lake George fifteen Miles good Road. This Lake is thirty Six Miles Long, and in the Widest part not quite three, all very good Navigation But for two miles at the farther End Becomes a Narrow Winding Creek, Very Mountainous on Each Side particularly the East, the Landing place is within three Miles of Ticonderoga, where the Lake Begins to Discharge itself into Champlain over Several Little Falls which Interupt the Navigation for a mile & half, where every thing is Carried over Land for that Distance, on the Eastern Side, to a Saw Mill the French have there, from the Mill to Ticonderoga is a mile & ahalf more, water carriage only dry a very narrow Creek Overlook’d by Steep Mountains on each Side, this is the only Communication their is from Lake George to Ticonderogo for Artillery, and heavy Baggage and is altogither one of the most Difficult and most Dangerous Passes in North America.

“French Draught of Lake Champlain & Lake George with Remarks of an English prisoner who Return’d from Quebec to Fort Edward, by the River S^t. Lawrence River Sorrelle & these Lakes touch’d at Fort Chamblay Fort S^t. Johns Crown point & Ticonderoga.

“This Draught is pretty Correct from Crown point towards Canada But from Crown point to Fort Edward is not so Exact. however their are no Capital Errors to Mislead an Army or Party going that way the whole Being Sufficient to give a good Idea of those important Waters.

“Distances in these Remarks are from the River S^t Lawrence to Fort William Henry taken from French Authoritys, But from Ticonderogo to Fort Edward by way of wood Creek from the English.

“From Fort Edward to wood Creek where it Becomes Navigable for Batteaux, Eleven Miles, from thence to wood Creek Falls twenty eight miles, from these Falls to Ticonderogo thirty miles uninterrupted Navigation. A few miles Beyond the Falls is a Branch of wood Creek Call’d South Bay, a noted Rendevous for the Enemys Scalping parties from Ticonderogo. It was from this place that General Dieskeau march’d when he Attack’d General Johnston’s Entrenchment on Lake George, it is twenty five miles Distance from Fort Edward & Sixteen from Fort William Henry.

“Ticonderogo by the French call’d Carrillon is Distance from Fort Edward by way of Lake George fifty four miles, stands upon that part of Champlain Call’d by the English wood Creek on the western side it is a small Square wooden Fort Advantageously Situate & Regularly built, has two Ravelins, one to the Land, the other, to the water, which with the Ditch are still Unfinish’d Because of the Rockyness of the Ground, the Garrison Usually Consists of Four Hundred men & Fort will Contain no more.

“From Ticonderogo to Fort S^t. Frederick or Crown point Fifteen miles, good Navigation some Islands & the Creek not above a mile wide, but the Strait at the point is about three hundred & fifty yards.

“Fort St Frederick is a place of no Strength being Commanded by several rising Grounds, is Built of Stone very ruinous & irregular, and however its appearance may be upon paper is by no means Tenable once an army gets before it. their are several houses on the outside but it cannot contain so many men within the walls as Ticonderogo.

“From Crown Point to Fort St Johns is one hundred and five [?] miles all Navigable as from wood Creek Falls, for vessels, the French have two upon the Lake of Sixty Tons each, but their is water for much Larger a good many very fine Islands very safe Navigation good Anchoring & Shelter every where against all Winds the Lake is very unequal in its breadth but its greatest is seven miles. it abounds with Creeks & Bays particularly on the East side which give admission to the New England Colonies as wood Creek & Lake George Do to New York. Notwithstanding the French Plantations with the names of their owners mark’d out in the Draught there is not a Single Inhabitant between St Johns & Ticonderoga from under the Cannon of their Forts a few Straggling houses indeed there are, which have been deserted since the war.

“Fort St John is built of Pallisados only & two wooden Blockhouses in the Angles next the water has a few Swivels & is of no use but against small arms for which it was Originally Design’d. From Fort St Johns to La Prarie on the South Bank of St Lawrence River is fifteen miles Land Carriage Only over a Level Country Partly Settled from La Prarie to the Town & Island of Montreall is Three miles.

“From Fort S^t. Johns Down Sorrell River to Chamblay there is no Navigation for vessels & a mile from the Fort they are Obliged to Lighten their Batteaux for a hundred yards in Dry Seasons but from that to S^t. Etreze [Threse?] half way betwixt both Forts Six miles from Each is good Batteau Navigation & a fine Landing place on the west side covered by an Island. here Commence the French Settlements & here is a Magazine for Supplying the Forts on Lake Champlain.

“From S^t. Etraze to Chamblay Fort the River is very rocky & rapid and not Navigable But for Light Batteaux when the waters are high so that they most Commonly Carry for that Distance by Land. from Chamblay to La prarie Opposite to Montreall is twelve miles good Road in Dry Seasons & a fine Level Country. Chamblay is a stone Fort built above Sixty years ago & is not Tenable against Cannon. a Little below the fort, Sorrell River forms a Beautiful Bason Continues so till it empties itself into the great River St Lawrence at Sorrell Village forty five miles below Montreall & one hundred & thirty five above Quibec.

“There are no Indians upon Lake Champlain except a small tribe of the Abnacques consisting of twenty families who Live at the Bottom of Massisque Bay, neither does it abound with Bever or such other Commoditys as Constitute the Indian Commerce therefore it has been formerly too much Neglected & represented as an Aquisition of Less Value than more Distance Lakes & Rivers which would Never have been thought of had it not been for the riches they produced, But this Lake is Nevertheless by far the most important Inland water in North America, Because it is the key of the Enemys Country, a Canal leading from New England, & New York, to the very Bowels of Canada, to Montreall in particular, the Seat of all their Indian trade & warlike preparations & which with the country round it is the most fertile part of all that province.

“Crown point Commands the whole Lake as it is the only Strait there is upon it, that can in the Least Among Vessels or boats in passing, till Arrived within a few miles of the French Settlements, therefore the English when in possession of that pass can land an Army openly or partys Secretly, in many Different places within a few hours march of the French Inhabitants, by which means they will have it in their power not only to Invade in time of War, but make reprisalls upon any other Occasion whenever they receive the Least Injury from French or Indians in any part of his Majestys Dominions In North America.

“Lake Champlain (besides being the only Channel by which the English can possibly invade Canada from their frontiers) is the only one by which they can be Invaded from thence, for through the whole Extent of the South Bank of S^t. Lawrence River, or the great Lakes there is not another Communication by which an Army can be brought Sufficient to make any Conquest.”

The forts which guarded this historic route have been mentioned, and it is possible here only to hint of the remarkable story of the ebb and flow of the war tides which have made the “Grand Pass” perhaps the most alluring field of study in America. Under the specific title “Saratoga and the Northern War-path” an entertaining writer has sketched the place in history occupied by this water thoroughfare and its vital land connections.[54] The story beginning far back in the seventeenth century includes De Tracy’s expedition to the Mohawk country in 1666; between 1686 and 1695 “numerous war parties passed through Kay-ad-ros-se-ra and Saratoga on their way to and from the hostile settlements on the St. Lawrence and the Mohawk and lower Hudson.” A list of the important expeditions only would include those of 1689; 1690, under Le Moyne upon Schenectady; 1690, under General Winthrop; 1691, under Major Schuyler; and 1693-95. From this time peace reigned until Queen Anne’s War in 1709. This year witnessed Winthrop’s and Nicholson’s campaigns; in 1711 Nicholson again swept up the Hudson on his way toward Quebec, but was compelled to abandon his plan. From 1713 until 1744 there were thirty-one years of peace—during which time the French built Forts Crown Point and Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. In 1744 the war was again resumed; “during this short war no less than twenty-seven marauding parties swept down from Fort Frederick at Crown Point upon the settlers of what are now Saratoga and Rensselaer counties.” On June 17, 1747, in the night, the new English Fort Clinton at Saratoga was attacked by La Corne. In the following year it was destroyed by the English because of its exposed situation, and Albany once more became the most northern outpost. The peace signed in 1748 lasted until the outbreak of the final struggle in 1755. Then followed Johnson’s, Winslow’s, and Abercrombie’s campaigns up the Hudson against Ticonderoga, and Montcalm’s swoop upon Fort William Henry.

In 1777 the “Northern War Path” became again the route of armies—and here the decisive battle of Saratoga was fought and won. Of this campaign mention will be made again.

The western war-route to the Lakes was up the Mohawk and down the Onondaga (Oswego) Rivers. Albany and Oswego were its termini; and the Oneida carrying-place of one mile (in favorable seasons) between the Mohawk River and Wood Creek, at Rome, New York, was its key. This famous route is interestingly described by Mr. Sylvester as follows:[55]

“The first carrying place on the great western route was from the Hudson at Albany through the pine woods to the Mohawk at Schenectady. This carrying place avoided the Ga-ha-oose Falls. At the terminus of the old Indian carrying place on the Hudson, now called Albany, the Dutch, under Hendrick Christiensen, in 1614, built Fort Nassau on Castle Island.... In 1617 they built another fort at the mouth of the Normanskill, at the old Indian Ta-wa-sent-ha—‘the place of the many dead.’ In 1623 Fort Orange was built by Adriaen Joris, and eighteen families built their bark huts and spent there the coming winter....

“In the year 1662 Arendt van Curler, and other inhabitants of Fort Orange, ‘went west’ across the old carry through the pines to the rich Mohawk flats and founded a settlement. To this settlement they applied the old Indian name of Albany, calling it Schenectady. From Albany it was the new settlement on the Mohawk beyond the pines....

“From Schenectady the western trail ran up the Mohawk to what is now the city of Rome, where there was another carry of a mile in length, to the Wood Creek which flows into Oneida Lake. This carrying place, afterward the site of Fort Stanwix, was called by the Indian Da-ya-hoo-wa-quat (Carrying-place). From it the old trail ran through the Oneida Lake, and down the Oswego River to Lake Ontario. At the mouth of the Oswego River, on Lake Ontario, was the old Indian village called Swa-geh, the lake-port of the Iroquois.... Between Schenectady and Swa-geh was a line of forts built for the protection of the traveling fur-traders, and as barriers to French and Indian invasion from the valley of the St. Lawrence. The first of these was at the mouth of the Schohariekill, and was called Fort Hunter. It was built on the site of old Indian Te-hon-de-lo-ga, the lower castle of the Mohawks. Above Fort Hunter, near the Indian Ga-no-jo-hi-e—‘washing the basin’—the middle Mohawk castle, was Fort Plain. The Indian name of Fonda was Ga-na-wa-da—meaning ‘over the rapids.’ Of Little Falls, it was Ta-la-que-ga—‘small bushes,’ and of Herkimer the Indian name was Te-uge-ga, the same as the river. At Herkimer was Hendrick’s castle and Fort Herkimer, near Ga-ne-ga-ha-ga, the upper Mohawk castle.... The Indian name for Utica was Nun-da-da-sis—meaning ‘around the hill.’ At Utica, the Indian trail from the west crossed the river.... A little above Utica was a small Indian station called Ole-hisk—‘the place of nettles.’ This is now Oriskony, one of the famous battle-grounds of the Revolution.... At the mouth of Wood Creek, on the Oneida Lake, a Royal Blockhouse was built, and at the west end of Oneida Lake, in 1758, Fort Brewerton was built. The Indian name for Wood Creek was Ka-ne-go-dick; for Oneida Lake was Ga-no-a-lo-hole—‘head on a pole.’ For Syracuse the Indian name was Na-ta-dunk, meaning ‘pine-tree broken with top hanging down,’ and the Indian name of Fort Brewerton was Ga-do-quat.”

The Oneida portage—as the carrying place between the Mohawk and Wood Creek is known in history—was guarded at its Mohawk terminus as early as 1732 by the erection of Fort Williams, and at the Wood Creek terminus as early as 1737 by Fort Bull. Throughout the century of conflict between French and English the Oneida portage route was of utmost importance. In the crucial years between 1755 and 1759 it was especially important. The route is thus described in a contemporaneous account:

“Oswego, along the accustomed route, is computed to be about 300 miles west from Albany. The first sixteen, to the village of Schenectady, is land carriage, in a good waggon road. From thence to the Little Falls in the Mohawk River, at sixty five miles distance, the battoes are set against a rapid stream; which too, in dry seasons, is so shallow, that the men are frequently obliged to turn out, and draw their craft over the rifts with inconceivable labour. At the Little Falls, the portage exceeds not a mile: the ground being marshy will admit of no wheel-carriage, and therefore the Germans who reside here, transport the battoes in sleds, which they keep for that purpose. The same conveyance is used at the Great Carrying-Place, sixty miles beyond the Little Falls; all the way to which the current is still adverse, and extremely swift. The portage here is longer or shorter, according to the dryness or wetness of the seasons. In the last summer months, when rains are not infrequent, it is usually six or eight miles across. Taking water again, we enter a narrow rivulet, called the Wood-creek, which leads into the Oneida Lake, distant forty miles. This stream, tho’ favorable, being shallow, and its banks covered with thick woods, was at this time much obstructed with old logs and fallen trees. The Oneida Lake stretches from east to west about thirty miles, and in calm weather is passed with great facility. At its western extremity opens the Onondaga River, leading down to Oswego, situated at its entrance on the south side of the Lake Ontario. Extremely difficult and hazardous is the passage thro’ this river, as it abounds with rifts and rocks; and the current flowing with surprising rapidity. The principal obstruction is twelve miles short of Oswego, and is a fall of about eleven feet perpendicular. The portage here is by land, not exceeding forty yards, before they launch for the last time.”[56]

Far-famed Fort Stanwix arose near the site of Fort Williams in 1758 and Fort Wood Creek (on the site of Fort Bull) and Fort Newport were built about the same time or a little earlier. In the British Museum may be seen a colored “plan of the forts at the Onoida, or great carrying place, in the province of New York in America,” built by Major-General Shirley, commander-in-chief in North America, and destroyed by Major-General Webb, August 31, 1756, before they were finished. This map must ever be of entrancing interest to the student who views it knowingly. The strategic nature of this little plot of ground was recognized, a century or so ago, by a continent—indeed by a world. In the Old French War there was not, perhaps, so important a spot on the continent as this, the path from the Hudson to Lake George alone excepted. And when it is recalled that the Oneida portage led to the West—to the Lakes and the Ohio Basin—the Oneida path, taken throughout the years, can but be considered of preëminent importance, commercially.

A visit to thriving little Rome and a study of the country roundabout will prove of appealing interest. Here, within cannon shot, stood half a dozen forts; here, in the very center of Rome is the wide straight roadway over which millions of pioneers moved to their conquest of the West; here is the junction of the Black River and the Erie Canal, which, “conceived by the genius, and achieved by the energy of De Witt Clinton, was, during the second quarter of this [nineteenth] century, the most potent influence of American progress and civilization.” And, in its turn, here lie the gleaming rails of the New York Central—and the “Empire” has covered the canal boat with dust.

The conditions here make it almost possible to say, “All roads lead to Rome, New York.” From one and the same point of observation it is possible to see the junction of the Erie and Black River Canals, the portage path from the Mohawk to Wood Creek, the New York Central Railway, and the terminus of the Utica and Mohawk Valley Electric Railway. Two canals, a highway, a railway, and an electric line converging within an air-rifle shot would not be found in a town of only a few thousand inhabitants were it not for some extraordinary geographical reason.

In the olden days the adage was very true indeed, though Rome was not the old-time name. It is deemed a pity that Stanwix could not have been preserved as the name of this historic site, but it is said the revulsion against everything English during and after the Revolution made the retention of that fine historic name impossible. During the Revolutionary War the name of Fort Stanwix was changed to Fort Schuyler; but that name, with all its heritage of nobility and patriotism, was not retained, and “Fort” Schuyler has been dropped to make room for “Fort” Stanwix, which is exceedingly contradictory. When the deluge of classical names passed over central New York—Utica, Manlius, Troy, Syracuse, Rochester, etc.—that of Rome was deposited here.

A square block in the center of Rome, higher than the surrounding land, is the site of Forts Stanwix and Schuyler. It is covered with dwellings on all sides, but at each of the corner bastions is planted a cannon bearing a bronze tablet reading: “A Fort which never surrendered. Defended August 1777 by Col. Peter Ganseboort & Lieut. Col. Marinus Willett. Here the Stars & Stripes were first unfurled in battle. Erected 1758.”

The country about Rome is very level, the declension in any direction being slight; water from one field is said to flow into the Gulf of the St. Lawrence and into New York Bay. The explorer on the Oneida portage will find it difficult to identify the historic sites. The Erie canals have completely drained the country, and the last course is, in part, in the very bed of Wood Creek—the stream to which the portage from the Mohawk led. The nearest point to Wood Creek is distant about one mile from Rome; by the old route it was crossed again two miles further west. Of course the length of portage between the Mohawk and Wood Creek depended upon the stage of water in the latter. The portage for canoes was probably never more than the mile; in later days, when Fort Oswego was erected and supplies were sent thither by batteaux from Albany, a three and even six-mile portage was necessary in order to reach water that would float the heavy freight. At either end of the three-mile portage stood Fort Williams, on the Mohawk, and Fort Bull, on Wood Creek. The longer portage was, a little later, artificially shortened by damming the waters of Wood Creek. By the appended map it will be seen that in 1756 Fort Newport was being built at the end of the one-mile portage. The explorer of today will note in the western extremity of Rome the old basin of Wood Creek where the water was held back by dam and floodgate. The end of this basin, near where the road crosses Wood Creek, was the site of old Fort Newport. On the ruins of Fort Bull—which was destroyed in 1756 by a French raid from Canada—was erected Fort Wood Creek in 1758, distant, as the map shows, three miles from Fort Newport.

Fort Stanwix, New Fort, Fort Williams, Fort Newport, Fort Bull, and Fort Wood Creek were all erected within twenty-five years, and within three or four miles of each other. Nothing could suggest more plainly the strategic nature of this roadway on the backbone of New York. Of them all, the remains of Fort Wood Creek alone are visible, save the embankment of Fort Stanwix. Here, three miles out from Rome, where the old portage path used to run, beside the little creek now only a shadow of the oldtime stream, is the interesting star-shaped ruin of Fort Wood Creek, surrounded by a moat still five feet deep. The southern side, as the map shows, (K), was not fortified strongly like the others, as the water of the creek protected it. The dam and floodgate were just beyond the southwestern bastion and the old embankment of the dam can still be traced. The broad pond formed by the dammed water is clearly visible in outline; the present stream runs near the center of it. It was probably seldom in the olden days that the creek was not navigable here; the dam doubtless made it so, for a large part of the year, from Fort Newport downwards. Yet the narrative just quoted affirms that the portage was sometimes “six or eight miles across” in unusually dry seasons. This was certainly prior to the erection of the dams and floodgates, which “saved so much land carriage” according to the map. In dry seasons, the map assures us, the floodgates saved a portage of seven miles to Canada Creek. This is evidently the “six or eight miles” portage mentioned by the narrative.

The British campaign of 1777 was a spectacular event which covered the three great valleys which converge from the north, south, and west upon Albany. A bird’s-eye view of this campaign emphasizes as it is almost impossible to do otherwise the strategic value of portage paths. From the north, Burgoyne comes up Lake Champlain and Lake George and across the portage to the Hudson, and starts down the valley; to meet him, General Clinton leaves New York and ascends the Hudson toward Albany. From Oswego St. Leger starts up the Onondaga (Oswego) River toward the Oneida carrying place and Albany—where the three armies are to form a union for the final overthrow of the revolution. St. Leger never got fairly over the Oneida portage; he could not carry Fort Schuyler which guarded it, and at Herkimer he was completely routed. Burgoyne crossed safely the portage to the Hudson, but had hardly done more when Gates was upon him and Saratoga was the early turning point of the war. To all intents and purposes the great campaign was utterly thwarted because the Americans successfully held the strategic keys of the continent—the Lake George-Hudson and the Oneida carrying places.

CHAPTER IV

The portage paths from the Great Lakes, or streams entering them, to the tributaries of the Mississippi River were of great importance during the era when that river was the goal of explorers, conquerors and pioneers. So numerous were they, it is only possible to describe the most important briefly in this catalogue. The greater are worthy, each, of an exhaustive monograph, and even those of least prominence were of importance far beyond our ability to understand in these days. Of them all only three routes have received the attention they deserve; these are the Lake Erie-Lake Chautauqua portage, the Wabash route, and the St. Joseph-Kankakee portage. Several other important portages present as interesting fields of study, if not more so, as these, and local historians living near these paths will do well to interest themselves in them, map their exact routes minutely, locate the old springs, licks, forts, and traders’ cabins, before all trace and recollection of them is lost.

Passing westward from Niagara the first explorers of the West found the shortest route from the lakes to the Ohio was by a portage from Chautauqua Creek to Chautauqua Lake and from thence down the Conewango to the Allegheny River. Whether or not this was the most practicable route it was, at first, of major importance. The shortest route was all too long for men on missions such as that of Céloron bearing his leaden plates to the Ohio Valley in 1749.[57]

There was, undoubtedly, an Indian portage between Lake Erie and Lake Chautauqua before Céloron’s expedition, but it would seem that now the first roadway was built here. Céloron reached Niagara River July 6, 1749. He departed on the fifteenth, and “on the 16th,” wrote Father Bonnècamps “we arrived early at the portage of Yjadakoin. It began at the mouth of a little stream called Rivière aux pommes [“apple River”],—the 3rd that is met after entering the lake, and thus it may be easily recognized.”[58]

On the seventeenth the party began the tedious portage and “made a good league.” On the day following “our people being fatigued, we shortened the intervals between the stations, and we hardly made more than half a league ... the 22nd, the portage was entirely accomplished.”

Six days were thus spent in crossing the nine-mile path—a very good indication of how difficult was the journey. And yet Bonnècamps affirms “The road is passably good.”[59] This road was opened by a detachment under Villiers and Le Borgne sent out by Céloron on the sixteenth—“nearly three-quarters of a league of road” being cleared the first day.[60]

A detailed study of this path has been made by Dr. H. C. Taylor of Brocton, New York.[61] From him we quote the following concerning the “Old Portage Road,” as the path is known locally:

“Its starting point was on the west side of Chautauqua creek at Barcelona, within a few rods of the lake. Its course from this point was southerly along the bank of the creek, passing the afterward location of the first grist mill built in the county, by John McMahon, not far from the mouth of the creek, in 1804 or 1805, reached and crossed the now main road at the ancient cross roads, one mile west of the centre of the village of Westfield, at the monument erected there a few years since by Hon. E. T. Foote (1870). From this point by a south easterly course it soon reached the steep bank of the creek Chautauqua, along which it ran for a mile when it passed into a deep gorge of a hundred feet or more in depth, through which the creek ran, by an extensive dugway still plainly to be seen on the lands owned by Miss Elizabeth Stone, where it crossed the creek and by another dugway on lands for many years owned by Wm. Cummings, it reached the high banks a few rods from the present Glen Mills. The passage of this gorge was a work of considerable magnitude. The west bank was so very precipitous that the passage of teams would seem nearly impossible, yet it is said that in later years, before the road on the east side of the creek through the now village of Westfield was opened, vast quantities of salt and merchandise were transported over it from Lake Erie to Lake Chautauqua for Pittsburgh and other points in the Ohio Valley.

“On the east side of the gorge the road was less precipitous and is now a public highway. After reaching a point above Glen Mills on the south side of the gorge through which the east branch of the Chautauqua creek now runs, and where the Mayville road is now located at that point, to avoid the rugged section over the hill it passed up the east branch for some distance and continued to the east of the present thoroughfare to Mayville, and reached Chautauqua lake at or near the present steamboat landing.”

By 1752—the year of Marin’s expedition to the Ohio—the old road was well overgrown. In the primeval forests it did not take long for a road to become impassable if unused. Braddock’s Road over the Alleghenies, cut in 1755, was impassable in 1758. This road cut in 1749 was cut out again in 1752.[62] In each case three years had elapsed. Marin reached the portage (Barcelona) in April 1752, but, warned perhaps by Céloron, was unfavorably impressed with the practicability of the route and decided to push on and find another portage to the Allegheny. Of this matter we have the testimony of Stephen Coffin, an eye-witness:

“They [Marin’s vanguard] remained at the fort [Niagara] 15 days, and then set out by water, it being April, and arrived at Chadakoin, on Lake Erie [Barcelona], where they were ordered to fell timber and prepare it for building a fort, according to the Governor’s instructions, but Mons. Morang [Marin] coming up the next day with 500 men and 20 Indians, put a stop to the building of the fort, not liking the situation, the river chadakoin [Chautauqua Creek] being too shallow to carry out any craft with provisions, etc, to Belle Riviere.... The two commanders had a sharp debate, the first insisting on building the fort there in accordance with the instructions, but Morang gave him a writing to satisfy the Governor on that point; and then Mons. Mercier, who was commissary and engineer was directed to go along the lake and look for a situation, which he found, and returned in a few days, it being fifteen leagues to the southwest of chadakoin.”[63]

The portage chosen by Marin in preference to this Chautauqua route was that from Presque Isle (Erie, Pennsylvania) to Rivière aux Bœufs.

Marin did not accomplish the task of fort-building for which he was sent in the time prescribed, and his failure was attributed by some to his choice of route to the Allegheny. When returning to Niagara late in the fall a detachment of French from Presque Isle again landed at the Chautauqua portage. “On the 30th (October) they arrived,” Coffin testified, “at Chadakoin where they stayed four days, during which time Mons. Peon [Pean] with 200 men, cut a wagon road over the carrying place from Lake Erie to Lake chadakoin, viewed the situation which proved to their liking, so set off Nov. 3d for Niagara.”

We have one other glimpse of these impetuous Frenchmen widening this first portage path from the Great Lakes toward the Ohio. Samuel Shattuck was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts in 1741. In 1752 he went from his native town on a ranging expedition and was at Fort Oswego when Marin’s party went down Lake Ontario. An officer and five soldiers—one of whom was this eleven-year-old lad—were instantly sent out to watch the French squadron of canoes. They followed them to Niagara and into Lake Erie. An autobiographical story has been taken down by Dr. Taylor from the lips of Shattuck’s grandson. Soon after passing Niagara, the story goes, the boats were lost to sight; “but we expected to overtake them easily, and in fact did so sooner than was agreeable to us as we came near discovering ourselves to the Indians that belonged to the expedition scattered through the woods. They had landed at the mouth of Chautauqua creek, as now called, and were already felling trees on the west side of the Creek, apparently for some sort of fortification. We were confident they had chosen this as a carrying place to some waterway south of the highlands.... From some cause not apparent to us there was a cessation of work, and after three or four days the whole of both parties, with the exception of a few Indians, embarked in their boats and moved westward.” Young Shattuck went on with the party and remained near Presque Isle spying on the French movements until September, when his party returned to Oswego. In October—such was the anxiety of the English concerning this fort and road-building—the same scouts were sent back toward Presque Isle. In the meantime, as before stated, the French had started back for Niagara; landing at the Chautauqua portage to make a road. “On the seventh day out [from Oswego],” reads Shattuck’s autobiographical story, “or near October 30th, as near as I remember, in the afternoon we came upon a party of nearly or quite a hundred Frenchmen rolling logs into a ravine in the bottom of a deep gulf, and digging into the steep sides of the gulf for a road, apparently, at a point that I now (1826) know to have been on the south border of the village of Westfield.... We came upon this party very suddenly and unexpectedly, for we had supposed that the whole matter of a carrying place had been transferred to Erie.... As it was we escaped and witnessed the completion of the road from Lake Erie to Lake Chautauqua. on the third or fourth day the whole party embarked in their boats and moved eastward.”[64]

Passing west of Presque Isle, the first stream offering another passage way to the Ohio was the Cuyahoga River. Ascending this stream about twenty-five miles, an eight-mile portage, almost within the city limits of Akron, Ohio, offered the traveler a passage way to the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum River, which in turn offered a clear course to the Ohio at Marietta.

This portage is not of more than purely local interest save only that it was the first western boundary of territory west of the Ohio to be secured by the United States from the Indians. The treaties of Fort McIntosh, Fort Harmar and Greenville designate this portage as the western boundary line between white and red men. The path was surveyed in July 1797—one year after the arrival of the Connecticut pioneers in the Western Reserve—by Moses Warren Jr. Its total length was given as eight miles, four chains, and fifty-five links.

The path was, undoubtedly, of great importance in the earliest days. This route, if the rivers were passable, was certainly the most practicable of all routes from Lake Erie to the lower Ohio. The portage was comparatively easy and the Muskingum was a swift, clear river. The Cuyahoga was probably almost impassable except at floodtide. The Connecticut pioneers found it so in 1796. Pioneer settlers on the upper Tuscarawas received much of their merchandise from the east by way of Buffalo and the Cuyahoga-Tuscarawas portage.[65]

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.

“Lay in the wood this night. Wolves very numerous hereabout.

October 31. Returned to the camp at the Portage.

November 1. Left landing with seven batteaus and three pirogues loaded with provisions, and proceeded to the dam, which we opened and yet found the water so scanty that it was with the greatest difficulty we passed the chemin couvert. At the end of this narrow pass came to the swamp called les Volets, from the water lilies in it.[79] The batteaus frequently rested on the mud, and we labored hard up to the knees in mud and entangled among the roots and rotten stumps of trees. At length got to the channel formed by the meeting of the Petite Rivière and the Rivière a Boête.[80] Here we encamped, having got but ten miles with great fatigue.

November 2. Small party sent down the river to clear away the logs, etc. The rest of the men employed in damming the water of the two little rivers, to provide for our passage downwards. Heard from Lieut. Du Vernet below that we could not proceed from the shallowness of the water.

November 3. Work on the dam continued. A light canoe sent to the landing for workmen and tools, which returned at half past twelve at night.

November 4. Water was raised three feet. At 8 P. M. Major Hay arrived with the remainder of the boats, provisions, etc.

November 6. Major Hay proceeded down the river, the water being let off, and made another dam a mile below Rivière à l’Anglais.[81]

November 7th. Broke up the dam and proceeded to the pays plat, where the bed of the river being very broad with almost continuous ledges of rock and large stones, found great difficulty. Men in the water from 10 A. M. till after sunset, at which time only one batteau had got to the foot of the rifts (Petit Rocher). Most of the boats damaged.

November 8. Continued to work in the water to forward the boats. Sent down to Du Vernet, who was encamped at the fork of the Ouabache, for seven light pirogues and twenty-two men to assist in lightening the boats.

November 9. Set off from Petit Rocher. Arrived at the forks of the Ouabache at 3 P. M.

November 10. Repairing the boats and airing the bales which had got wet. Sent back to Petit Rocher for the provisions, which had been left there to lighten the boats. After this the river began to rise on account of the heavy rains, and snow and cold weather also came on, which increased the difficulties of the journey.”

From the returns of Henry Du Vernet, second Lieutenant of Artillery, the number of perogues used by Hamilton was forty-two, and of batteaux (“and a very large French one”), ten. Ten two-wheeled carts were employed at the portage, two carriages “with 4 wheels for the Batteaus,” and four “with 2 wheels for the peroques.”[82]

The St. Joseph River, emptying into Lake Michigan, was one of the earlier important roundabout routes to the Mississippi. The eastern fork headed with the Wabash, and with a short portage was the route La Salle described as being “within two leagues” of the Miami of Lake Erie. This St. Joseph-Wabash portage was extremely important, but was roundabout, and was probably abandoned at a comparatively early date.

The southern branch of the St. Joseph heads near the northwest branch of the Kankakee, a tributary of the Illinois, near South Bend, Indiana. This historic path has been made the subject of a monograph by Secretary George A. Baker of the Northern Indiana Historical Society.[83] The seal of this Society is appropriately inscribed: “This region before the advent of the white man was occupied by the Miamis and Pottawatomies. It was made historic by the early explorers and missionaries who used the Kankakee-St. Joseph River Portage.” A few of Mr. Baker’s paragraphs should be included in this catalogue:

“Shortly after Easter Sunday, 1675, the sick and disheartened priest, Father Jacques Marquette, left the Indian village of Kaskaskia to return to his beloved St. Ignace by a new route, which many eminent authorities believe to have been via the Kankakee River. In that case it is very probable that he and his two faithful attendants, Pierre Porteret and Jacques, made use of the portage between the Kankakee and St. Joseph Rivers—a carrying place of between four and five miles. The portage landing on the St. Joseph River is two and three-quarters miles northwest of the court house, at South Bend, St. Joseph County, Indiana, and the portage extends in a southwesterly course to three small ponds which were the nearest sources of the Kankakee. The basins of these ponds are still clearly defined.... The earliest mention of this historic route is found in the writings of Father Louis Hennepin, Henry de Tonty and Réné Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, who first made use of it ... in December, 1679. We are led to believe, however, that Louis Jolliet, companion of Marquette and co-discoverer of the Mississippi, knew of this portage as early as 1673.