KAINTUCKS

 From the 1700’s to the 1800s, farmers. boatmen, and traders from Ohio and the Tennessee Valley produced many products, including corn, flour, whiskey, livestock, and lumber, but it was difficult to transport them to the distant markets that had a demand for them.

Eventually, they utilized the river systems to take their goods south. They built flatboats and floated down. Some went as far as New Orleans. Then, they disassembled their boats and sold the lumber before returning home.

Since no steam-powered boats existed to take them upriver, these men traveled up the Natchez Trace back north to their homes.

Since they carried a lot of money after selling their boatloads of goods, many traveled together to avoid highway bandits waiting to rob unsuspecting travelers.

Walking from Natchez to Nashville was about 450 miles, and by foot, it took months to get back. Some men camped, but settlers along the way, even some tribes of Indians, offered lodging and food for a price. The primitive inns the settlers built were called stands. There, they could shelter from rainstorms, buy feed if they had livestock, swap stories, and enjoy a good home-cooked meal.

They also faced challenges such as swollen streams, mud, and mosquitoes. They also faced the risk of disease or encounters with wild animals along the way. So traveling in groups helped. That all changed when steamboats came along that could travel upriver against the current.

So these rough-and-ready Kaintucks toughed it out through this area of the country that we now take for granted as we drive on smoothly paved asphalt in our air-conditioned cars, stopping at conveniently placed clean restrooms provided by the National Park Service to enjoy the Natchez Trace.