"Postcard Tuesday: This early 2000s postcard features ox teams traveling down South Main Street in Black Mountain. Transportation has always played a large role in the Swannanoa Valley's history. The earliest known trail through the Swannanoa Valley was the “Sualinunnahi.” We believe that the “Sualinunnahi” referred to a road that led to Native peoples of the Valley further south and east, possibly Saraw or Catawba Natives. After the American Revolution, the Cherokee were forced to cede their lands, and portions of the Sualinunnahi pathway were adapted by settlers to become a wagon road. In 1827, the Buncombe Turnpike was completed, creating the first safe transmountain wagon road that allowed travel from Tennesse - North Carolina - South Carolina. In North Carolina, the Buncombe Turnpike crossed over the Blue Ridge Mountains and through the French Broad River Valley. Today Interstate 40 runs through the Swannanoa Valley connecting the Eastern United States to the western side of the Blue Ridge Mountains and beyond, providing one of the vital west to east transportation links for goods and travelers."
As posted on Facebook June 13, 2023 by Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center
First... that post card date is wrong wrong wrong.
Ox carts on Main St. went out before the turn of the 19th century to the 20th definitely. And I'd dare to say this photo wasn't taken after 1890.
Second. The Buncombe Turnpike was not what you think of for turnpikes these days. It originally a drovers road for pigs and turkeys going to markets in South Carolina; it never went up the Swannanoa River Valley. Yes there must have been a trail going over the "Old Fort Ridge" as we call it today, between Black Mountain and Old Fort NC.
But the drovers I have read about in the history of Western North Carolina were headed from Tennessee to the South Carolina markets...so the Buncombe Turnpike may have followed along what is now I-26 toward the Saluda Pass...between Hendersonville NC and Columbus SC, or down the route of US 25 to Greenville SC. Markets were maybe as far away as the coast in Charleston. I'm no expert, but anyone going over the Old Fort Pass would still need to go over the southern most passes of the mountains.
The phrasing leads one to think that I-40 was built where the Buncombe Turnpike had run. It says, "In North Carolina, the Buncombe Turnpike crossed over the Blue Ridge Mountains and through the French Broad River Valley. Today Interstate 40 runs through the Swannanoa Valley..."
Third: I'm surprised a museum would put out this information that seems so misleading. It was posted by the Swannanoa History Museum on FaceBook.
and Fourth: I could be mistaken...
Today's other quote:Prayers are tools not for doing or getting, but for being and becoming. |
EUGENE H. PETERSON |
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ReplyDeleteI believe you're right.
ReplyDeleteSusan M. and I discussed it, and she agrees. Now I guess I should go back to the museum.
DeleteThe museum should fix their mistake! Take care, have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteYes...though they may not know about it yet.
DeleteSomebody didn't check their history. Did you bring it to their attention?
ReplyDeleteThat's the next step.
DeleteInteresting history. I like that quote by Eugene Peterson.
ReplyDeleteMe too!
DeleteDefinitely sounds like an error.
ReplyDeleteI think someone from out of state might have written it. I've only studied North Carolina history a little bit, but this was a bit off.
DeleteCould it have been a special event, like a market day? Horses were very much in use in many areas as late as WWII, especially teams that could pull heavy loads. I remember seeing the telephone company using a team.of workhorses to pull cable over steep land when I moved here in the 70s.
ReplyDeleteI think not. But yes, many teams did the work that tractors now do.
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