The Great Wagon Road

After 1750, immigrants and the children of immigrants in the north found that land was more plentiful and cheaper to the south and west. Many decided to head into the wilderness on The Great Wagon Road, which began in Philadelphia, coursed through the Shenandoah Valley to the Blue Ridge Mountains, and into North Carolina. A branch of the trail went into the Tennessee Valley. The travelers were predominantly of German and Scots-Irish ancestry, although some religious groups like the Moravians also made the trek. Life on the road was hazardous; settlers competed for space with livestock being driven to market, and road conditions were generally poor. One Moravian on the way to North Carolina wrote: "Our afternoon road was stony and bad, and we constantly had to steady the wagon with ropes to keep it from overturning." With fortitude and hard work, thousands of Americans completed the journey to a new life on the Great Wagon Road.