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Pioneer Roads and Experiences of Travelers ...
Pioneer Roads and Experiences of Travelers Author:Archer Butler Hulbert Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV THE GENESEE ROAD THE military importance of the Mohawk Valley and strategic portage at Rome, New York, was emphasized in our study of Portage Pa... more »ths.31 Throughout the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary struggle the water route to the Hudson from Lake Ontario, by way of the Onondaga, Lake Oneida, Wood Creek, and the Mohawk, was of great moment. But only because it was a route — a thoroughfare; not because the territory through which it coursed was largely occupied or of tremendous value. The French held the lakes and the English were constantly striving for foothold there. When Fort Oswego was built on the present site of Oswego, the first step by the English was taken; the route had been the river route with a portage at Fort Wil- 81Historic Highways of America, vol. vii, pp. 139-148.liams (Rome). When Fort .Niagara was captured in 1759 by Sir William Johnson, the French were driven from the Lakes; Johnson's route to Niagara was by Lake Ontario from Oswego. It has been suggested that a volume of this series of monographs should be given to the campaigns of the English against Fort Niagara. These campaigns were made largely on waterways; they left no roads which became of any real importance in our national development. Certain campaigns of the Old French War left highways which have become of utmost significance; only of these routes and their story should this series be expected to treat. Despite the two wars which had created busy scenes in the Mohawk Valley, no landward route connected it with Niagara River and Lake Erie except the Iroquois Trail.32 No military road was built through the " Long House of the Iroquois." To gain the key of the western situation — Niagara — the common route was to Oswego. There were local roads along the lake shore, and the...« less