Trading Path
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Trading Path (a.k.a. The Path to the Catawba, the Catawba Road, etc.) is not simply one wide path as many named historic roads were or are. It actually was a corridor of roads and trails between the Chesapeake Bay region (mainly the Petersburg, Virginia, area) and the Cherokee, Catawba, and other Native-American groups in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. In early colonial times it was mainly used by Virginian traders, who traveled to Native American towns and exchanged manufactured goods for various goods, mainly deerskins.
Interstate 85, from Petersburg, VA, to roughly the Georgia state border, follows the path. Much of it was used by Indians for centuries prior to its use by Europeans and/or European-Americans. Indian and later European/European-American settlements occupied key points along the path, and both Natives and New Comers mainly used the Trading Path for commercial cargo carriage. Many of the earliest towns along its route remain to this day, and many remnants of the Trading Path are still visible.
