In Tennessee and southern Kentucky, the trail followed substantially the route of the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway (which no longer exists, but is the same as much of the Norfolk Southern Railway of today). The author is especially indebted to Judge W.E. McElwee of Rockwood, Tennessee for information in regard to it. We quote from him the following:

There was a trail from the lower towns of the Cherokees which followed the eastern escarpment of the Cumberland Mountains from Chattanooga to Emory River, which it followed toward Kentucky. Another trail from the upper Cherokee towns led from the old Chota Ford (near Echota, the sacred town of refuge), passing the town now known as Lenoir City, crossing the Clinch River one mile above the town of Kingston at the mouth of the Emory, and following up that stream until it intersected the trail or trace from the lower towns.

We are indebted to Mr. L.E. Bryant of Roberta, Tennessee, for the location of that portion of the trail from Harriman, Tn., to Lexington, Ky. He is a civil engineer of wide experience who has given the ancient trails of this region close study. It will be seen that this route divided near Wartburg (now located on U.S. 27 south of Oneida, Tn.). One branch is followed by the present line of the railroad. We quote in substance from Mr. Bryant's letters to the author in September and October 1919.

I lived quite a while in central Kentucky near Danville and spent a great deal of time at Burnside on the Cumberland River and later lived five years at Harriman, Tennessee, and investigated the Indian mounds and works on the Seven Islands in the Tennessee River and adjacent bottom lands near the mouth of the Clinch.

During all this time and for the past thirty years I have investigated Indian rock houses along the Cincinnati Southern railway and also have walked over most of the old wagon road that paralled the present location of the railroad and really was the cause of that road having been built.

It is my opinion that this railroad today occupies the only animal trail from the Tennessee Valley to the Cumberland Valley at Burnside and on to central Kentucky, around Danville, Harrodsburg and Lexington. I base this information on the fact that this wagon road occupies the perfectly dry ridges from Burnside to the river crossing at New River, and from this point south.

Whenver leading ridges join this road, as at Whitley City, Stearns, Cumberland Falls and Silerville in Kentucky; and at Oneida and Helenwood, Tennesse, Indian relics and chips are extremely plentiful. On the ridges that lead out from those junction points, pieces of pottery and flint chips can be found together with large arrow heads and hatchets and tools for miles.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Cincinnati Southern Railroad occupies practically the main artery of travel from the Tennessee to the Cumberland Rivers, as the tops of the ridges all show camp sites, especially at every cross ridge. There is a very marked quantity of flint chips on the ridge between Whitley City and Stearns and on ridges running out east and west, probably being along connected ridges from the upper Cumberland valley around Williamsburg and the lower Cumberland valley around Monticello and Beaver Creek.

The wagon road along the line of the C.N.O. & T.P.R.R. (an old rail line) is approximately the old trail. The side branches are indicated where known. One of these branches starts above Whitley City and goes east of Bullet Mold Ridge to Cumberland River bottoms and settlements at Williamsburg. The second went west from Whitley City and Stearns, converging on Lick Creek Ridge, one mile west of Stearns, and going thence west to the Indian towns near Monticello, and on to Mill Springs in Wayne County, and to Rowena in Russell County.