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Old Connecticut Path: Difference between revisions
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=== History === | === History === | ||
The '''Old Connecticut Path''' was created by Native Americans in antiquity.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Connecticut_Path Old Connecticut Path] in ''Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia (accessed 28 October 2014).</ref> It originally went about 94 miles (151 kilometers) from '''[[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]]''' to '''[[Springfield, Massachusetts|Springfield]]''' in [[Massachusetts]]<ref>Frederic J. Wood, ''The Turnpikes of New England and the Evolution of the Same Through England, Virginia, and Maryland'' (Boston: Marshall Jones, 1919), 25. [https://archive.org/details/turnpikesofnewen00woodrich Internet Archive version online].</ref>, and then another 26 miles (42 kilometers) south to '''[[Hartford, Connecticut]]'''. It was the first eastern North American trail that led west from settlements on the Atlantic seacoast into the interior of America (Connecticut River Valley).<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Connecticut_Path Old Connecticut Path].</ref> The [[Connecticut River]] itself was also an important transportation route which attracted early settlers. Starting in the 1650s the Old Connecticut Path route was used as the '''''upper fork of the [[Boston Post Road]]''''' to New York City<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Post_Road Boston Post Road] in ''Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia (accessed 28 October 2014).</ref>, also known as the '''''[[King's Highway]]''''' which eventually extended as far south as Charleston, South Carolina. Nevertheless, travel between colonial towns was more often by sea than it was over land until just before the American Revolution.<ref>Wood, 25.</ref> | The '''Old Connecticut Path''' was created by Native Americans in antiquity.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Connecticut_Path Old Connecticut Path] in ''Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia (accessed 28 October 2014).</ref> It originally went about 94 miles (151 kilometers) from '''[[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]]''' to '''[[Springfield, Massachusetts|Springfield]]''' in [[Massachusetts]]<ref>Frederic J. Wood, ''The Turnpikes of New England and the Evolution of the Same Through England, Virginia, and Maryland'' (Boston: Marshall Jones, 1919), 25. [https://archive.org/details/turnpikesofnewen00woodrich Internet Archive version online].</ref>, and then another 26 miles (42 kilometers) south to '''[[Hartford, Connecticut]]'''. It was the first eastern North American trail that led west from settlements on the Atlantic seacoast into the interior of America (Connecticut River Valley).<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Connecticut_Path Old Connecticut Path].</ref> The [[Connecticut River]] itself was also an important transportation route which attracted early settlers. Starting in the 1650s the Old Connecticut Path route was used as the '''''upper fork of the [[Boston Post Road]]''''' to New York City<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Post_Road Boston Post Road] in ''Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia (accessed 28 October 2014).</ref>, also known as the '''''[[King's Highway]]''''' which eventually extended as far south as Charleston, South Carolina. In the 1760s stagecoaches began to traverse these roads carrying regular mail and passengers. Inns for stagecoach passengers usually were established near the time of American Revolution. Nevertheless, travel between colonial towns was more often by sea than it was over land until just before the American Revolution.<ref>Wood, 25.</ref> | ||
'''Earliest settlers'''. The Old Connecticut Path was used by members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as early as 1630. In those first years Indians also carried corn from the Connecticut River Valley over the path to help supply starving colonists in Boston.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Connecticut_Path Old Connecticut Path].</ref> The route continued to attract settlements in the interior of Massachusetts and Connecticut because it provided access to markets for settler goods and services. | '''Earliest settlers'''. The Old Connecticut Path was used by members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as early as 1630. In those first years Indians also carried corn from the Connecticut River Valley over the path to help supply starving colonists in Boston.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Connecticut_Path Old Connecticut Path].</ref> The route continued to attract settlements in the interior of Massachusetts and Connecticut because it provided access to markets for settler goods and services. | ||