Historic Highways of America/Volume 7/Preface
PREFACE
THE little portage pathways which connected the heads of our rivers and lakes or offered the voyageur a thoroughfare around the cataracts and rapids of our rivers were, as the subtitle of this volume suggests, the "Keys of the Continent" a century or so ago. The forts, chapels, trading stations, treaty houses, council fires, boundary stones, camp grounds, and villages located at these strategic points all prove this. The study of these routes brings one at once face to face with old-time problems from a point of view almost never otherwise gained. The newness and value of reviewing historic movements from the standpoint of highways is strikingly emphasized in the case of portage paths. While studying them, one seems to rise on heights of ground like those these pathways spanned—and from that altitude, gazing backward, to get a better perspective of the military and social movements which made these little roads historic.
The difficulty of treating such a broad subject in a single monograph must be apparent. Portages are found wherever lakes or rivers lie, and our subject is therefore as broad as the continent. It is obvious that in a limited space it is possible to treat only of portages most used and best known—which most influenced our history. These are practically included in the territory lying south of the Great Lakes between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River. Historically, too, we are taken back to the early days of our history when America was coextensive with the continent, for the important portages were those binding the St. Lawrence with the rivers of New England, and the tributaries of the Great Lakes with those of the Mississippi.
It has seemed most profitable to divide the subject into two parts: in the first, under the specific title of "Portage Paths" is given a description of these routes, their nature, use, and evolution. The second part is devoted to a "Catalogue of American Portages," and in it are included extracts from the studies of students who have given the subject of portages their attention, showing style of treatment, methods of investigation and research, and results of field-work. Among these Dr. Wm. F. Ganong's Historic Sites in the Province of New Brunswick and Elbert J. Benton's The Wabash Trade Route are commanding examples of critical, scholarly field-work and specific historical analysis. Professor Justin H. Smith's impressive monograph on Arnold's Battle with the Wilderness, and Secretary George A. Baker's The St. Joseph-Kankakee Portage are illustrations of what could and should be done in many score of cases throughout the United States. To Sylvester's Northern New York and Dr. H. C. Taylor's The Old Portage Road the author is likewise indebted. The author has attempted to make good in some degree the astonishing lack of material concerning the famous Oneida Portage in New York, a subject which calls loudly for earnest and minute study—for this portage path at Rome, New York, with the exception of Niagara, was the most important west of the Hudson River. A plea for the study of the subject of portages and the marking of historic sites occupies the concluding pages.
Marietta, Ohio, May 22, 1903.