PHYSIOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES IN TENNESSEE. 51 



cess to the plateau surface beyond. In addition to this, the plateau as a 

 whole must be considered as a broad barrier, separating Middle and East 

 Tennessee. The northern half of it, as has been said, is a maze of sharp- 

 topped ridges and deep, narrow valleys in its eastern part, while its west- 

 ern part, although the general surface is almost flat, is broken by many 

 deep, narrow stream gorges, so that it is not possible in this section to 

 establish easy means of communication across the plateau. The southern 

 portion as far north as the head of Sequatchie Valley, is also difficult to 

 cross, because of this valley. There is left, consequently, only a relatively 

 narrow middle belt across which communication east and west may be 

 established with any facility whatever. 



In the early settlement of the State, the first immigrants to Middle Ten- 

 nessee passed around the plateau to the north, through Cumberland Gap, 

 and thence followed down the Cumberland River to the Nashville region, 

 or embarked on the Tennessee River in flat-bottomed boats and passed 

 around and through it to the south through northern Alabama and across 

 West. Tennessee into the Ohio, and up the Cumberland to Nashville. For 

 some years after Middle Tennessee had become a permanent settlement, 

 there was no road across the Cumberland Plateau. That region was 

 owned and inhabited by roving Indians and was full of perils for the 

 traveler. A military road was first opened across it in 1787, and in 1799 

 another one was opened along a somewhat better route some 10 to 20 

 miles south of the first one and roughly parallel to it. This latter road 

 passed through the gap where Rockwood now stands and by where Crab 

 Orchard, Crossville and Monterey now are. For some years after these 

 roads were opened it was customary for travelers to wait at the eastern 

 side of the plateau until a considerable number had gathered, when they 

 were escorted across it by a detail of soldiers, so great were the dangers 

 of the journey. Even today one may often travel in certain sections of 

 the plateau five or ten miles without seeing a clearing or a habitation, and 

 in eastern Fen tress and Pickett counties there are many square miles 

 without an inhabitant. The country is so rough and wild that it has always 

 been popularly known as "the wilderness". It is perhaps more nearly a 

 wilderness in the true sense of the word than any equaled sized area east 

 of the Mississippi River today. 



Railways. For years the only railway connection between Middle and 

 East Tennessee was through the break in the plateau on the southern mar- 

 gin of the State where the Tennessee River cuts its way westward and 

 southwestward across it. This railway, the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. 

 Louis, long enjoyed a monopoly of transportation between these other- 



