Lower Cherokee Traders' Path

United States   Migration    Trails and Roads    Lower Cherokee Traders' Path

The Lower Cherokee Traders' Path originally connected the Catawba villages in the Waxhaws (Charlotte area) in North Carolina with Cherokee villages in South Carolina and Georgia (Tugaloo). Part of the Upper Road followed the same route as the Lower Cherokee Traders' Path.

Historical Background
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Route
Counties on the Lower Cherokee Traders' Path (east to west)


 * North Carolina:  Mecklenburg, Gaston
 * South Carolina:  York, Cherokee, Spartanburg, Greenville, Pickens, Oconee
 * Georgia:  Stephens

Settlers and Records
No lists of settlers who used or settled along the Lower Cherokee Traders' Path are known to exist. However, local and county histories along the road may reveal that many of the first pioneer settlers arrived from places to the northeast along the Upper Road, the Occaneechi Path, the Fall Line Road, or the Great Valley Road (south fork).

The most likely place of origin for settlers along the Lower Cherokee Traders' Path was from the Waxhaws and the Yadkin River settlements in North Carolina. Those from farthest away may have arrived from southern Virginia, Maryland, or even the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania or southern New Jersey. Some Ulster-Irish setters may have come via the port of Philadelphia a generation earlier.