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Nemacolin's Trail, or less oftenNemacolin's Path, was an ancientNative American trail that crossed the great barrier of theAllegheny Mountains via theCumberland NarrowsMountain pass, connecting the watersheds of thePotomac River and theMonongahela River in the present-day United States of America. Nemacolin's Trail connected what are nowCumberland, Maryland andBrownsville, Pennsylvania.
The path was a network of trails that had long been used by Indigenous peoples in pre-colonial America. Nemacolin's Path starts near present-dayCumberland, Maryland, continuing on toBrownsville, Pennsylvania to the neighborhood known today as Redstone located at mouth ofRedstone Creek. In colonial America, the site was known asRedstone Old Fort for its defensive installation.
During 1749 and 1750, theDelaware Indian chiefNemacolin andMaryland frontiersmanThomas Cresap supervised improving the trail for theOhio Company, at the behest ofChristopher Gist. They developed the template trail and in large part the route for what became known on the eastern slopes as the eastern part of Braddock's Road. In 1755 during theFrench and Indian War (the North American front of theSeven Years' War between the English and French), EnglishGeneral Edward Braddock used the eastern part of Nemacolin's Path as a military route in his attempt to captureFort Duquesne, held by the French. (It was later developed asPittsburgh.)
Crossing the Allegheny divide was a major task well into the 19th century, requiring much planning, time and effort. East-west highways were not built across the border betweenVirginia andWest Virginia until late in the century. The two regions were separated by some of the harshest terrain in the mountain chain. Except for using the Cumberland Narrows, travelers would have to go hundreds of miles to the north or south to get through the mountains, as theridgelines are oriented north-south and are nearly impassable.
Nemacolin's Trail was later paved over as theCumberland Road, theNational Road, the National Pike, and eventuallyU.S. Route 40, or the National Highway.U.S. Route 40 became one of the first officially recognized highways in the United States. The earlier road, known as the Cumberland Road/National Road, ran on thefirst cast iron bridge constructed in the United States, at Dunlap's Creek. Nemacolin's Trail became the gateway by which settlers in Conestoga wagons or stage coaches reached the lands west of the Appalachian mountains.
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