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primary pathway for Euro-Americans in and out of the
Sangamon River Valley. Cartloads of furs, buffalo hides, and deerhides rolled southward, to be replaced by salt, gunpowder, lead ingots, iron tools, short and long guns, agricultural implements, textiles, and the other supplies required for frontier life. The freight traffic dug ruts in the Central Illinois prairie sod. As shallow-draft
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operation, destroying and burning every Native property they could find – including homes and villages led by
Kickapoo who had tried to live in peace with the United States. Furthermore, almost all of the Trace had physically disappeared. Its sodded ruts had been paved over with asphalt, plowed up
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In the 1900s, few wanted to remember the old trail. In the War of 1812, the event from which the Trace had gotten its
English name, the northward thrust of Edwards's troop of Illinois rangers had been conducted with a brutality that was taken for granted by the successful frontiersmen at the time.
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had, by 1492, developed a complex skein of roads, trails, and traces over most of North
America. While most of these trails are lost to written history, the trail from Cahokia to Peoria remained in active use during the late 1600s and early 1700s, the time of intensive activity by French-speaking
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railroad was chartered in 1847 to improve transportation in and out of the belt served by the Trace, and as the new trackage was built, the old trail fell into inactivity. Parts of it appear to have continued in use as rural dirt roads for many years, but eventually the Trace almost completely
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Following the War of 1812, Central
Illinois was open to agricultural settlement and the Edwards Trace entered upon its busiest period of active use. The Trace and the prairie lands around it were carefully surveyed. In the 1820s and (to a somewhat lesser extent) in the 1830s, the trace was a
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The original surveyors' records of the Trace survived and, supplemented by the published reminiscences of old settlers, enabled local historians to locate one remaining short section of Trace ruts in what is now Lake Park, parallel to the shore of
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in 1783, the United States of
America acquired nominal sovereignty over the land that would become Central Illinois. The young country was unable to exercise effective control over the frontier territory until the
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and the region around Peoria. Edwards became a hero to his fellow frontiersmen and, when
Illinois achieved statehood in 1818, the ranger leader was promptly elected to the
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in the north. During the 1810s and 1820s the trace played a decisive role in the settlement of
Central Illinois by Euro-Americans.
234:"A Cultural and Historical Resources Study for the Proposed Carpenter Street Underpass, Springfield Rail Improvements Project"
82:, grouped around Cahokia, saw this alliance as a threat and determined upon action. A local leader, territorial governor
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as loamy farmland, or buried under later engineering projects.
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The
Edwards Trace knit together what are now the communities of Cahokia,
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The
Sangamo Frontier: History and Archeology in the Shadow of Lincoln
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was an overland trail that served the frontier region that became
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The Edwards Trace remained in active use into the 1840s. The
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287:Geography of Sangamon County, Illinois
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292:Historic trails and roads in Illinois
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131:Edwards and his men had conducted a
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212:Illinois State Historical Society
167:parallel the Trace's line today.
98:. In 1826, Edwards was elected
110:began to steam up and down the
50:missionaries. Bearers of the
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267:University of Chicago Press
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61:With the signing of the
261:Mazrim, Robert (2008).
56:Illinois Confederation
241:Fever River Research
124:Alton & Sangamon
100:Governor of Illinois
207:"The Edwards Trace"
297:Illinois Territory
133:search-and-destroy
72:Illinois Territory
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76:Upper Canada
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265:. Chicago:
246:October 11,
153:Springfield
96:U.S. Senate
68:War of 1812
281:Categories
184:References
108:steamboats
218:March 9,
171:See also
157:Elkhart
36:History
26:Cahokia
269:. 131.
118:Legacy
30:Peoria
237:(PDF)
248:2015
220:2013
163:and
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