Lost River - Karst Information Portal

depth of 12 feet. This became known as the Old
Buffalo Trace. It is estimated that two-thirds of
the early settlers of southern Indiana used this
path. U.S. 150 from Louisville to Vincennes,
Indiana, generally follows the same route as
that early buffalo trail. As settlers progressed
westward, many stayed at the small settlements
that were established along the trail. The area
of Washington, Orange, Martin, and Lawrence
counties are full of the footprints of our early
Indiana ancestors. Those coming from the
east used the Ohio River as their highway and
entered Indiana from several landing points
Figure 39. Buffalo Trace map.
Geology Field Trip
along the river. Again, Louisville was a major
entry point, but many also landed at Fredonia
and moved northward along the Blue River
Trace to where it intercepted the Old Buffalo
Trace.
[The above information was extracted
from the book “Who’s Your Hoosier Ancestor? -
Genealogy for Beginners” by Mona Robinson,
1992, Indiana University, Bloomington,
Indiana, and from the Historic Southern
Indiana and Hoosier National Forest Web
sites.]
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