Warrior Trail (ALANANT-O-WAMIOWEE)

Many parts of the eastern United States have trails known as the “Warrior Trail.” These trails, based on game trails or manmade paths, were used by the American Indians as trade routes, access to hunting grounds, and warpaths to attack neighboring tribes. Alanant-O-Wamiowee (Path of the Armed Ones) was the principal warrior trail through Kentucky. It is generally agreed that the trail ran from the Shawnee villages around Sandusky, Ohio, to the Cherokee settlements in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.

Many consider the Alanant-O-Wamiowee Trail to be part of a system that extended from Sault Sainte Marie, Mich., to Charleston, S.C. Since it was used solely for foot traffic, the trail was only two to three feet wide. Its path was marked by blazes cut into trees, stone markers, carvings in rocks, and
trees purposely deformed to serve as directional arrows.

The Alanant-O-Wamiowee Trail, with numerous branches, crossed the Ohio River several times between the Scioto and the Miami rivers. In other
places, the Scioto, Miami, and Licking rivers served as waterway branches of the trail. The trail’s main crossing of the Ohio River is thought to have been at Maysville. From Maysville the trail ran southward to Eskippakithiki (the last Shawnee town in Kentucky), in Clark Co., and on to Flat Lick in
Knox Co. At Flat Lick the trail turned southeast toward the Cumberland Gap and the Smoky Mountains. From 1780to 1820, the Alanant-O-Wamiowee Trail was used as the right-of-way for the portion of the Wilderness Road that ran from the Cumber land Gap to Flat Lick.
The Battle of Blue Licks, fought on August 19, 1782, on the banks of the North Fork of the Licking River in modern Robertson Co., took place along
this trail.

Charles H. Bogart

Quoted from pages 932 of THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NORTHERN KENTUCKY THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY ISBN 978-0-8131-2565-7