Paths of the Mound-Building Indians and Great Game Animals

In Short

This historical monograph examines how prehistoric human societies and native game animals established North America’s foundational overland travel networks. Archer Butler Hulbert challenges long-held nineteenth-century myths by linking the prehistoric mound-builders directly to later Native American tribes, demonstrating how both groups utilized highland watersheds to avoid seasonal flooding and dense forest growth. The text further detail how migrating herds of American bison packed down broad "traces" across mountain gaps and portage paths. Valued for its meticulous geographic details and reliance on early frontier journals, the work reveals how ancient animal and native routes became the foundation for pioneer roads, canals, and modern transcontinental railways.

The Story

The text begins by re-evaluating the origins of North America's earthworks, urging a rigorous, evidence-based approach to early American archaeology. Hulbert rejects the nineteenth-century romantic theory that a forgotten, highly civilized non-Indian race erected the mounds. Citing research from the Smithsonian Institution’s Bureau of Ethnology, he argues that the mound-builders and the Native Americans encountered by European settlers were the exact same people. By analyzing federal surveys, Hulbert plots the geographical concentration of these ancient sites, noting that the heaviest mound-building populations inhabited the drainage basins of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, mirroring the population distribution of modern American states.

Hulbert demonstrates that these early communities lived along smaller headwater streams rather than major riverbanks to escape catastrophic seasonal flooding. To move between settlements, conduct trade, and hunt, they traveled along high ground. The author establishes the fundamental law of early land travel—the law of least elevation or least resistance. Ridge tops and elevated watersheds offered dry, firm footing, lighter timber, protection from winter drifts, and clear vantage points for defense and hunting. Archæological site locations in states like Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Arkansas confirm that earthworks and effigy mounds align with high-altitude ridges and early pioneer roads.

The focus then shifts from prehistoric human travel to the habits of North America's largest game animal: the bison. Examining the absence of buffalo bones in prehistoric earthworks, Hulbert concludes that bison entered the Ohio valley region after the height of the mound-building era but before European exploration. He maps the vast historical range of the bison, from Great Slave Lake to Mexico, and describes their instinct for topography. Despite their immense size and occasional herd panics—such as mass drownings in quicksand rivers—bison were agile climbers capable of scaling steep rocky bluffs to find the most practical mountain passes and river portages.

In the final chapters, Hulbert traces how early explorers, fur traders, and long-hunters like Daniel Boone, Dr. Thomas Walker, and Christopher Gist relied on these deep animal paths. In regions like Kentucky, thousands of migrating bison created wide, hard-packed "traces" linking salt licks and river crossings. Settlers cleared these pre-established avenues instead of cutting new paths through dense timber. Ultimately, these bison routes dictated the paths of historic military marches, pioneer wagon trails like the Wilderness Road, and early turnpikes. The book concludes by demonstrating how modern civil engineering continually validates animal instinct: major modern trunk lines, including the Baltimore & Ohio and Pennsylvania railways, run directly along the watershed trails blazed centuries earlier by bison and native travelers.

How It Unfolds

Revising early archæology Hulbert refutes outdated assumptions regarding American earthworks, citing Smithsonian data to prove the mound-builders were direct ancestors of modern Native Americans. This establishes a continuous historical timeline of human land use in North America.

Mapping the watersheds By cross-referencing census data and archaeological surveys, the author shows that early populations settled along upper tributaries to avoid river flooding. These interior settlements required overland highways along the high, dry crests of regional watersheds.

Tracking the great herds The narrative turns to the American bison, establishing that the species expanded into the Central West after the mound-building era. Hulbert details their vast territorial range, herd behaviors, and expert navigation of rugged terrain.

Opening the wilderness Relying on the eighteenth-century journals of Walker, Gist, and Boone, the text illustrates how early white travelers relied entirely on established Indian paths and buffalo traces. These hard-worn tracks provided safe passage through dense forests and across steep mountain gaps.

Laying modern foundations The book closes by tracking the transformation of bison traces into pioneer wagon roads, state highways, and major railway corridors. Surveyors repeatedly confirmed that the animal paths offered the most direct routes and lowest grades across the continent.

The People

Archer Butler Hulbert The author serves as historical guide and analyst throughout the text. He advocates for objective, unbiased methodology in studying American antiquities, seeking to demonstrate how physical geography and animal behaviors dictated early human movement and national expansion.

The Mound-Building Indians Viewed collectively as the earliest documented human inhabitants of the interior watersheds, these Native American ancestors established extensive communities, earthworks, and highland trails near the headwaters of the Mississippi and Ohio river systems.

The American Bison Framed as the premier natural surveyor of the continent, the bison possessed an instinct for finding low-grade mountain passes and solid ground. Their massive herds packed down broad, durable thoroughfares that cleared natural paths through dense wilderness.

Dr. Thomas Walker and Christopher Gist Eighteenth-century explorers whose original travel journals provide direct evidence of early land travel. Their written records distinguish clearly between narrow Indian footpaths and wide, heavily beaten buffalo roads across the Appalachian frontier.

Daniel Boone and the Kentucky Pioneers Frontiersmen who utilized existing buffalo traces to navigate the trans-Allegheny wilderness. Boone and his contemporaries cleared these pre-worn animal routes to open Kentucky to westward migration, establishing early towns like Leestown and Lexington along them.

In Its Own Voice

"If the summit should be bare of trees, the very contour of the ground may suggest the old-time, deeply-trod roadway; where a forest lies over the summit a remarkably significant open aisle in the woods speaks yet more plainly of the ancient highway..."

Hulbert describes the visible, enduring physical marks left on the American landscape by centuries of animal and human passage along watershed ridges.

"A couple of horses were lost in a mud hole last week. The bottom had fallen out. The driver was unaware of the fact. His horses plunged in and ere they could be extricated were drowned."

Citing an 1837 newspaper report on Ohio's Black Swamp Road, the author illustrates the severe, dangerous bog conditions pioneers faced when they departed from high-ground ridge routes.

"A foot-path, zigzagging through the freshly made stumps of trees and past some saplings of dogwood and pawpaw, led down from the station to this spring, while a much broader track sloped from the main gate... that was a priceless boon to the pioneers."

Quoting Kentucky local history, Hulbert highlights how early frontier forts like Bryant's Station were purposely built adjacent to wide, ancient buffalo traces.

What It's Really About

At its core, the book investigates how physical geography dictates human history. Hulbert argues that movement across a landscape is governed by an unyielding natural law: the path of least resistance. Rather than conquering the wilderness through abstract planning, early human societies and European settlers adapted to the topography by following existing biological networks. The text demystifies prehistoric America, replacing romantic myths about forgotten empires with a practical look at how hydrology, forest density, and animal instincts shaped trade and migration. It asserts that modern infrastructure—from pioneer turnpikes to modern transcontinental railways—is not an original invention of modern engineering, but the direct descendant of ancient natural trails worn into the soil by hooves and moccasins.

Why Read It Today

This volume appeals to readers interested in historical geography, environmental history, and the early American frontier. Reading Hulbert feels like going on a field excursion with a sharp-eyed nineteenth-century surveyor who points out hidden historical markers in the surrounding landscape. He turns forgotten forest trails, ridge lines, and railway cuts into readable historical documents.

The work requires some patience with early twentieth-century academic style, as Hulbert frequently supports his arguments using detailed lists of county site locations, extended footnoted excerpts from pioneer journals, and lengthy citations from early government reports. However, the book remains remarkably approachable due to its clear prose and fascinating local anecdotes—such as horses sinking into bottomless mudholes or railway tracks laid directly over ancient buffalo traces. It leaves you with a lasting sense of how deeply the modern built environment rests upon the subtle contours of the natural world.

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