Indian Trails & Colonial Paths

There is much debate not only about the indian trails, but the subsequent routes of colonial paths which were supposed to be based on those trails.

Supposedly there were two colonial paths that went through Monson - the Bay Path & Longmeadow Path (each are addressed in this section.

In Bay Path and Along the Way 1919 Levi Chase documents in "Chapter V - In Monson" the path through our town. (it is also available at http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ma/state/baypath/chap5.html )

I take issue with some of Chase's work, particularly concerning the Bald Peak area. In part this is in support of the later conclusions reached by Harry Andrew Wright in his 1949 work Story of Western Massachusetts in Chapter XV - The Bay Path Myth.

Basically, Wright suggests to claim the various Colonial paths & early roads were merely widened Indian trails was folly, given the Indians did not have horses nor wagons, as did the early & later settlers.

This is not to say that the first explorers & settlers did not use the existing trails on foot, but that the paths evolved to accomodate horse back & wagon traffic.

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Thanks Stephen Philips