‘The Road That Made America’: Traversing the Wilderness

The author goes on ‘A Modern Pilgrim’s Journey on the Great Wagon Road.’

Conestoga wagons on the Great Road by Newbold Hugh Trotter. The author drives along the road of the America's earliest travelers. Public Domain

America has always been defined by its great migration trails. The 19th century had the National Road and the Oregon Trail. In the 20th century, Route 66 was, in John Steinbeck’s words, “The Great Mother Road.” These routes moved Americans west to new homes.

These are well remembered today. Yet the oldest of the great migratory routes, and perhaps the most influential, is largely forgotten today. James Dodson explores this road in “The Road That Made America: A Modern Pilgrim’s Journey on the Great Wagon Road.”