During America's colonial period, the trans-Appalachian west, though largely terra incognita to people living on the eastern seaboard and occupied by significant numbers of native peoples, lay open to initial forays by hunters, explorers, surveyors, and settlers. The earliest overland travel routes to traverse western Virginia lands, country that eventually became the Commonwealth of Kentucky, were established between the 1750s and 1780.

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Kentucky's Frontier Trails: Warrior's Path, Boone's Trace, and Wilderness Road
by Karl Raitz, Nancy O'Malley, Dick Gilbreath, & Jeff Levy, University of Kentucky
26" x 40", Gyula Pauer Center for Cartography & GIS, 2008