Introduction
The Turkey Foot Road was cut from Fort Cumberland in 1779 as a shorter alternative to Braddock’s Road, in order to resupply Fort Pitt in support of Brodhead's summer expedition. The Turkey Foot Road was also dryer than Braddock's Road because it avoided two troublesome, and even dangerous, crossings of the Youghiogheny River. A detailed description of the Revolutionary War origin of the Turkey Foot Road is provided in Volume 2 of my 2019 book "Fort Cumberland".
L. Dietle
Photo and video tours of the Turkey Foot Road
To introduce people to the Turkey Foot Road I created a three-part online photo tour, and then created the following video. The photo tour and video provide a summary of the military history of the road, show scenery along the road, and provide an overview of the route.
The route of the Turkey Foot Road
The following interactive map compares the route of the Turkey Foot Road (red dots) to the portion of the route of Braddock's Road that is west of Fort Cumberland (blue dots). The red dots are based on my own research. The blue dots are based on Norman Baker's research.
A book about the Turkey Foot Road
The first history book I ever wrote was "In Search of the Turkey Foot Road." Unfortunately, I was inexperienced when I wrote it, and failed to avoid some embarrassing interpretive mistakes. Although the book is truly groundbreaking in terms of reporting the Revolutionary War origin of the legendary road and delineating much of its route, it has always been disappointing to me because of the mistakes it contains. For example, it was only after publication of the fourth edition that I was able to deduce that the dashed line routes on the 1755 Fry and Jefferson map actually represent Christopher Gist's western tours for the Ohio Company. The following online addendums are provided in an attempt to correct such mistakes.
If you decide to read "In Search of the Turkey Foot Road," seek out the fourth edition (2014) and read it in conjunction with its online addendum. Also, be aware that the book was written as a digital book with hyperlinked figures, even though it was often sold with a printed copy of the body text.
