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"Trammel's Trace"

Now that brings to mind a question I've had for a very long time -- can anyone define what exactly is a "trace" and how does it different from a path or trail?
Who would use the word "trace"?

A few miles from my home is a Buffalo Creek and a road named Buffalo Trace, but I'm pretty sure there were never Buffalo near here.

Although I did much of the overhead imagery and cartography for the book,

"Trammel's Trace -- first road to Texas from the North" the distinction between "trail" and "trace" is, to me, still a vague one.

I classify a "trail" as a distinct, established, possibly well-marked and well-worn path.

And, I classify a "trace" as a "used route" that shifts location according to conditions (avoiding muddy spots, fallen trees, etc).

For example, there are several places where Trammel's Trace has both a meandering upland "wet season" route -- paralleling a more direct, lowland, "dry season" route -- sometimes with as much as a mile between the two branches... We've also determined that Trammel's Trace tends to divert from a direct route to pass by good, all-weather sources of water, like springs.

I tend to suspect that our local "traces" followed routes that were used earlier as animal migration routes...

FWIW, that historical marker represents four years of my archæological and historical research in that general area -- including the re-discovery of the "lost" townsite of "Old Unionville" that formed from a travelers' campground at the junction of "Trammel's Trace" and the earlier "Spanish/Mexican Trace".

On the map at HERE, you'll see the location of "Old Unionville" at the "Y"near the top. The historical marker is about a mile to the northeast from that point -- on Trammel's Trace, of course.

As to buffalo in PA, all I can suggest is that perhaps changes in environmental conditions once included your area in the bisons' (or, perhaps B. Antiquus') range...

Hope this is helpful!

TXnMA

(Follow-up FReepMail is forthcoming...)

The Old Chisholm Trail:

TXnMA: "I classify a "trail" as a distinct, established, possibly well-marked and well-worn path.
And, I classify a "trace" as a "used route" that shifts location according to conditions (avoiding muddy spots, fallen trees, etc)."

The first time in my life I saw the word "trace" used to mean "road" or similar was maybe 10 years ago, while driving on "Buffalo Trace" several miles from my home.
Other roads nearby are called "path", "trail", "drive" or "lane", but this was the first "trace" I'd ever seen.
Now I notice there are famous traces all over, including the Natchez Trace and Vincennes Trace also called Buffalo Trace, "a major trackway running through the American states of Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois."

It all leads me to wonder if there was some distinction, now lost, that our forefathers understood between trails, tracks, paths & traces.
Or maybe what some groups of people called a "trail" others might name a "trace", but then who?

The Natchez & Vincennes Traces:

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