Crossing Lower Howard’s Creek

The mouth of Lower Howard’s Creek lies in the pal­isad­ed area of the Kentucky River, and the creek cuts through a lime­stone gorge on its way to the riv­er.  Because of these cliffs, the creek was a bar­ri­er to trav­el in pio­neer set­tle­ment times. Early res­i­dents described the paths they used to cross the creek.  Ambrose Bush stat­ed that he “had been accus­tomed to pass at the dif­fer­ent cross­ing places at or near the mouth of low­er Howards creek & the traces lead­ing up the cliffs for upwards of thir­ty years (i.e., the traces lead­ing from McGees & Holders Stations to Boonesborough & Bush’s set­tle­ment) & that he nev­er saw but two.  I used to ride up & down them to mill & knew them most intimately.”

One of these traces, used at times of low water, crossed the creek near the mouth.  The cliff on the west side was ascend­ed on a steep but pass­able path.  As shown on the map below, this trail crossed the creek at 2, went up the cliff to 7 then con­tin­ued past Y to Holder’s Station and var­i­ous mills. (The cliffs are indi­cat­ed by cross-hatch­ing.)  Much of this trail was destroyed dur­ing the con­struc­tion of Athens-Boonesboro Road.

When water was high, the creek could be crossed at a shoal upstream, 3 on the map.  This cross­ing was in the area behind the rear park­ing lot at Hall’s Restaurant.  One could ascend the cliff on the west side by a gen­tle path lead­ing to 6, which is near the site of Harry Pritchard’s 20^th-cen­tu­ry home­stead (to be dis­cussed in a future arti­cle).  6 · · · 7 is a bench that winds its way back toward the trail that crossed near the mouth.  Whitson George tes­ti­fied that he had “passed along this old trace num­ber­less times, as in times of high water it was his road home from Holder’s Warehouse, where he has been a prin­ci­pal inspec­tor upwards of six­teen years.”  The path labeled 6 · · · 7 is now a por­tion of the John Holder Trail in Lower Howard’s Creek Nature & Heritage Preserve.

Lower Howard’s Creek played an impor­tant role in ear­ly Clark County his­to­ry.  Its waters pow­ered so many indus­tries that Dr. Thomas D. Clark referred to it as the place where Kentucky’s mon­eyed econ­o­my began.  Because mon­ey, or specie, was in such short sup­ply on the fron­tier, pio­neer farm­ers bartered their sur­plus pro­duce for store-bought goods.  Winchester’s first news­pa­per car­ried fre­quent adver­tise­ments from busi­ness­es offer­ing to sell their mer­chan­dise in exchange for a wide vari­ety of items (tobac­co, bacon, whiskey, linen, wool, feath­ers, etc.).

That began to change when the Mississippi River was opened for com­merce.  Goods pro­duced at Lower Howard’s Creek indus­tries could be shipped to mar­ket in New Orleans, whose mer­chants paid cash mon­ey.  John Holder’s ven­tures at the mouth of the creek—a tav­ern, fer­ry, inspec­tion ware­house, and boatyard—made this a des­ti­na­tion for prod­ucts pro­duced in the mills, dis­til­leries, and fac­to­ries along Lower Howard’s Creek.

I thought this would have been an ear­ly cross­ing, giv­en the need to con­nect the Bush Settlement on the east side of the creek with John Holder’s facil­i­ties on the west side.  The first men­tion in coun­ty road orders was a 1795 peti­tion from local cit­i­zens for “a bri­dle way to be opened from Boonsborough Ferry Down the River to Holders Road that Leads from Holders Ferry to Lexington.”  Apparently, nei­ther a wag­on road nor a bridge was fea­si­ble on this route in ear­ly times, so a horse trail was request­ed, and granted. 

For many years, the main path from the Bush Settlement to Holder’s place crossed Lower Howard’s Creek just above the Old Stone Church, pro­ceed­ed north to what is now McClure Road, then west to Becknerville Road and south on Combs Ferry Road to the riv­er.  The ardu­ous jour­ney required explains why we had two fer­ries (Boonesborough and Holder’s) and two inspec­tion ware­hous­es (Bush’s and Holder’s) locat­ed just over one mile apart.

It would be more than a cen­tu­ry after the first set­tle­ment before the first bridge was built across the mouth of Lower Howard’s Creek.  In 1883 the coun­ty court approved a new road to run 1.4 miles from the Boonesborough Ferry land­ing to the creek, the first sec­tion of Athens-Boonesboro Road (KY 418).  The coun­ty was to pay the costs of open­ing the road, includ­ing a bridge.  The 30-foot-wide path was cleared of trees and brush and macadamized.  In 1886, the coun­ty con­tract­ed for a 190-foot-long iron bridge, esti­mat­ed to cost $3,100.  James D. Lisle inspect­ed the fin­ished turn­pike and report­ed to the court, “The grades are easy, enough met­al [rock] put on and well bro­ken, it is alto­geth­er one of the best pieces of work in the County.”

It seemed unusu­al that this impor­tant artery across Lower Howard’s Creek was not con­struct­ed until 1886.  However, Boone, Jouett, Fourmile, and Upper Howard’s Creeks do not have a bridge at their mouth.  Lower Howard’s Creek actu­al­ly turns out to be an exception.