In the mid-1700s, the Great Wagon Road, the colonial equivalent of I-95, became a vital artery for more than 100,000 European colonists. Seeking new farmland, these settlers embarked on a mass migration from Pennsylvania into the backcountry of Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas.
Though railroads eventually replaced this storied route, its impact on the nation, especially North Carolina, is undeniable, and yet not widely known. This enduring legacy is now explored in depth by Greensboro native James Dodson. His new book is The Road That Made America: A Modern Pilgrim’s Journey on the Great Wagon Road.
Dodson poured five years into researching his book, a journey that saw him travel the length of the Great Wagon Road and interview over 150 individuals, each connected in some way to its history. For Dodson, this wasn't just a historical project; it was a deeply personal quest, a story he'd been driven to tell since he was 13, inspired by his father's tales.
"He told us the story about how our ancestors came down the Great Wagon Road, the Germans, my mother's people, the English my dad's people, and the Scots, who were also my dad's people. And they landed in the Hawfields, which is kind of Mebane, Alamance County area," says Dodson. "And, you know, it just lodged in my head. Let's find the road!"
The Great Wagon Road came down out of Henry County, Virginia, through North Stokes, which angled southward to Forsyth County. Dodson says there’s a lot of debate about where exactly it ran from there.
"So much of the road is not visible," he says. "It's been developed. You have shopping centers and subdivisions, and we ended up down at the Shallow Ford, where 95 percent of the people who went west before 1800 crossed. That was the primary crossing spot. And in summer, you can go there today, and the water is only about four feet deep, and you can see how they would cross in wagons and stuff, as the Boone Family did."
Today, that very spot — the Yadkin River crossing at Shallow Ford, in the Town of Lewisville, North Carolina — is recognized with a historic marker roughly 100 feet away in Shallowford Square. But this clear demarcation of the Great Wagon Road is the exception, not the rule, says Dodson.
"The other thing to know about the wagon road is it had branches," he says. "And this is rough country, and so the road sometimes moved because of weather, washouts, hostels, disease, war. The Great Wagon Road was built over the Great Warrior Path, which ran from Georgia all the way up to New York State. It was where the Iroquois and the Cherokee would war along it."
The Great Wagon Road would later become a critical stage for the Revolutionary War. With Patriot forces severely depleted and the American cause reeling, General Washington turned to a resourceful colonial quartermaster by the name of Nathanael Greene.
Greene had an intimate knowledge of the Great Wagon Road and the surrounding terrain. Dodson says it was a strategic understanding that he would leverage to turn the tide of the war.
"And so as Cornwallis’ army was left to come up and try to destroy the last bits of the colonial army in both North Carolina and Virginia, he couldn't catch him. There would be these hit-and-runs," says Dodson. "He would send dragoons after him, and there would be these small battles. Chased him all the way to Guilford Courthouse, from Camden, South Carolina, up the Great Wagon Road through Charlotte, a town of about 600 people at that time, with sharpshooters. And Cornwallis called it. He said, ‘Let's get the hell out of this Hornet's Nest,’ which is where the Hornet's name came from."
Nathaniel Greene would be posthumously honored with the naming of what is today North Carolina’s 3rd most populous city: Greensboro.
Long before these defining battles along the Great Wagon Road, a different story of migration unfolded. In the mid-1600s, a peace-loving group of Moravian immigrants made their arduous journey down the same route from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. They purchased land in the area they named Wachovia, intending to establish a "new Jerusalem," founding Bethabara, and later, Salem.
According to Dodson, their influence was instrumental in shaping America.
"They were so innovative," he says. "They made beautiful musical instruments. They were creators, tremendous tradesmen. They were great builders. They made stunning hinges. Their brickwork was incredible. You know, as someone who grew up in it here, I mean, I loved it, but I didn't realize how truly dramatic it was, its impact on America. They were the first great craftsmen of America."
Jim Dodson says, looking back, he was most inspired writing this book by the dozens of people who shared their passionate stories about colonial America, and the industrious people who braved the frontier to give birth to a nation.
"This book burned in me for years," says Dodson. "For me, it did become a pilgrimage, and a pilgrimage is supposed to tell you something about yourself. There’ll be time to figure out what it meant to me, but what I learned is I mentioned about 20 of these people whose stories ... changed my life and gave me a wonderful, a happier, a more optimistic view of America than I left with."
*Correction: This story has been updated with the correct date of the Moravians' arrival in North Carolina.