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The General Lewis Inn sits serenely above what was once known as The Midland Trail. Along this early westward passage rolled "The Old Aristocrat of Virginia," a stagecoach now retired to the lawn at the Inn. Visitors imagine adventures like those sparked by Renier's "Account of the Old Stage Coach Days." The Tale of a Trail It was the Lewis survey that started the ball rolling toward what was really the baptism of the Buffalo Trail as a white man's thoroughfare. Lewis' glowing reports of the bluegrass paradise along the Greenbrier brought little waves of settlement splashing through the gaps into the mountainous divide. They came to rest in the spacious, undulating Savannah, or Big Levels, the Lewisburg country of today. Little did those settlers realize that they were gathering force to play the most thrilling part of all in opening the trail westward. That event came in 1774 when, harassed by continued Indian massacres, forces rallied at Fort Union eleven hundred strong and set off westward under General Andrew Lewis. Over the mountains he led them and down the Kanawha to Point Pleasant, where they fought what some have called "the opening battle of the Revolution." In the march to Point Pleasant and back they opened up the old Buffalo Trail as a white man's thoroughfare for all time. With the establishment of a weekly stage line between Lewisburg and Charleston in 1827, things began to hum. Spacious taverns and stage stands grew up. The roads became a lively and unrivalled scene. From early morning until late at night the movement was incessant. The Conestoga wagons added to the confusion and the excitement. "Mountain ships" they were called, and they were painted like circus wagons. When night fell over the bustle and noise of the day, those who could afford the comfort of the taverns hastened to engage their beds. Such was the rush that innkeepers had to make it a rule that not more than five might sleep in a bed. And no one might go to bed with his boots on. Two good reasons, mark you, for spending the night in the bar room. But by 1850 clouds appeared on the horizon. The railroad from the East had crept up threateningly as far as Jackson's River. Steamboat travel on the Kanawha, popular and cheap, made the Turnpike below Charleston look a little pale. Stagecoach travel slowed up. Then the Civil War came down like a smothering hand and hardly anything traveled the old road but cannon and cannon fodder. Soon after the war the railroad pushed on, tie by tie. It reached White Sulphur in 1870 and was completed to the Ohio in 1873. In that year two engines met at the New River bridge and gave the old Turnpike its quietude. Its lively scenes never returned. Buffalo Trail, Indian Trail, Lewis Trail, wagon road, Turnpike, and back to mud road again -- that was the cycle of a century. Today, at the opening of the 21st century, the Midland Trail invites travelers to slow to the pace of days gone by. The General Lewis Inn, located on the Midland Trail, welcomes you to do just that! || Order your FREE West Virginia Magazine | Request FREE regional travel information | Locator Map | Back to the top | Take me home ||
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