Edwards Trace

The red line on this map, taken from an 1815 map by Rene Paul, indicates the route of the Edwards Trace. (Rabbitsrow.com)

Update (November 2024): The most complete information on the Edwards Trace is available at rabbitsrow.com, a website created by Trace researchers Luke Moore, David Brady and Tracy Garrison. It includes: their paper on the history and route of the Trace; an unparalleled set of historic maps (including the one above); a 3D map that locates the Trace in relation to present-day landmarks; and much, much more. 

The Edwards Trace was the main route from the Kaskaskia area in southern Illinois to north of present-day Peoria, apparently beginning in prehistoric times. When European colonists moved into Illinois, the trail also became their preferred north-to-south route through the state, passing through Sangamon County.

The Trace in Sangamon County (rabbitsrow.com)

From Kaskaskia, the trace went through the present-day areas of Cahokia, Edwardsville, Springfield, and Elkhart before swinging northwestward to Peoria.

Historian Robert Mazrim discussed the growing recognition of the importance of the Edwards Trace in his The Sangamon Frontier: History and Archaeology in the Shadow of Lincoln. Mazrim said the earliest reference he found to travel on the trace was a journey by a Jesuit priest, Rev. Gabriel Marest, from Kaskaskia to Michigan in 1711.

While our understanding of prehistoric settlement patterns in the uplands is still in its infancy … there is circumstantial evidence that there was a band of activity across central Illinois that resembled activity normally found in the river valleys. It is almost as if the Edwards Trail corridor was the equivalent of a river channel, passing across the upland prairies, with these sites situated on either shore. While much more survey of the uplands beyond the Edwards Trace corridor is needed, it certainly seems possible that the general route followed by Father Marest in 1711 is not 300 years old but 3,000. And that old way crossed through the heart of the Sangamo Country.

The trail, known at first as the “Old Indian Trail,” got the name of Edwards Trace during the War of 1812, when territorial Gov. Ninian Edwards led a band of “rangers” along the trace to Peoria, where the group attacked and burned a Kickapoo village, killing two dozen warriors.

Because it was so heavily used, parts of the trace became worn down, and some of those depressions remain visible today. One set of ruts can be seen at Lake Park (East Lake Shore Drive) in Springfield. There is a historic marker 25 yards east of the Trace’s remnant.

More historic information: Zimri Enos, whose family brought him to central Illinois at age 2 in 1821, wrote one of the most important pioneer descriptions of the trail. It was published in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society in 1911.

Hat tip: To Luke Moore, David Brady and Tracy Morrison and the program Moore presented Nov. 18, 2024, at Lincoln Library in Springfield. In addition to their historic research, the team’s methods ranged from the basic (they apparently walked virtually every yard of the locatable Trace) to the most modern: LIDAR imaging to identify paths and wagon ruts no longer visible to the naked eye. The result is a tour-de-force of public history.

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