Direction Trees: Indians marked the Trail by blazing trees and by bending saplings into direction trees like the one shown above along an old alignment in Bureau County. If this tree actually is a direction tree, it was a very accurate Trail marker. It is ideally placed and points in the correct direction. French fur traders and other early explorers reportedly followed direction trees and Indian maps drawn on bark papers.
The Galena Trail and Coach Roads, Official Routes, 2008
Set of maps drawn in 2007 by the Tri County Regional Planning Commission following Trail and Coach Road alignments identified by the Galena Trail and Coach Road Society
Russell Poole’s Maps The Historic Galena Trails
Russell Poole’s 1957 cartographic study of the
historic trail alignments, 1825-1850
Percival Rennick’s History and Maps
of the Galena Trail and Coach Roads, 1935
Levi Warner’s Survey, Peoria-Galena State Road, 1833
And
Naper and Snow’s Survey, Chicago - Galena Road, 1833
R. W. Chandler’s Map of the Lead Mine Region, 1829
Source: Atlas and Supplement, Indian Villages of the Illinois Country, Atlas compiled by Sara Jones Tucker, 1942; Supplement compiled by Wayne C. Temple, 1975, Illinois State Museum, Scientific Papers, Vol. II, Part 1, Supplement, Plate LXXXVIII
Note: The Galena Trail is shown as the Fort Clark Road
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