Photographs are sometimes all that remain.

In the "Counties" navigation menu, you will see that I've started adding photos for each of the counties crossed by Trammel's Trace. In captioning the beginning set of photos for Rusk County, where our land is located, I was remembering how I had the opportunity to walk, map, and photograph some very nice sections of the Trace just before they were about to be destroyed by surface mining for lignite.

I said something to the landowner about how hard it must be to watch his land dug up. He said, "Yeah it was kinda tough until the Brinks truck showed up."  He was paid nicely for his minerals, and the land was "reclaimed."  But the ruts are gone forever.

Though there are many interests in the land, my focus on the ruts of a 200-year-old road has only increased my interest in finding landowners who can secure and protect their part of history.