Buffalo Trace 100 Traditional Geocache

The Trace was created by millions of migrating bison and this area pays homage to the area in passage through Daviess County.

The Trace was created by millions of migrating bison that were numerous in the region from the Great Lakes to Tennessee.^[2] It was part of a greater buffalo route, that went from present-day Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky, through Bullitt's Lick south of present-day Louisville, and across the Falls of the Ohio River. In Indiana the trace had a few divergent trails which gathered together again north of Jasper near several large ponds for buffalo to wallow. Due to the number of buffalo that used the trace, the road was sometimes twenty feet wide. A major salt lick at present-day French Lick, Indiana was another intersection of divergent trails.^[3] The Trace crossed theWhite River at points, near present-day Petersburg and Portersville, Indiana.^[4][5] The trail had a major crossing at the Wabash River, from which it split into separate trails leading West across Illinois to the Mississippi River.^[6] François-Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes founded a trading post at the Wabash crossing in 1732, which became Vincennes, Indiana.^[7]

The trace served as a road through early Indiana and was very important to the development of the state. George Rogers Clark used the road to return to Louisville by land after his Illinois Campaign. According to Clark family history, Richard "Dickie" Clark (1760 – c. 1784), brother of General George Rogers Clark and Captain William Clark, disappeared along this road in 1784 after leaving Clarksville alone to travel to Vincennes.