The Sheltowee Trace Trail is a National Recreation Trail that was created in 1979 and stretches from the Burnt Mill Bridge Trail Head in the

Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area The Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, commonly known as Big South Fork, preserves the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River and its tributaries in northeastern Tennessee and southeastern Kentucky. Within it are reminders of ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

() to northern Rowan County,

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

(). The trail is named after

Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the we ...

, who was given the name Sheltowee (meaning "Big Turtle") when he was adopted as the son of the great warrior

Chief Blackfish Blackfish (c. 1729–1779) ( sjw, Cot-ta-wa-ma-go or ), was a Native American leader, war chief of the Chillicothe band of the Shawnee tribe. Biography Little is known about him, since he only appears in written historical records during the la ...

of the

Shawnee tribe The Shawnee Tribe is a federally recognized Native American tribe in Oklahoma. Formerly known as the Loyal Shawnee, they are one of three federally recognized Shawnee tribes. The others are the Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma and t ...

. The trail is primarily in the

Daniel Boone National Forest The Daniel Boone National Forest (originally the Cumberland National Forest) is a national forest in Kentucky. Established in 1937, it includes of federally owned land within a proclamation boundary. The name of the forest was changed in 1966 ...

, but also takes visitors through the

, Cumberland Falls State Resort Park,

Natural Bridge State Resort Park Natural Bridge State Resort Park is a Kentucky state park located in Powell and Wolfe Counties along the Middle Fork of the Red River, adjacent to the Red River Gorge Geologic Area and surrounded by the Daniel Boone National Forest. Its namesak ...

, two large recreation lakes (

Cave Run Lake Cave Run Lake, located south of Morehead, Kentucky, USA along Kentucky Route 801, is an reservoir built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The , half-mile (800 m) dam (and outlet works) construction began in 1965 and was completed in 1973. ...

and Laurel Lake), and many wildlife management areas. All but the southernmost are in Kentucky. The trail is multi-use, with certain sections allowing horses,

mountain bikes A mountain bike (MTB) or mountain bicycle is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling. Mountain bikes share some similarities with other bicycles, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain, which m ...

and all-terrain vehicles in some designated sections. Using off-road motorcycles, SUVs, 4x4, ATVs and even mountain bikes in certain areas can result in equipment confiscation and fines. While the southern terminus was moved in 2014, the trail into Pickett State Park remains open for those that wish to exit on that trail or wish to walk further down the scenic Rock Creek. The movement and addition of 10 miles of trail onto the Kentucky Trail in the Big South Fork in 2019 added 10 miles to the Trace's previous length of 323 miles.

References

External links

Sheltowee Trace National Recreation Trail
from a U.S. Forest Service website, including
map
in

PDF format Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating system ...

Mapping the Sheltowee
a GIS mapping website from a Lexington, Kentucky company
Sheltowee Trace Association
a group of volunteers that maintain the Trace {{Authority control Hiking trails in Tennessee Hiking trails in Kentucky Landmarks in Kentucky Long-distance trails in the United States National Recreation Trails in Kentucky National Recreation Trails in Tennessee