"You are now on a section of the first wagon road to the Cumberland Settlements from East Tennessee. Blazed in 1787."
Located at Bledsoe's Fort Historical Park near Castalian Springs in Sumner County, TN. I walked down this road, but it wasn't clear when the old road stopped and it became a nature trail that loops around to the other side of the park.
One thing that is not explained is this sign used to call this the "Avery Trace" instead of "Holston Road." Here is what Wikipedia has to say about the Avery Trace at this spot:
The first major road connecting the Upper Cumberland region with settlements to the east, known as Avery's Trace, was completed in 1788. The road, which connected Fort Southwest Point with Nashville, passed a few hundred feet east of Bledsoe's Station. Guests at Bledsoe's Station in the 1790s included French botanist André Michaux and Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans and later king of France. General James Winchester, who helped establish Cairo to the southwest and was later instrumental in the founding of Memphis, purchased Bledsoe's Station in 1797. The following year, Winchester completed Cragfont near Bledsoe Creek about a mile to the west. In 1807, a pioneer from North Carolina named Jeremiah Belote (d. 1822) purchased Bledsoe's Lick, and his descendants would retain possession of the property for several decades
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bledsoe%27s_Station#Later_history
This website helps explain the correction from Avery Trace to Holston Road:
The area which we are intensely involved with is the trail/road/trace from Western Jackson County, thru Fort Blount, Bledsoes Lick, Manskers Station and Nashville. We have reviewed 40 microfilm rolls of Record Group 1177 from North Carolina containing over 16,000 grants. These records contain warrants and surveyor documents with plats for land which was set out originally as a means of payment to North Carolina soldiers. The word "Avery" in any form is not mentioned in any of these grants. A few examples of what the surveyors called the road was: Waggon Road leading to Nashville, road leading from Bledsoes Lick to Holston, Holston Road, Holstein road, Road to Holson, road leading from Bledsoes Lick to Holston, Waggon Road leading to Nashville, Settlement Trace and road from Bledsoes licke to Holston. Individual sections in our focus area were called such names as Gibson Trace and Lower Goose Creek Trace for example. For the purposes of our study we are calling the road/trace/trail "Holston Road" since most of the descriptions include the word Holston.
www.cumberlandpioneers.com/averytrace.html
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