•June 19, 2024•

Finding the Sunken Road

by Janet Roney

When I was a kid, the easiest way to get down the steep bluff to our favorite fishing hole on the Kaskaskia that ran through our timber pasture was to follow one of the many cow paths left by our Black Angus cattle herd.  After over a hundred years of their trips down to get a drink or cool off in the river, their narrow slopping trails were worn deep into the hillsides.  

When Lake Shelbyville took our timber pasture in the early 1960s, our beautiful park-like oak and hickory timber that our grandfather and cattle had kept clear of brush soon became a jungle of non-native bush honeysuckle that the Corps or IDNR planted around the lake’s property for wildlife.  Nevertheless, after fifty years, the cow paths are still there. Apparently, once a trail is made it stays!   

That’s true of the ancient Royal Road in Crete that connects Knossos to the sea. It is a classic sunken road that’s been worn down about 10 feet into the hillside from four thousand years of use. 

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