Colonial families migrating to the Southern Virginia and North Carolina Piedmont area had to traverse rutted dirt wagon roads no more than 10 feet wide with very few routes to follow.  Before the French and Indian War in the 1750s, the preferred route going south first took them across the Potomac river via Noland’s Ferry, near what is now Point of Rocks, MD. The Carolina Road then took them east of the Blue Ridge Mountain along a trail which essentially followed Routes 15 and 29 in present day Virginia straight to the Piedmont area. The road was favored by Colonists – as it had been favored by their predecessors, the Algonquin and Iroquois Indians – because of numerous springs along its route, milder temperatures east of the mountains and relatively safe fords across major rivers and streams.