Location
Other maps: Bing, Google, MapQuest.
Coordinates: 35.7234, -80.3903.
Type: Stop
Tour: Race to the Dan
County: Davidson/Rowan
Full
The Trading Ford is surrounded by private or railroad property, preventing direct access to it and the sites of events described on this page. Otherwise this would be one of our more detailed “Sight” pages, given the importance of what happened here.
A decent though distant view of the island in the middle of the ford is available from the paved pedestrian path along the US 29/70 bridge. The coordinates take you to a parking area of the adjacent Yadkin River Park.
Early History
Walk onto the bridge and down to the second covered bench. Look to your left at the island on the far side of the I-85 bridge.
What earlier was called “Island Ford,” for obvious reasons, was a relatively shallow part of the Yadkin River on either side of the island you see. The ford was part of a major Native American “Trading Path,” and artifacts indicate people lived here 10,000 years ago. Later wagon roads were built to it from Salisbury toward points east and north.
A Spanish exploration from a colony at modern Parris Island, S.C., led by Capt. Juan Pard