Is it a road or a pike? The map says pike, but people call it a road. Often in conversation Nashvillian’s use the terms interchangeably. This often confuses newcomers to Nashville. There is a good chance that the same people using these confusing terms don’t even know the history behind it themselves. The answer to this perplexity lies in history. Nashville and the State of Tennessee are pretty old compared to the rest of the United States, excepting the original 13 colonies. Tennessee was the 16th State to enter the Union and gained statehood pretty near the close of the Revolutionary War. Since Nashville is old and the topography has always been hilly—the layouts of our roads are not in a grid pattern. Originally Nashville was settled because of the abundance of large game animals and fertile river bottom soil which was ideal for planting crops. The original attraction to the downtown area was vast salt deposits that large animals flocked too. This area was called the “French Lick” because early on French traders came to the area to hunt and trade for pelts and animal skins from the Native Americans. The area had buffalo, bears, elk, and deer that in their travels to and from the Lick made compacted trails. These trails usually took the path of least resistance as far as using the contours of hills and avoiding boggy wet low ground. Over millennia these “Traces” got harder, compacted and grew wider. The Native Americans used them as roads too. After horses were re-introduced to the Americas by the Spanish—Native American travel by horses further hardened the traces. Early European settlement and travel occurred on the traces as well. As the 18th century gave way to the 19th century and Nashville no longer had its large game—it still had its traces which turned into the first rudimentary roads. As time passed, the traces were widened and straightened out and paved with macadam. These buffalo traces turned roads took quite a bit of expense and upkeep to take increasing cart and wagon traffic. Often investors would get the rights to maintain those roads and would charge a toll. A road in early America that charged a toll was called a Turn-pike. Hence the birth of the use of the word “Pike” to describe Nashville’s roads. These pikes coming into town were used for commercial purposes. Farmers would bring their produce to the market in Nashville on the turn-pikes. These pikes had toll booths stationed at certain areas. To make sure the wagons paid their toll the toll collector had iron pikes stuck in the road to prevent passage. Once the toll was paid, he would come out of the booth and remove the iron pikes out of the road. So that is how the term “pike” entered the vernacular. Nashville is a classic hub and spoke look from an aerial viewpoint. Downtown is the hub and the pikes coming in are the spokes. So when you are on Charlotte Pike or Hillsboro Pike or Buena Vista Pike take a moment to imagine that the asphalt road you are speeding down originated as a buffalo trace used over the aeons by wild animals making their way to the great Salt Licks in the area of the Bicentennial Mall.