{"id":3865,"date":"2026-04-24T20:00:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T00:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3865"},"modified":"2026-04-24T14:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T18:23:11","slug":"the-long-walk-home-the-harrowing-journey-of-mary-draper-ingles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3865","title":{"rendered":"The Long Walk Home: The Harrowing Journey of Mary Draper Ingles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YgHb278C5P4?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In 1755, the frontier settlement of Draper\u2019s Meadow was shattered by a brutal Shawnee raid in which many settlers were killed and the survivors captured. Among those taken prisoner was Mary Draper Ingles, a young wife and mother.\u00a0 The group was forced into a grueling march north to a village in the Ohio country. Separated from her children and facing a winter in the wilderness, Mary made a choice that would become one of the greatest survival stories in American history.<\/p>\n<p>This week, we tell the story of Mary\u2019s incredible 500-mile journey home. With nothing but a tomahawk, a knife, a blanket and sheer will, she navigated treacherous terrain and escaped starvation to return to her Virginia home in the New River Valley.<\/p>\n<p>If you like our stories, be sure to subscribe to the Stories podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for listening!<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_1274\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-3865-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/71617746\/download.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/71617746\/download.mp3\">https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/71617746\/download.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/71617746\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?powerpress_pinw=3865-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/71617746\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"download.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?feed=podcast\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><!--powerpress_player-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1755, the frontier settlement of Draper\u2019s Meadow was shattered by a brutal Shawnee raid in which many settlers were killed and the survivors captured. Among those taken prisoner was Mary Draper Ingles, a young wife and mother.\u00a0 The group was forced into a grueling march north to a village in the Ohio country. Separated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[318,13],"tags":[91,1663,1661,1271,1274,1660,907,501,1218,1662,916,778],"class_list":["post-3865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-settlers","category-the-appalachian-frontier","tag-appalachia","tag-big-bone-lick","tag-drapers-meadow","tag-french-and-indian-war","tag-frontier-history","tag-mary-draper-ingles","tag-new-river-valley","tag-pioneer-life","tag-shawnee","tag-survival-story","tag-virginia-history","tag-west-virginia-history"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6TX4A-10l","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3865"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3869,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865\/revisions\/3869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}