Venison was a staple commodity.

The fur trade, largely carried on by French trappers, was still of great importance in Kentucky and Tennessee.

North of the Ohio it was the attraction which tempted white men into the wilderness.

Its profitable nature was the chief reason why the British persistently clung to the posts on the Lakes, and stirred up the Indians to keep the American settlers out of all lands that were tributary to the British fur merchants.

From Kentucky and the Cumberland country the peltries were sometimes sent east by packtrain, and sometimes up the Ohio in bateaus or canoes.
Boone's Trading Ventures.
In addition to furs, quantities of ginseng were often carried to the eastern settlements at this period when the commerce of the west was in its first infancy, and was as yet only struggling for an outlet down the Mississippi.