---

Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings

	CUMBERLAND GAP NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK Ky.-Tenn.-Va.	Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
Between Middlesboro, Ky., and Cumberland Gap, Tenn., extending northeast into Virginia, accessible by U.S. 25—E or U.S. 58, visitor center just south of Middlesboro; address: US 25E South P.O. Box 1848 Middlesboro, KY 40965-1848. Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

This park commemorates a vital early phase in the westward movement and the indomitable courage of the first overland emigrants, whose descendants only a few decades later pushed on to the shores of the Pacific. Through Cumberland Gap, a natural passage through the forbidding Allegheny Mountains, passed the Wilderness Road. Hacked out in 1775 into Kentucky by a party under Daniel Boone, this road was one of the main arteries used by the settlers who occupied the region between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River.

Long before white men entered "Ken-ta-ke," it had been a magic word among the Indians. Its fertile grazing lands teemed with vast herds of buffalo, deer, and smaller game. Cherokee hunters from the south often visited the region and vied for its rich prizes with the Shawnees and other tribes from north of the Ohio River. Bloody clashes frequently occurred. One of the trails much used by war and hunting parties was "Warriors' Path," which crossed the mountain barrier into present southeastern Kentucky at Cumberland Gap.

English settlers east of the Alleghenies were unaware of the gap until 1750, when Dr. Thomas Walker, a surveyor, discovered it and named it "Cave Gap." He was leading an exploring expedition, which had set out from Albemarle County, in Virginia. The Loyal Land Co., which sponsored the expedition, was seeking an 800,000-acre land grant in the region. After discovering the gap, Walker followed the "Warriors' Path" for about 10 miles northwest to the Cumberland River, which he also discovered and named. Near the river the party built a log cabin, one of the first in Kentucky. After spending 2 months vainly exploring the hills of eastern Kentucky in search of the storied Bluegrass region of central Kentucky, the party crossed the mountains north of Cumberland Gap and returned home.

Pinnacle Overlook at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park provides a breathtaking view of the historical gap and the adjacent area in several States. Through the gap once passed the Wilderness Road, a route hacked out by a party under Daniel Boone that thousands of westward-wending emigrants later used.

The French and Indian War (1754-63) and Pontiac's Rebellion (1763-65) prevented for awhile any attempt by other explorers to follow Walker's lead. When peace returned, however, small parties of hunters began passing through Cumberland Gap. The best known of this group was Daniel Boone, a native Pennsylvanian who was living in North Carolina at the time. In 1769 John Finley, Boone's fellow campaigner in the French and Indian War who had visited the Bluegrass region several years before, convinced Boone that it could be reached through Cumberland Gap. Following the "Warriors' Path," they and four companions moved northward until they came to a branch of the Kentucky River. Completely alone much of the time in hostile Indian country, Boone spent nearly 2 years exploring the rich and beautiful country. In September 1773 he led an unsuccessful attempt to settle in the region. Early in 1774, during the Indian uprising known as Lord Dunmore's War, he passed through Cumberland Gap and in 2 months' time covered 800 miles of Kentucky wilderness to warn white men of the danger.

The defeat of the Indians, in October, paved the way for an ambitious scheme to settle Kentucky. The following year, under the terms of the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals, Judge Richard Henderson purchased for his Transylvania Co. the Cherokee claim to 20 million acres south of the Kentucky River. To open the region for a private new colony, Transylvania, he engaged Daniel Boone to blaze a trail through Cumberland Gap; thus the Wilderness Road was born. Starting from Long Island of the Holston, now Kingsport, Tenn., in March of 1775 Boone led 30 axmen in cutting the road. Hacking its way across mountain and through swamp and canebrake, within 1 month's time the party reached the Kentucky River, 208 miles from its starting point. There the men erected a fort and named it Boonesborough, the only white settlement in the region except Harrodsburg, founded the previous year about 30 miles to the southwest by a party that had moved down the Ohio River. Soon Henderson arrived with reinforcements for the Boonesborough garrison.

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park.

The opening of the road attracted many pioneers, and other "Kentucky stations" began to spring up. When Henderson tried to assert authority over the new settlements, the individualistic backwoodsmen rebelled. In 1776 Virginia, at the request of the Kentucky settlers, formally organized Kentucky as its westernmost county. This action squelched Henderson's plans for a private colony, but his Wilderness Road guaranteed the permanence of white settlement in Kentucky. During the War for Independence (1775-83), the westward movement slowed to a trickle. The gap was frequently closed because of the threat from British-backed northern Indians; when open, it was used mainly to bring troops and supplies to the hard-pressed settlements. The tide turned in 1778-79, when a Kentucky and Virginia force under George Rogers Clark crossed the Ohio River and captured the important British posts at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes.

After the war, though sporadic Indian attacks continued, a flood of westward traffic passed over the Wilderness Road. By 1783 some 12,000 settlers had entered Kentucky, most of them through Cumberland Gap. At the time Kentucky entered the Union, in 1792, its population was 100,000; by 1800 it was 220,000. In 1796 the Wilderness Road was widened and improved for wagon traffic. Eventually, however, more direct routes across the mountains and the final defeat of the northern Indians diverted most of the traffic from the road. By 1825 it consisted mostly of livestock en route to Eastern markets. During the Civil War both Union and Confederate troops sought to control the gap, a strategic position for the invasion of enemy territory. It passed from one side to the other until the Union army finally captured it in September 1863.

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, established in 1955, consists of 20,189 acres, or almost 32 square miles, in three States. Besides the gap itself, it contains about 2 miles of the Wilderness Road; the ruins of an early iron furnace; Civil War fortifications; Tri-State Peak, where Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia meet; the Pinnacle, from where parts of several States may be seen.