Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

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Creating a Legacy: Cumberland Gap National Historical Park July 4, 2009 marked the 50th anniversary of the dedication of Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, located at the junction of Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky. The idea of creating a park around Cumberland Gap was talked about as early as the 1920s by the Middlesboro Kiwanis Club. Motives behind the creation of the park included saving the mountains from the continued effects of coal mining and providing additional revenue for the area. Although the creation of the park was authorized in 1940, the visitor center in Middlesboro did not open until 1955 due to World War II. When the park was officially dedicated on July 4, 1959, Vice President Richard Nixon, Secretary of the Interior Fred Seaton and Director of the National Park Service Conrad L. Wirth were among the dignitaries at the dedication. While the establishment of a national park in their community excited the residents of Middlesboro, families who lived in the rural areas of the three states felt it forever changed their traditional ways of life. Recollections of people who used to call the park lands their home sharply contrast with the stories of those who were passionate about the park’s creation. Oral history interviews with former residents and people involved with the creation of the park can be found at http://passtheword.ky.gov. (Photo courtesy of Cumberland Gap National Historical Park) Pass the Word” is a discovery tool for oral histories throughout the state of Kentucky. To learn more about this topic, visit http://passtheword.ky.gov. .

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Topography Along the Virginia-Kentucky Border
Preface: Topography along the Virginia-Kentucky border. It took a long time for the Appalachian Mountain range to attain its present appearance, but no one was counting. Outcrops found at the base of Pine Mountain are Devonian rock, dating back 400 million years. But the rocks picked off the ground around Lexington, Kentucky, are even older; this limestone is from the Cambrian period, about 600 million years old. It is the same type and age rock found near the bottom of the Grand Canyon in Colorado. Of course, a mountain range is not created in a year or two. It took them about 400 years to obtain their character, and the Appalachian range has a lot of character. Geologists tell us this range extends from Alabama into Canada, and separates the plains of the eastern seaboard from the low-lying valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Some subdivide the Appalachians into the Piedmont Province, the Blue Ridge, the Valley and Ridge area, and the Appalachian plateau. We also learn that during the Paleozoic era, the site of this mountain range was nothing more than a shallow sea; but during this time, as sediments built up, and the bottom of the sea sank. The hinge line between the area sinking, and the area being uplifted seems to have shifted gradually westward. At the end of the Paleozoric era, the earth movement are said to have reversed, at which time the horizontal layers of the rock were uplifted and folded, and for the next 200 million years the land was eroded, which provided material to cover the surrounding areas, including the coastal plain.
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Cumberland Gap National Historical Park Foundation Document Overview
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE • U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Foundation Document Overview Cumberland Gap National Historical Park Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia Contact Information For more information about the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park Foundation Document, contact: [email protected] or (606)248-2817 or write to: Superintendent, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, 91 Bartlett Park Road, Middlesboro, KY 40965 Purpose Significance Significance statements express why Cumberland Gap National Historical Park resources and values are important enough to merit national park unit designation. Statements of significance describe why an area is important within a global, national, regional, and systemwide context. These statements are linked to the purpose of the park unit, and are supported by data, research, and consensus. Significance statements describe the distinctive nature of the park and inform management decisions, focusing efforts on preserving and protecting the most important resources and values of the park unit. • Crossing the Great Appalachian Barrier. The Cumberland Gap represents a turning point in American history as the Gap witnessed nearly 300,000 settlers pushing through the Appalachian barrier during the late 18th to early 19th century. Today some 40 million Americans can trace their history to crossing through the Gap. • Geology. Cumberland Gap National Historical Park protects an extensive array of geologic features formed over the course of hundreds of millions of years in the wake of numerous Appalachian orogenies (mountain-forming periods). The park’s notable concentration of caves and The purpose of Cumberland Gap karst formations, cliffs, pinnacles, and other geologic national HistoriCal park is to features provide a valuable window into the dynamic nature preserve, protect, and interpret the of the landscape and the impact of geology on human geologic “doorway to the west”—the migration and culture.
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Cumberland Gap, Tennessee : Building Community Identity Along the Wilderness Road, 1880-1929
University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 8-1991 Cumberland Gap, Tennessee : Building community identity along the Wilderness Road, 1880-1929 Rebecca Vial University of Tennessee Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Recommended Citation Vial, Rebecca, "Cumberland Gap, Tennessee : Building community identity along the Wilderness Road, 1880-1929. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 1991. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/5827 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Rebecca Vial entitled "Cumberland Gap, Tennessee : Building community identity along the Wilderness Road, 1880-1929." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in History. Susan D. Becker, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Rebecca Vial entitled "Cumberland Gap, Tennessee: Building Community Identity on the Wilderness Road, 1880-1929." I have examined the final copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in History.
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Cumberland Gap National Park
Cumberland Gap Throughout the ages, poets, songwriters, novelists, journal writers, historians and artists have captured the grandeur of the Cumberland Gap. James Smith, in his journal of 1792, penned what is perhaps one of the most poignant descriptions of this national and historically significant landmark: "We started just as the sun began to gild the tops of the high mountains. We ascended Cumberland Mountain, from the top of which the bright luminary of day appeared to our view in all his rising glory; the mists dispersed and the floating clouds hasted away at his appearing. This is the famous Cumberland Gap..." Thanks to the vision of Congress, who in 1940 authorized Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, visitors today can still bask in its beauty and immerse themselves in its rich history. The story of the first doorway to the west is commemorated at the national park, located where the borders of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia meet. Carved by wind and water, Cumberland Gap forms a major break in the formidable Appalachian Mountain chain. First used by large game animals in their migratory journeys, followed by Native Americans, the Cumberland Gap was the first and best avenue for the settlement of the interior of this nation. From 1775 to 1810, the Gap's heyday, between 200,000 and 300,000 men, women, and children from all walks of life, crossed the Gap into "Kentuckee." The Path of Buffalo and Warriors During the 17th century, the American bison, after a 1,100 year hiatus, resumed a migratory pattern into the southeast portions of North America.
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Floyd County Farmer
' - 0 \. Colonel Andrew Jackson !i.§1. : Eastern Kentu~' ~ Plumed Knight of the Confedera~ by Robert Perry If large families are a sign of marital bl iss, the per i od from 1809 to 1833 Nas a happy one for Samuel May and his wife Catherine . Records s how that during those years she bore him six sons and eight daughters. Nine of t hese children) including his fourth , fifth , and sixth sons, were born at the May House in North Prestonsburg , which in those days was the hub of his four- hundred- acre farm . Like most frontiersmen, Samuel was a loyal Democrat and a strong supporter of Andrew Jackson, the champion of backwoods causes on Capitol Hi l l . Therefore , when Catherine bore him his fourth son on January 28 , 1829, he named the boy after his hero , who was just beginning his first term as president . In thirty-two years the boy would become Colonel Andrew Jackson May, the man Henry Scalf called "the plumed knight of the Southern cause in the Big Sandy Valley .« Like his father , Jack May was a man of exceptional courage, unbending integrity , and driving ambition . He had the bad luck, however , to come of age when his father ' s business empire was collapsing. Dealt such a hand, it was inevitable that he should dream of recouping the family fortune . When ne ws reached Prestons burg in 1849 that gold had been discovered in California , it was probably twenty-year- old Jack May, not his father, who first rose to the bait. Whatever the case, we know with certainty that when Samuel headed west in 1849, he took Jack with him, and "another young man named White ." A photograph of Jack from this period shows a sharp- featured young man with a determined expression and a glorious mane of red hair.
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Cumberland Gap National Historical Park (PDF)
A fact sheet from 2018 National Park Service Almost $1 million is needed to fix a leak in the visitor center’s roof. iStockphoto Cumberland Gap National Historical Park Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia Overview Cumberland Gap National Historical Park spans a prominent V-shaped notch in the Appalachian Mountains that is known as the first gateway to the West. Dr. Thomas Walker discovered the pass in 1750 while searching for a settlement beyond the mountains. Twenty-five years later, a group of investors looking to colonize the Kentucky region hired Daniel Boone and 30 men to create a trail later known as the Wilderness Road. Long used by Native Americans, the path became the main artery for 300,000 pioneers who migrated west over the next 50 years. The National Park Service (NPS) established the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in 1940. The 24,000- acre park tracks the Cumberland Mountains along the borders of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia for 26 miles. Visitors can enjoy 85 miles of hiking trails, scenic views, and historical sites. Unfortunately, the park has almost $15 million in deferred maintenance. Maintenance challenges Cumberland Gap’s roads, trails, and historic sites all need repairs. The park needs almost $1 million to resurface the famed Wilderness Road so that visitors can better access campgrounds and picnic areas. The Wilderness Road Trail, which parallels its namesake road, needs more than $100,000 in repairs. Three-quarters of needed infrastructure repairs are for historic sites. Among them is the Hensley Settlement, an Appalachian living history museum that includes 12 log cabins, a one-room schoolhouse, and a blacksmith shop.
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A Brief History of the Hensley Settlement, Cumberland Gap
A BRIEF HISTORY of !'ENSLEY SETTLEMENT by Robert Ward Munck Park Historian Cumberland Gap National Historicel Park 3<66 j t-lSo RESOURCE MANAGEMENT INFORMATION • I. Background and Land Ownership Nestled confortably atop Brush Mountain in the southeast Cumberland range sets Hensley Settlement. The community was located on the R. M. Bales survey of 508 acres which was purchased by Burton Hensley as part of a 2,000 acre parcel of land he purchased in Bell County, Kentucky, May 4, 1903. Mr. Hensley didn't live on Brush Mountain. He sold 100 acres to his son Andrew Jackson Hensley, 5 acres to his son Albert and 38,2 acres to Sherman Hensley and divided the rest of the land among his 16 children,giving each the 16th part or 21 acres apiece. The people who came to live in Hensley Settlement were of English and Scotch Irish descent according to J. Emerson Miller, a local genealogist. The first ~ record of a Hensley living 1n Kentucky was Lawis Hensley who came to Knox County in 1782, soon after the Wilderness Road was widened for wagon traffic. He married Nancy Hoard, September 1, 1803 and apparently Lawis made frequent trips to North Carolina, his former home, because most of his children were born there. Samuel Hensley, Lewis's eldest son was born in 1805. He had a number of children, among them Washington, who was born about 1809 and was the second son. He married Ruth Edwards, born about 1815. Their children were B?rton, Wilson, Mary, Washington, Henry, Nicy, James Madison, Josephua.
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Cumberland Gap Master Plan and Trailhead Development Plan
Cumberland Gap Master Plan and Trailhead Development Plan Community Development Partners Cumberland Gap Master Plan and Trailhead Development Plan TABLE OF CONTENTS Community Vision ............................................................................. 33 Executive Summary ............................................................................. 1 Steering Committee ........................................................................ 33 The Historic Town of Cumberland Gap .......................................... 2 Cumberland Gap Master Plan Survey ......................................... 33 Community Need................................................................................. 3 Public Meetings .............................................................................. 35 What is the Cumberland Gap Master Plan? ..................................... 5 Vision Statement ............................................................................ 36 How Will the Plan Be Used? .......................................................... 6 Mentor Communities ......................................................................... 37 Plan Consistency .............................................................................. 7 Banner Elk ....................................................................................... 37 Project Area ...................................................................................... 8 Damascus .......................................................................................
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Cumberland Gap U.S
National Historical Park National Park Service Cumberland Gap U.S. Department of the Interior HikingAppalachian and Backcountry Mountain Camping Struggle “I wish a movement made to seize...the mountain pass called Cumberland Gap.” -Abraham Lincoln (Oct. 1, 1861) First Occupation of the Confederate General Felix Zollicoffer took control of the Cumberland Gap Gap, easily overcoming local Home Guard opposition, and Mid 1861 - June 17, 1862 began building fortifications on the north side of the mountain face to halt any Union invasion of Tennessee. After Zollicoffer was killed at the Battle of Mill Springs, Colonel James E. Raines, soon to become General, commanded the Gap until General Carter Stevenson reinforced the Gap and became commander. General Felix Zollicoffer Second Occupation of the General Stevenson and his command were ordered away Cumberland Gap from the Gap and deeper into Tennessee. With June 18 - Sep. 17, 1862 Confederate forces gone, Union General George W. Morgan took control of the Gap and built fortifications along the southern side of the mountain on orders from President Abraham Lincoln. The President was determined to keep Kentucky in the Union and to protect the pro-Union population of East Tennessee. Holding the Gap could also be a staging point for a Union advance on Knoxville that would sever the rail line from Knoxville to Richmond, General George Morgan Virginia. Third Occupation of the In 1862, a major invasion of Kentucky was launched by the Cumberland Gap South. General Morgan left the Gap and Confederate Sep. 18, 1862 - Sep. 9, General Edmund Kirby Smith took control during the 1863 Kentucky Campaign led by Confederate General Braxton Bragg.
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Cumberland Gap National Historic Park
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