Long used by Native American nations, the Cumberland Gap was brought to the attention of settlers in 1750 by Thomas Walker, a Virginia physician and explorer. The path was used by a team of frontiersmen led by Daniel Boone, making it accessible to pioneers who used it to journey into the western frontiers of Kentucky and Tennessee. An important part of the Wilderness Road, it is now part of the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park.
The V-shaped gap serves as a gateway to the west. The base of the gap is about three hundred feet (90 m) above the valley floor, even though the north side of the pass was lowered twenty feet (6 m) during the construction of Old U.S. Route 25E. To the south, the ridge rises six hundred feet (180 m) above the pass, while to the north the Pinnacle Overlook towers 900 feet (270 m) above at an elevation of 2,505 feet (765 m).[3]
Centrally located in the eastern United States, the region around Cumberland Gap experiences all four seasons. The summers are typically sunny, warm, and humid with average high temperatures in the mid to upper 80s °F (29-32 °C). In the winter months, January through March, temperatures range in the 30s to 40s °F (0s °C) and are generally mild with rain and few periods of snow.[4]
The nearest cities are Middlesboro, Kentucky and Harrogate, Tennessee. The nearby town of Cumberland Gap, Tennessee is named after the gap.
Geology
The gap was formed by the development of three major structural features: the Pine Mountain Thrust Sheet, the Middlesboro Syncline, and the Rocky Face Fault. Lateral compressive forces of sedimentary rocks from deep layers of the Earth's crust pushing upward 320 to 200 million years ago created the thrust sheet. Resistance on the fault from the opposing Cumberland Mountain to Pine Mountain caused the U-shaped structure of the Middlesboro Syncline. The once flat-lying sedimentary rocks were deformed roughly 40 degrees northwest. Further constriction to the northwest of Cumberland Mountain developed into a fault trending north-to-south called the Rocky Face Fault, which eventually cut through Cumberland Mountain. This combination of natural geological processes created ideal conditions for weathering and erosion of the rocks.[2]
The discovery of the Middlesboro impact structure has proposed new details in the formation of Cumberland Gap. Less than 300 million years ago a meteorite, "approximately the size of a football field", struck the earth, creating the Middlesboro Crater.[2] One of three astroblemes in the state, it is a 3.7 mi (6.0 km) diameter meteoriteimpact crater[5] with the city of Middlesboro, Kentucky built entirely inside it.[6] Detailed mapping by geologists in the 1960s led many to interpret the geological features of the area to be the site of an ancient impact.[2] In 1966 Robert Dietz discovered shatter cones in nearby sandstone, proving recent speculation. Shatter cones, a rock-shattering pattern naturally formed only during impact events, are found in abundance in the area. The presence of shatter cones found also helped confirm the origin of the impact. In September 2003, the site was designated a Distinguished Geologic Site by the Kentucky Society of Professional Geologists.[5]
Without the Rocky Face Fault, it would have been difficult for pack-horses to navigate this gap and the gap in Pine Mountain near Pineville, and it would be improbable that wagon roads would have been constructed at an early date. Middlesboro is the only place in the world where coal is mined inside an astrobleme. Special mining techniques must be used in the complicated strata of this crater.[7]
History
The earliest written account of Cumberland Gap dates to the 1670s, by Abraham Wood of Virginia.[8] Some time before 1748 Samuel Stalnaker is believed to have passed through the gap while exploring the region.[9]
In 1775 Daniel Boone, hired by the Transylvania Company, arrived in the region leading a company of men to widen the path through the gap to make settlement of Kentucky and Tennessee easier. On his arrival, Boone discovered that Martin had already arrived in Powell Valley, where Martin and his men were clearing land for their own settlement – the westernmost settlement in English colonial America at the time.[12] By the 1790s, the trail that Boone and his men built had been widened to accommodate wagon traffic and became known as the Wilderness Road.
It is estimated that between 200,000 and 300,000 European-American settlers passed through the gap on their way into Kentucky and the Ohio Valley before 1810. Today 18,000 cars pass beneath the site daily, and 1.2 million people visit the park on the site annually. The park features many hiking trails.[13]
Within the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park there are currently 855 known species of vascular plants identified, but that number is expected to increase with reports from National Park Service inventory and monitoring programs. There are 15 various vegetation communities throughout the park, with some of them in special locations, such as mountain bogs, low-elevation wetlands, and rocky bluffs.[16]
"Wagon Wheel", by Darius Rucker – Rucker's version reached No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart and was certified triple platinum by the RIAA in March 2014[19]
^Longfellow, Rickie (17 October 2013). "Back In Time - The Cumberland Gap". Federal Highway Administration. U.S. Department of Transportation. Retrieved 22 July 2014.