Ten thousand years ago, great buffalo herds carved the trail on which I walk, crossing hundreds of wilderness miles for a mere drink of salty water. They were heading south along the formidable Cumberland Mountains looking for that break in the barrier — the Cumberland Gap, the path of least resistance. It would lead them to large salty springs, bubbling from deep beneath the earth — natural salt licks.
The Native Americans followed the buffalo, using the Gap as their route to Kentucky’s hunting grounds. It was also part of “The Warrior’s Path,” which led from the Potomac River to the Ohio River.
Next came early frontiersmen — long-rifle hunters and land surveyors, including Dr. Thomas Walker, who named Cumberland Gap and the Cumberland River. Daniel Boone came next, with his crew of 30 backwoodsmen who hacked a 208-mile trail in less than two weeks. Immigration began immediately and 300,000 settlers followed. Boone’s trail evolved into the “Wilderness Road” and the American West opened up.
The next part of the story isn’t very pretty. People paved paradise, putting a highway on top of this historic road. Eighteen thousand cars and semi-trucks roared through here every day, climbing the 10 switchbacks to cross Cumberland Mountain. Fog, ice and miles of backed-up traffic resulted in more than half a dozen fatalities a year. It came to be called “Massacre Mountain.”
But now there is no concrete, guardrails, or cars with fumes and noise. Redbud blooms frame the Wilderness Road with splashes of orchid. Birds sing, the air is fresh and clean and a deer walks out of the forest onto my dirt trail.
Something unique has occurred here, in a country that normally surges forward in the name of progress. The highway was broken up and carted away! Even the tons of fill brought for the highway was removed. Native plants were introduced and every detail was addressed to restore the road to what it looked like back in the late 1700s.
The highway was actually re-routed down the ridge where a colossal 4,600-foot tunnel was blasted through the solid rock of Cumberland Mountain. It took the Federal Highway Administration and the National Park Service 23 years to complete this project, which proved to be one of its most challenging. They gave back to the people of Kentucky and the nation a beautiful historic footpath in America’s second largest national historical park.
The reconstructed road is now 3 miles long, beginning just over the Kentucky state line in Virginia and stretching north through the historic gap into Kentucky. The route is entirely on property owned by the National Park Service. There is convenient parking at each end. You can add another stretch of about 2 miles by hiking the connecting Boone Trail that leads onto the Wilderness Road.
My family and I have come to retrace the footprints of Daniel Boone and the courageous people who taught us what independence and adventure are all about.
Instead of long rifles, we clutch hiking sticks. Instead of black powder horns around our necks, we have cameras. Instead of crossing hundreds of miles, we’ll only do four or five. But we will hike in three states in one day — Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, for this historic gap is located at a tri-state corner.
We enter on the Boone Trail, a 2-mile stretch leading from the Wilderness Road Campground on US 58 in Virginia. At the Daniel Boone Parking lot we meet up with Park Ranger Interpreter Matt Graham. The Boone Trail shortly becomes the Wilderness Road and leads to Gap Cave in Virginia.
When the park service acquired the cave, it had been operating as a commercial cave for 80 years. The park service ripped out the 100 light bulbs, corroded wires, unsafe bridges and stairs and carted out 20 bags of trash. The settlers along the Wilderness Road stopped here for shelter and for a cold drink of water, for Gap Creek thunders out of the cave in such a wide gush that it supplies the drinking water for the town of Cumberland Gap, Tenn. Matt leads us into the cave for a two-hour “wild cave” tour, complete with headlamps.
At the entrance, we are told to notice the “breath” of the cave, as sometimes the air moves through at a stiff breeze of eight to 10 mph. The droplets of water we see in our headlamps tell us the cave is active, alive, wet and still growing. The cave was formed by one thing — moving water — and it continues to form today although it takes 200 to 300 years to grow one cubic inch of limestone formation. The largest formation in the cave is the 65-foot Great Pillar of Hercules, formed 2 million years ago.
“Please don’t touch any formations,” Matt asks. “The oil and salt on your hands forms a barrier on the rock. The water will run right off and never grow into a formation again.”
We’ll only travel about a mile, but there are seven mapped miles provided by the local caving club, which has permission to explore and map the cave. It’s cool inside — a constant 56 to 58 degrees — just the escape for a warm day.
Bats hang from the ceiling and we aim our headlamps to the side and leave them undisturbed. At dusk, they’ll fly out for supper. We see soda straw formations, ribbon formations that look like bacon strips when they’re backlit, flow stones that look like thick, gray Silly Putty running over rocks, and giant “Frozen Niagara,” which is covered in white pearly calcite. There are pools of aquamarine water where orange-and-black spotted salamanders lay eggs. Above our heads, pyrite glistens on the cave ceiling and thousands of ancient sea creatures are imbedded in the rock. Matt leads us into a large room where the local Kiwanis Club and Masonic Lodge used to hold their meetings in the 1940s. They’d fit 50 to 60 people in this “ballroom.”
Out of everything in the cave, however, the most fascinating is the historic Upper Section where some smudged black graffiti dates back to the Civil War. Here was a makeshift hospital for wounded soldiers. Their names were rubbed on the walls with black soot or gunpowder.
We read names like Lt. James E. Raines, who was stationed at Pine Mountain Overlook. At this section of the cave, we are directly below the Pinnacle Overlook, the park’s main viewpoint, where there is a great view of the gap and the Wilderness Road.
Once we make our way back to the cave entrance and bid farewell to Matt, we continue on the Wilderness Road. Ahead is Devil’s Staircase, a series of steep pitches leading to the summit of the ridge and the high point of the gap. It strains our muscles and steals our breath, as it once did to the settlers, but in a short push we reach the high point. The settlers had to pull loaded wagons, coax their cattle up the incline, wrestle with full-flowing skirts and wonder if Indians lie in the forest ready to ambush them.
At the saddle, there is a massive boulder called “Indian Rock,” where Indians would hide and jump on unsuspected settlers. The settlers tried to hack away at the rock to make it smaller and you can still see the chip marks.
The remaining mile of the Wilderness Road is a narrow intimate trail through the forest. We slow our pace, wanting to savor the experience. The settlers were on the downswing now, the formidable Cumberland Mountain behind them and the land of milk and honey ahead.
VISITING CUMBERLAND GAP NATIONAL HISTORIC PARK
Before you visit the Wilderness Road, head to the park’s Visitor’s Center for a fine introduction. See the award-winning new film “Daniel Boone: the Westward Movement.” It won the Outstanding Documentary of the Year Award for 2003 from the Western Filmmakers Association. It brings tears to your eyes thinking about all Daniel Boone and the settlers went through as they forged their way down the Wilderness Road.
The front desk of the Visitor’s Center is also the place to sign up for a tour of Gap Cave. Tours leave daily on weekdays and twice a day on weekends during November through May. June through October they are scheduled three times a day. This is also the place to sign up for a fascinating tour of the Hensley Settlement, a restored isolated Appalachian farmstead on the north end of the park.
Cumberland Gap Park encompasses 20,000 acres in Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. For the best overview of the park, take a drive up to Pinnacle Overlook. Here you’ll see a panorama of the three states and the famous gap in the Appalachian Mountains. A short hike leads to earthen remains of Fort McCook. Here you’ll also find signatures of Civil War soldiers in old time script carved right into the rocks on the summit.
GETTING TO THE GAP
Cumberland Gap National Historic Park can be reached by U.S. 25E from Kentucky or Virginia, or U.S. 58 from Tennessee. The park gates are open from 8 a.m. to dusk year-round. The visitor center, open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except Dec. 25, is on U.S. 25E in Middlesboro. For more info: (606) 248-2817 or www.nps.gov/cuga.
Accommodations: The park operates the 160-site Wilderness Road Campground in Virginia along U.S. 58. Motels are in Middlesboro, Kentucky and Cumberland Gap and Tazewell, Tenn.
Kentucky’s first state park, Pine Mountain State Resort in Pineville about 12 miles north of Middlesboro, is a convenient place to stay. The park sits on Pine Mountain, which parallels the Cumberland Mountains. The early pioneers and settlers also had to find a way through Pine Mountain. The crossing point was “The Narrows,” a gap in Pine Mountain opposite Cumberland Gap. The park features some of the finest mountain views in the tri-state area. From the overlook at Chained Rock, you can see the Cumberland Ford, the shallow spot in the Cumberland River where travelers could cross safely. The historic log lodge features 30 guestrooms and dining room, but there are also log cabins, cottages and primitive camping available. For park info, call 1-606-337-3066.
For info on the area, contact: Southern & Eastern Kentucky Tourism Development Association, 1-877-868-7735, www.tourseky.com, or the Bell County Tourism Commission, 2215 Cumberland Avenue, Middlesboro, Ky. 40965, 1-800-988-1075, www.mountaingateway.com.
ART: With 6 numbered color images with captions.
CAPTIONS:
IMAGE 1. Hensley Settlement, a restored isolated Appalachian farmstead on the north end of the park. Photo by Cindy Ross. Slug: WF-FEATURE1-HENSLEY
IMAGE 2. Hiking the Boone Trail, which leads onto the Wilderness Road. Photo by Cindy Ross. Slug: WF-FEATURE1-BOONE
IMAGE 3. Park Ranger Interpreter Matt Graham at Cudjo Cave. Photo by Cindy Ross. Slug: WF-FEATURE1-CAVE
IMAGE 4. The Cumberland Gap itself at Wilderness Road. Photo by Cindy Ross. Slug: WF-FEATURE1-GAP
IMAGE 5. “Indian Rock,” where Indians would hide and jump on unsuspected settlers. Photo by Cindy Ross. Slug: WF-FEATURE1-INDIAN
IMAGE 6. The Hensley Settlement. Photo by Cindy Ross. Slug: WF-FEATURE1-SETTLEMENT
(Cindy Ross is a travel writer who lives in Pennsylvania.)
(C) 2006, CINDY ROSS. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
