Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

Interactive Map

Planning Tips

  1. When I visited, I stayed in the park. It might make more sense to find a base of operation between Cumberland Gap and another point of interest to provide additional options for exploration. Knoxville is one possibility.

  2. Middlesboro and Harrogate are the two nearest sizeable towns for basic service requirements. Otherwise, Corbin, Kentucky or Knoxville, Tennessee are the larger metropolitan centers.

Highlights

This passage through the Appalachian Mountains was long used by Native Americans as the easiest route between present day Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. After the passage came to the attention of European Americans, it became a primary portal for westward expansion.

In 1715, Daniel Boone was hired to raise a company of men to widen the route to accommodate wagon traffic. Following the success of this effort, the passage became part of the Wilderness Road. Migrants flooded through the Virginia colony, crossing the gap and into the frontier that later became Tennessee and Kentucky...

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Cumberland Gap Average Temperatures and Rainfall