Travel Guide Cumberland Gap National Historic Park

On the border between Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, Cumberland Gap Historical Park is a narrow pass located on the ridges of the Cumberland Mountains in the Appalachian Mountains. If the park is spread over the three states, Kentucky is home to its Visitor Center (be careful, some of the sites in our selection are in Virginia.)A magnificent natural site ideal for hiking and wildlife observation, the park is known above all for its importance in the region's colonial history. Once used by the Amerindians, the passage attracted the attention of Virginia's explorer Thomas Walker. But it was Daniel Boone and his men who made him famous by creating the Wilderness Road trail that crossed the Cumberland Gap and allowed pioneers to reach the Kentucky and Tennessee territories west of the border. Between 200,000 and 300,000 migrants reportedly used the passage to reach Kentucky and the Ohio River in the early 19th century.During the Civil War, the pass was occupied in turn by the Union and the Confederates, before the Union, under the command of General Ambrose Burnside, definitively took control of it following the surrender of 2,300 Confederate soldiers.Today, more than 18,000 cars would cross the pass each day while more than one million people would visit the park each year.