The Cumberland Gap

Cumberland Gap in Kentucky

During the Revolutionary War, there were fewer than 200 settlers in Kentucky. One of the most famous adventurers of all time was Daniel Boone.  His bravery during America's first days has been played many times by various movie stars. It was Boone who brought settlers through the Cumberland Gap of the Appalachian Mountains into Kentucky.  After this, settlers began arriving from Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Thus, the Cumberland Gap, is considered to be the first great gateway to the West.  It was not only the trail of the settlers, but also of Native Americans, the long hunter, and buffalo. The first known discovery of the Gap was in 1750 by Dr. Thomas Walker, an English naturalist and scientist who led a small party of explorers to the Gap.  He called it the Cave Gap. Daniel Boone came along in 1769 to explore the area and cut blaze marks in the trees along a trail which passed through Virginia to Kentucky's bluegrass region.
If the journey was not treacherous enough, there was also the occasional massacre by renegade natives. During the summer and fall of 1784, more than 100 travelers were killed on the Kentucky side of the gap. Like the ill-fated Donner Party, travelers had to abandon wagons full of household necessities in bad weather to travel the narrow gap by foot or horse. By 1796 it was known as the Wilderness Road having seen as many as 200,000 travelers, including Abraham Lincoln's parents and grandparents as they emigrated west. The Gap was then widened to allow Conestoga Wagons through to lands west.The Gap was used for commerce by 1800. Kentuckians drove long lines of horses and cattle through the Gap to the markets in the east. But by the 1830s, other east/west routes had been established, including the National Road, causing the Gap's popularity to decline.

The land grants and (later) affidavits which he gave to assist claims of settlement are sprinkled throughout old Kentucky documents.  Some affidavits are found in Cumberland County on Kentucky Pioneers


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