Cumberland Gap

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The Cumberland Gap is a pass across the Cumberland Mountains region of the Appalachian Mountains, famous in American history for its role as the chief passageway through the mountains for early settlers.

It is located just north of the spot where the current-day states of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia meet. The pass elevation is 1600 feet (488 meters). The nearby town of Cumberland Gap, Tennessee takes its name from the pass.

The Gap was formed as an ancient creek, flowing southward, cut through the land being pushed up to form the mountains. As the land rose even more, the creek reversed direction flowing into the Cumberland River to the north. Used in prehistoric times by migrating animal herds, the Indians used it after their arrival into North America.

The gap was named for Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland who sponsored an expedition into the area in 1750. In 1775, Daniel Boone brought a company of men to cut out a path through the gap to enable a settlement effort by the Transylvania Company in Transylvania. The trail was widened in the 1790s to accommodate wagon traffic.

It is estimated that between 200,000 and 300,000 immigrants passed through the gap on their way into Kentucky and the Ohio Valley before 1810.

U.S. Highway 25E passed overland through the gap before the completion of the Cumberland Gap Tunnel in 1996. The original trail was then restored.