Today, our intention was to just drive and put at least 150 miles on the clock before we chose a camp for the evening. If you've been reading this blog you know we've been averaging about a third of that total for the last several days. And, as fate would have it, we breezed through the first hundred miles without a single hitch, though we passed plenty of brown signs trying to lure us off Interstate 75.
About 11:00 a.m. we stopped for a Walmart shopping trip since we needed a couple of dozen items. After completing that job, we stopped for lunch in a Masonic Lodge parking lot just down the road. Then I thought we would do another couple of hours of driving and get a solid couple of hundred for the day, but just a few miles from our lunch spot we stumbled on the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. Well, Concetta said she didn't know anything about the historic Cumberland Gap, and the part the Gap played in the settling of Kentucky and the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. What could I say, we just had to stop and educate ourselves.Our Cumberland Gap Museum and Visitor Center stopover turned to be very informative. They also had a small, but nicely-stocked gift section where I scored, in addition to a cool T-shirt, a copy of the book "John Floyd, The Life and Letters of a Frontier Surveyor," which I thought might help me understand how my Jones ancestors ended up in Kentucky after (or possibly before) the Revolutionary War.
We watched a nice film that detailed the history of the Cumberland Gap, Dr Thomas Walker, Daniel Boone, and other noteworthy men who were the first to pioneer what turned out to be the only viable land route from the original 13 colonies into the Kentucky wilderness.
From Wiki we learned that "The passage created by Cumberland Gap was well-traveled by Native Americans long before the arrival of European-American settlers. The earliest written account of Cumberland Gap dates to the 1670s, by Abraham Wood of Virginia."
"The gap was named for Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, son of King George II of Great Britain, who had many places named for him in the American colonies after the Battle of Culloden. The explorer Thomas Walker gave the name to the Cumberland River in 1750, and the name soon spread to many other features in the region, such as the Cumberland Gap. In 1769 Joseph Martin built a fort nearby at present-day Rose Hill, Virginia, on behalf of Dr. Walker's land claimants. But Martin and his men were chased out of the area by Native Americans, and Martin himself did not return until 1775."
"Daniel Boone first reached Kentucky in the fall of 1767 while on a long hunt with his brother Squire Boone, Jr. Boone's first steps in Kentucky were near present-day Elkhorn City. While on the Braddock expedition years earlier, Boone had heard about the fertile land and abundant game of Kentucky from fellow wagoner John Findley, who had visited Kentucky to trade with American Indians. Boone and Findley happened to meet again, and Findley encouraged Boone with more tales of Kentucky."
"On May 11, 1769, Boone began a two-year hunting expedition in Kentucky. On December 22, 1769, a fellow hunter and he were captured by a party of Shawnees, who confiscated all of their skins and told them to leave and never return. Since the Shawnee regarded Kentucky as their hunting ground, they considered white hunters there to be poachers. Boone, however, continued hunting and exploring Kentucky until his return to North Carolina in 1771, and returned to hunt there again in the autumn of 1772."
"On September 25, 1773, Boone packed up his family and, with a group of about 50 immigrants, began the first attempt by British colonists to establish a settlement in Kentucky. Boone was still an obscure hunter and trapper at the time; the most prominent member of the expedition was William Russell, a well-known Virginian and future brother-in-law of Patrick Henry. On October 9, Boone's eldest son James and a small group of men and boys who had left the main party to retrieve supplies were attacked by a band of Delawares, Shawnees, and Cherokees."
"Following the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, American Indians in the region had been debating what to do about the influx of settlers. This group had decided, in the words of historian John Mack Faragher, 'to send a message of their opposition to settlement.' James Boone and William Russell's son Henry were captured and gruesomely tortured to death. The brutality of the killings sent shock waves along the frontier, and Boone's party abandoned its expedition."
A few years later Boone would return with more settlers and would establish Fort Boonesborouh that we visited yesterday. By the 1790s the trail that Boone and his men built was widened to accommodate wagon traffic and became known as the Wilderness Road. Not only was Boonesborough one of the first American settlements west of the Appalachians, but before the end of the 18th century, between 200,000 and 300,000 Americans migrated to Kentucky by following the route marked by Boone.
Nowadays the National Park Service has blasted a tunnel through the mountains near the Cumberland Gap, which has re-routed auto traffic away from the historic route. Now, we were told by a very informative ranger today, that you can drive to one end of the wilderness road, park your rig, and then walk in the footsteps of Daniel Boone for six tenths of a mile. Since it was six tenths out and six tenths back,
We drove through three states today. We started this morning in Kentucky, dashed through a corner of Tennessee after our Museum visit, and stumbled over this absolutely wonderful forested camp in Virginia by cocktail time. We only got 117 miles today, far fewer then we had been anticipating. But the education we received made it all worthwhile.
In this particular camp, for which we paid $10.00, there is only electric available. A dump station is located near the camp entrance. There is no water other than what's in our own tanks. The best part is the effect of the dappled sunlight streaming through the leafy glades that surround us. It's absolutely stunning! Neighbors? Well the nearest camp is at least fifty feet away. The only sounds wafting towards us right now comes from a small group of folk musician campers who are playing their guitars and dobros somewhere off to the north of us.
I thought I'd show you the map that we have posted in the rear window of the rig showing all the states that we've crossed so far. Some states, like Oklahoma and Texas, only saw us for a day as we scooted across a corner. Other states, like Kansas and Kentucky, managed to keep our attention for nearly a week. I suspect since we only "kissed" Tennessee for a few seconds today, we'll need to cross the border again tomorrow and visit something over there, or my buddy, Tennessee Don will probably give me Hell.
So, until we meet again, maybe out on the road, we wish you Happy Travels!
1 comment:
Well you could hit 127 South until it meets I-40 east depending where you're traveling in Kentucky as to visit a little place I know named Crossville.
Then head further to the Federal Nuclear test labs where the "fat boy" bomb was being researched by my Uncle Charlie and other scientist at Oak Ridge Tennessee.
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