Update
$4.4 Million to Fund 99 Open OutDoors for Kids Projects for 2023 – 2024 School Year, Hitting Program Milestone
Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
Cumberland Gap...is a landmark of what nature can do when she wishes to give an opportunity to the human race.
The Gateway to the West
A legendary passageway and a magnificent destination all its own, Cumberland Gap has hosted buffalos and
Cherokee warriors, pioneers and modern day adventure-seekers.
At Cumberland Gap, the Appalachian Mountains give way to 24,000 acres of wilderness, a land of verdant
vegetation and diverse animal life.
Where the borders of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia converge, a path to new worlds appears. Early native Americans traveled through it along a game trail, before English-speaking settlers, including Daniel Boone, came through in the 1700s to carve out what became known as Wilderness Road. According to many accounts, between 200,000 and 300,000 settlers came through the Gap into Kentucky and beyond from 1775 to 1810.
Today, Cumberland Gap continues to attract adventurous people. In the park, you can hike more than 85 miles of trails, and explore groves of hemlock, fields of wildflowers, and meadows of rhododendron and fiddle ferns. The geological wonder that transformed a nation awaits you.