Wilderness Road

The first route over Cumberland Gap was the Indian “Warrior’s Path,” used by Daniel Boone to explore the land beyond the mountains before 1770. Richard Henderson, a claimant to large holdings in the West, commissioned Boone to quickly open a path or trace over the Cumberland Gap in 1775. This was improved by the state five years later and replaced in 1794 by a new wagon road to the Gap. This wagon road was the principal route used by settlers for more than fifty years to reach Kentucky from the East. Over 200,000 pioneers came over the “Wilderness Road,” enduring severe hardships, including Indian attack, cold, and hunger. In 1958, the National Park Service opened the original route of the “Great Kentucky Road” through the gap, to be used as an interpretive trail.

Today, the Wilderness Road is the center of a cluster of historic sites, reconstructed forts and museums devoted to the interpretation of the migration of settlers through the Appalachian Mountains. The rugged mountain region itself is rich in musical, historical, and craft traditions, many of which are accessible to the visitor