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Excerpt from Restoration of Cumberland Gap and the Wilderness Road: Development Concept Plan, Environmental Assessment, and Interpretive Prospectus; Draft, October 1990 Cumberland Gap National Historical Park was established in 1940 to set apart as a public park for the benefit and inspiration of the people certain lands, structures, and other property, including Cumberland Gap and the Wilderness Road passing through the Gap. This resource, made famous by pioneers such as Daniel Boone, is of national significance because it was one of the first passageways through the Appalachian Mountains used during the early years of westward expansion. Two of the management objectives for the park are to preserve as closely as possible the appearance of Cumberland Gap that existed at the turn of the 18th century, and to foster public understanding and appreciation of the park's historical and natural significance through various interpretive programs and facilities. The intent is to provide the opportunity for visitors to walk to the Gap along the Wilderness Road and to feel what it must have been like to cross the Gap during the pioneer days of 1780-1810; to see the landscape as it might have existed then; and to experience some of the thoughts and emotions of the pioneers crossing from civilization as they knew it into the unknown land and life that lay to the west. Historian Frederick Jackson Turner summed it up well in 1893 when he said, Stand at the Cumberland Gap and watch the procession of civilization marching in single file - the buffalo following the trail to the salt springs, the Indian, the fur-trader and hunter, the cattle - raiser, the pioneer farmer - and the frontier has passed by. Interpretive waysides and visitor center exhibits will convey to visitors the importance of the Gap in the continuum of transportation from the migration of large animals, especially bison, which first established a trail, to the passage of people by way of horse and wagon, to the modern day use of motor vehicles. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
