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East South-Central States: Kentucky, Tennessee

Daniel Boone leads settlers through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. This route through the mountains enabled Europeans to explore and settle the lands known as Kentucky and Tennessee.

Walker’s writings about his explo- ration of Kentucky made it known to Europeans. The Gap became a gate- way to the West. Between 1775 and 1810, 200,000 to 300,000 people used the Gap as the easiest route through the mountains. Today it is part of the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. Kentucky was a wild place. Bison grazed on the grasslands. Bears and wolves roamed the forests, and fur- bearing animals were abundant. During the 1760s, small groups of men traveled into the mountains to

were difficult to cross, little was known about the area. In 1750, The Loyal Land Company of Virginia sent Thomas Walker and five other men into what is now Kentucky. These explorers were looking for good farm- land for the company to buy. The men traveled for four months but never reached the Bluegrass Region and the good land they were seeking. Today, Thomas Walker is remembered for naming the Cumberland Gap. The Cumberland Gap is a break in the mountains. It had been used by Native Americans for years, but