Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail

Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail. . , The Wilderness Trail follows as closely as possible the 100-mile route Daniel Boone blazed in 1775 from the Tennessee-Virginia border to Cumberland Gap. Also known as the Warrior's Path or Wilderness Road, the trail opened the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains to settlement for thousands of immigrants., (Painting caption) George Caleb Bingham, Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers through the Cumberland Gap, 1851-52. Oil on canvas, 36 1/2 x 50 1/4". Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis. Gift of Nathanael Phillips, 1890., (Inset caption) National Park The story of the doorway to the west is commemorated at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, which contains more than 20,000 acres in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Ask about the park's interpretive programs, craft demonstrations, and trails at the park visitor center on U.S. 25E in Middlesboro, Ky., (Background caption) For 400 miles north of Cumberland Gap, the Appalachian Mountains presented an invincible barrier to early settlers in the mid-Atlantic area and the Carolinas. From 1775 to 1810, about 250,000 men, women, and children crossed the Cumberland Gap into the wilds of "Kentuckee" , a passage that turned people of various nationalities into Americans.