Historical Markers and War Memorials in Ewing, Virginia
Jonesville is the county seat for Lee County
Ewing is in Lee County
Lee County(47) ► ADJACENT TO LEE COUNTY Scott County(36) ► Wise County(32) ► Bell County, Kentucky(56) ► Harlan County, Kentucky(34) ► Claiborne County, Tennessee(22) ► Hancock County, Tennessee(2) ►
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The Cumberland Mountains on which you stand are only one link in a great chain of ridges and valleys that stretch 900 miles from New England to Alabama. The Appalachian wilderness was a 150-mile-wide wall to settlers looking west in the late 1700s. . . . — — Map (db m207050) HM
The abundance of game animals across Cumberland Gap attracted hunters to the region. Leaving home for months and sometimes years, long hunters such as Daniel Boone harvested deer, beaver, bear, elk, and other animals for their profitable pelts. . . . — — Map (db m188391) HM
The exact spot where Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia met is not easy to see on the ridge line below. Nor was it easy to determine. In 1665 Great Britain's King Charles II declared his Virginia colony was to be separated from his Carolina colony . . . — — Map (db m35907) HM
Brig. Gen. Joseph Martin 1740-1805
Revolutionary Soldier
Henry County VA
Cherokee Agent for
Continental Congress
Virginia and North Carolina
1777- 1789
Leader
Powell’s Valley Expedition
with his brother
Maj Brice . . . — — Map (db m233525) HM WM
This pass was long the gateway to the west. On April 13, 1750, Dr. Thomas Walker reached the gap, which he named for the Duke of Cumberland, son of George II. A few years later Daniel Boone and numberless pioneers passed through it on the way to . . . — — Map (db m35777) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m207722) HM
Dedicated to the Memory of General Joseph Martin
Martin Station
and the more
Than 200,000
Settlers
Whose Courage
and Fortitude
helped to carve
our great nation
out of a vast
wilderness
and gave
birth to
the American
Frontier Spirit — — Map (db m233526) HM WM
This cave system has a long history and a fascinating assortment of strange and sometimes imaginative names. Today the famous cave wears once again the first name that we know about, the name first recorded by Virginia land speculator and explorer . . . — — Map (db m207721) HM
For travelers who had to walk, the Appalachian mountains seemed like an impenetrable wall, 600 miles long and 150 miles wide. Here at Cumberland Gap you could find both a good way in and a good way out of that rugged labyrinth of ridges, . . . — — Map (db m207278) HM
I cannot conceive of anyone passing this way who will not avail himself of taking this trail to the top of Pinnacle Mountain...there will be many pilgrimages...[to] this historic spot... The beauty of the mountains, the spirit of the pioneer and . . . — — Map (db m35916) HM
What a road have we passed! Certainly the worst on the whole continent, even in the best weather; yet, bad as it was, there were 400–500 crossing...whilst we were...A man who is well-mounted will scorn to complain of the roads when he sees men, . . . — — Map (db m207720) HM
Just up this trail you can see a rough stone tower that once was the fiery heart of a 19th-century iron-making business. Cumberland Gap provided all the necessary ingredients—abundant waterpower from Gap Creek, iron ore from nearby mines, . . . — — Map (db m162934) HM
Westbound settlers on the Wilderness Road in the late 1700s welcomed their first sight of White Rocks. This bright sandstone beacon was a well-known signpost that Cumberland Gap was only another day's walk away. But few—if any—of those travelers . . . — — Map (db m207555) HM
Bison and other game animals established paths through Cumberland Gap as they searched for food, salt and water in the old-growth forest.
Cumberland Gap, a notch in the Appalachian Mountains created by geologic forces, was a natural corridor . . . — — Map (db m188410) HM
A short distance north is the Ely Mound, the
best-preserved Indian mound in Virginia. It
dates to the Late Woodland-Mississippian
Period (AD 1200–1650), during which more
complex societies and practices evolved,
including chiefdoms and . . . — — Map (db m44332) HM
From the early 1820s to the 1880s, an iron smelting business here took advantage of the rushing waters of Gap Creek. Today only the creek and part of the original 30-foot-high stone tower remain, a small part of an industrial complex of . . . — — Map (db m207276) HM
Pioneer settler of Lee County, Revolutionary soldier, juror, and surveyor. Helped select road from Martins Station to Cumberland Gap. Buried south of here at mouth of the cave. His wife was “Polly” Yearly. His great-grandson, P. M. Ball . . . — — Map (db m44235) HM
Lee County. Lee County, the western-most county in Virginia, was formed from Russell County in 1792; a part of Scott County was added later. The county is named for Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, governor of Virginia from 1791 to 1794 and . . . — — Map (db m80237) HM
Frank B. Rowlett (1908-1998) and Gene Grabeel (1920-2015) grew up in Rose Hill, seven miles northeast of here. Rowlett, working in the U.S. Army's Signal Intelligence Service, led the team that in 1940 cracked the Japanese diplomatic cipher machine . . . — — Map (db m162938) HM
The town you see 1,400 feet below, the mountain on which you stand, and the Gap itself all bear the name of an English royal - the Duke of Cumberland. Prince William Augustus (1721-1765) was the third and favorite son of King George II. The popular . . . — — Map (db m207051) HM
For 44 months, thousands of troops—both Confederate and Federal—guarded this strategic pass and wagon road. More than a dozen fortifications and batteries on this rugged terrain made it a defense that no general was willing to assault.
. . . — — Map (db m207275) HM
This marks the burial place of a party of white settlers who were surprised in camp and slain by Indians at daybreak, October 10, 1773. Those killed were James Boone, son of Daniel Boone; Henry Russell, son of Capt. William Russell; Robert and . . . — — Map (db m233011) HM
The names of the valley, river, and mountains that stretch out before you echo the names of long-hunters and explorers of the mid-18th century. Frontiersman Ambrose Powell came here with the Loyal Land Company expedition in April 1750. Long-hunter . . . — — Map (db m207052) HM
Near here the famed explorer Meriwether Lewis made a discovery that might have mattered more to the people of Kentucky and Tennessee than Lewis and Clark's first sighting of the Pacific Ocean in 1805. Both Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark . . . — — Map (db m207715) HM
Following game paths, American Indians journeyed through the Gap on trading and warring expeditions. For centuries, the Shawnee, Cherokee, and Iroquois fought for control of the land. In more peaceful times, they traveled through the Gap to trade . . . — — Map (db m188404) HM
Before trucks and cars in the 1900s, before steam locomotives in the 1800s, before long-hunters' packhorses in the 1700s, there was long-distance traffic crossing the Gap — on foot — going both north and south. No one knows how many centuries . . . — — Map (db m207279) HM
The cliffs to the north were a familiar landmark along the Wilderness Road which was blazed by Daniel Boone in March, 1775, and which was the principal route from Virginia to Kentucky. They are part of the Cumberland Mountains. — — Map (db m44325) HM
Passage of the Vocational Education Act in 1917 brought agricultural training to high schools across the nation. Difficult terrain and poor roadways limited its success in southwestern Virginia. Pioneering educator William H Starnes established a . . . — — Map (db m148796) HM