I took a trip up to Cumberland Gap today and then explored TN-63 east to Sneedville and TN-66 to Rogersville. One thing I kept noticing were these brightly colored squares on barns. Apparently the KNS ran an article a few weeks ago about them and they certainly caught my attention.

Link...

Sneedville, by the way, really is stuck in time. There were dozens of barns in the surrounding area of Hancock County that were probably built in the 1920s and have been decaying ever since. Sneedville itself reminded me of the semi-abandoned coal towns in Kentucky, with a billiard hall and a few old gas stations (old pumps) in business. It was a beautiful drive along 63 and 66 as you switchback over Clinch and Short Mountains. Also, the rocks cropping out of the soil were really amazing; I don't know how anybody could have farmed there. No wonder it's so poor. There is apparently a place called "Elrod Falls" in Hancock County, which, for namesake purposes, I should really check out! My favorite place name was Frog Level Road. Second favorite: Rebel Hollow Road.

Read more...
I also really enjoyed standing on Tri-State Peak in Cumberland Gap where different parts of my body were in three states. The Gap is a fascinating place and everybody should visit it at least once in their lives. As many as 300,000 people passed through there between 1780 and 1810 on their way from Virginia, Pennsylvania or North Carolina to Kentucky and Tennessee. It was THE gateway to the West before the B&O Railroad, Erie Canal, and National Road offered other roots to the West. In my dissertation research on KY and MO I read countless diaries mentioning travel through the Cumberland Gap on the way West; it was nice to finally see the place in person.

Cumberland Gap was also a two-way commercial path, dating from the trading paths between Shawnee and Cherokee to traffic in KY hogs to slave plantations in the lower South.

Interestingly, they've restored the actual Wilderness Road through the Saddle of the Cumberland Gap by building a tunnel under Cumberland Mountain in 1996. Now the original road looks somewhat like it did when Daniel Boone first traced it in 1775. There is also an Object Lesson Trail, which refers to a 1907 model road built to convince the locals to invest in new automobile roads. Eventually the new Dixie Highway system would include a road through the Cumberland Gap; US25E would continue along that path until the new tunnel opened.