Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Interpretive Center

Found more historical things to see while in Corbin.  Yesterday, and of course in the 95 degrees/90% humidity, we traveled back to the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and on into Virginia to the town of Duffield.  About 100 miles away, but we were hoping it was worth it, and it was.

Kudzu growing on everything

Swallowing up anything in it's path

Looks like huge monsters

The Center we wanted to visit was just opened in December, so to find information on the internet was a tedious task.  We did mention to the rangers when we got there how little information there is on the internet and they said they were working on it.  And, of course with the 250th celebration of Daniel Boones' first trek over the Cumberland Pass, they were getting things ready for the weekend celebrations.

Mountains ahead - nearing the Gap and the tunnel

The trail to the Cumberland Gap

But, on our way to Duffield we saw the kudzu in it's glory.  This plant was introduced in the 1930's as an ornamental plant, helping to keep erosion at bay along the roadways and sides of mountains. In Japan they actually eat the root, using it as a filler in dishes.  The kudzu is out of control.  Only way to kill the plant, which grows 2 inches a day, is to a). get goats to graze it and they eat the whole plant and kill it,  or b). put nasty pesticides which are really harsh on them, but have to be diligent in putting chemical a lot and will kill just about anything else, so chemicals are not used.  Horses, cattle won't eat kudzu.  Along the roadway (Daniel Boone Trace) eastward you see formations that look like monsters.  One ranger told us that her friend bought a farm, wanted to be 'green' so they bought goats to kill/eat the kudzu.  Later they found that on the property was a barn which was totally covered in kudzu.  They had no idea it was there!

Reached the Interpretive Center, toured it, and we noted that this Center was dedicated to the 300,000 people who traveled on Daniel Boones' trail.  One in five travelers were African American, brought along as slaves.  But within 60 years, the slaves would be free, Kentucky was part of the Union then. The Center was not so much about Daniel Boone, but about the people who came through and their stories of hardship.  Towards the end of the tour we noted a very cool map that showed the 4 major migrations (voluntary) of people in the United States, and we have seen/walked/visited them all.  Pretty cool.

To think we have seen, visited, walked, hiked, traveled along all 4 trails - pretty awesome!!!

The mountains in the background - they traveled along the same road we were on

Entrance to the station

All buildings were constructed exactly as was noted from journals of time

At the end of the tour, we were encouraged to visit the Martin's Station, a State Park of Virginia, where a recreated Station (fort/resupply station) existed.  Once we left the Center we traveled about 30 miles back towards the Gap, were we stopped at Martin's Station.  And of course, they were getting ready for the weekend's activities of the 250th anniversary of Daniel Boones' trek over the Gap.

The fence around station, all hand crafted

They grow their own food, raise cattle/pigs, grow tah-back-ee

Shawnee Indian village is also part of the Station

Definitely an ah-ha day.  Wow.  We learned a lot, definitely understood how people got from Philadelphia to Kentucky during the 1700's.  Not an easy task, but they did it.