WEBVTT - Ep. 16: Daniel Boone - The Legend of Cumberland Gap (Part 2) 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:09.360 M Cumberland Gap. Was that so important because coming from 0:00:09.360 --> 0:00:13.200 the Eastern colonies, from the Carolina's, from Tennessee, that was 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:17.400 the way. It was a hard thing to go do 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:19.959 and they knew that to do it, to try to 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:23.320 pull it off, they knew it was risky. They knew 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.200 it was a major undertaking. You had to scout it, 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:30.880 you had the plan. It was like a thing. On 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:34.600 this episode of the Beargrease Podcast, were on part two 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:38.000 of our series on the Incredible Life of the American 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:42.400 Backwoodsman Daniel Boone. We're gonna dive in deep, like over 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:46.360 your head deep into a topographic feature in the Appalachian 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:50.159 Mountains that was a major player in the identity of 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:56.320 Old d Boone and America. We're talking about the Cumberland Gap. 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:00.200 We'll interview to New York Times best selling off there's 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:04.520 some Boone experts, Stephen Ronnella and Robert Morgan, will nerd 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:08.680 out with the geologist, will talk about the potential historical 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:12.319 revision of Boone. And lastly we'll talk with a member 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.959 of the Cherokee Nation and hear his perspective on the 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:21.120 Old Gap. The path is rough, an American identity is 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:25.160 at stake. You're not gonna wanna miss this one, and 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:29.479 do me a favor, give yourself a pop quiz. What 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:33.600 do you know about the Cumberland Gap. I don't know. 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:36.319 Maybe the weather is nicer, maybe there's more games, and 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:39.399 it gets rewarded because it is. Boy, it's like people 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:52.000 moving because they just gotta know, they gotta go see. 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:55.480 My name is Clay Nukelem and this is the Bear 0:01:55.560 --> 0:02:00.520 Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:04.160 for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:08.440 story of Americans who lived their lives close to the land. 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:14.680 Presented by f HF gear, American made, purpose built hunting 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:18.240 and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:45.120 the places we explore back Daniel Boone's passing through the 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:49.400 Cumberland Gap has been mythologized in American culture. They've written 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:53.119 songs about it, made movies, written poems, and made art. 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:56.880 I've got the reprint of the famous eighteen fifty two 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:01.040 painting by George Bingham in My House. It depicts Boone 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:03.720 leading his family in a group of settlers through the 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:08.440 rugged Gap. The mountains around him are dark and ominous, 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:13.440 but beautiful white bathes Boon's figure, making him look almost angelic. 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:21.320 To understand Dan Boone, We've got to understand the Cumberland Gap. Okay. 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:25.520 Tell me everything you know about the Cumberland Gap. Okay, Well, 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.080 that will not take very long. The only thing I 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:32.000 know about the Cumberland Gap is that folk musicians like 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:36.480 to write about it in their songs. Where are you from? So, 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:38.920 do you have a sense of where the Cumberland Gap 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:43.080 is in relation to Michigan? I know it is South Michigan. 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:48.080 Tell me everything you know about the Cumberland Gap, the 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:52.800 Cumberland Gap. Nothing, Cumberland Gap, Cumberland Gap. I want to say, 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:56.760 it's somewhere in the wild, wild West. I want to say, 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:59.080 maybe there's a grocery store. I want to say a 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:03.240 Cumberland Grab grocery store. That's all I got. Hey, guys, 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:07.440 tell me everything you know. We'll start with you. Everything 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:10.080 you know about the Cumberland Gap. Is that like a 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:12.440 fault line or something? I don't know. You tell me, 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:15.400 I don't know. I think I've heared the Cumberland Gap. 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:17.120 Do you know what? I don't know what it is? 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:19.599 You don't know anything about the Cumberland Gap. I feel 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:21.480 like if you mentioned it, I would, but I don't know. 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:23.960 I can't think. Come on, there's one more guy standing. 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:26.000 I'm sorry, I don't know. I was struck out on 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:29.760 the Cumberland Gap. This is embarrassing. Josh Landbridge spilmmaker, do 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:32.320 you know anything about the Cumberland Gap? The Cumberland Gap, 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:36.160 I know is in some songs. I know that there 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:41.080 is a gap named after General Cumberland. He had quite 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:43.960 a mustache if I remember, Are you being serious? How 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.920 do you know that you just made that up? It's 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:50.839 not too far from the truth, because the Cumberland Gap 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:54.800 was named after the Duke of Cumberland. Dead serious. He 0:04:54.880 --> 0:05:02.080 probably had a nice mustache. That song is called Cumberland Gap. 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.320 It's been played by a string band out of Ohio 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:13.839 called the Wayfarers. I'm continuing to build on the assumption 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:17.200 that the average American doesn't know much about Daniel Boone, 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:22.320 and we're exploring how despite that, this backwoodsman's influence on 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:26.279 the American worldview was notable. In Part one, we learned 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:30.640 that archetypes are the mechanism of this powerful culture building weapon. 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:34.560 They deliver a value system through branding around the lives 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:40.000 of our heroes or villains. After some time, the values remain, 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:44.760 but the original life the host is often forgotten. And 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.680 this is just the point. Daniel Boone did stuff that 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.800 captured the attention of America and the world in a 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:55.359 vulnerable time period when we were looking for identity. The 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:58.359 prime of his life was in the seventeen seventies, a 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:01.440 time when many of our heroes were birth and old. 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:05.440 Dan stepped up to the plate and, in true Americana fashion, 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:11.920 became a representative man, the courageous explorer, engaging and thriving 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:16.000 in the wilderness and bringing civilization with him. He delivered 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:20.680 parts of the American dream to America. I'll point out 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:24.200 that this was a new identity for planet Earth, at 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:28.200 least this version of it, and it had ravish appeal. 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.440 In Part one, we left the Burgaras podcast world in 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:38.000 a massive cliffhanger, with Daniel Boone and John Finley finding 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:41.560 the Cumberland Gap and going into the frontier of Kentucky 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:45.039 in seventeen sixty nine. We're gonna nerd out on the 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:48.960 Cumberland Gap and we'll hear first hand from Boone what 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:54.039 happened on that first trip into Kentucky. Well sort of, 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:58.960 it's complicated, but there's a bigger question at hand. Why 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:02.440 were they risking life and limb to get into Kentucky? 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:06.080 And an even bigger question is this, why is there 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:12.440 this deep history of human geographic dispersion. Old Steve ronnella 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:15.840 meet eater, has something to say about this. I introd 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:18.520 him up right on part one, and he's got all 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:22.080 the street cred or should I say backwoods cred. He's 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.120 a New York Times bestselling author, a hunter, and a 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:30.880 noted boon expert. Here's Steve. There's a kind of a 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:35.320 theory of human movement around the earth where or shouldn't 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:38.080 say a theory. Way to imagine human movement around the 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:42.320 earth so often is that it's you're propelled by warfare 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:47.480 and starvation, human migrations under dear rest. So with people, 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:50.960 you know, in the nineteen thirties, right, you have Jews 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:55.120 escaping Europe, you know, and maybe coming trying to escape 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.200 the coming holocaust and get to the United States, or 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:01.880 just you know, different things like migrations in Ethiopia from 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:05.160 famine and that, and that moves people. There's also this 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:09.559 this aspect of that it has been just driven by curiosity. 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:12.320 Human migrations into the New World. Are human migrations into 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:14.920 the Western hemisphere, you can't really look at and explain 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:17.240 it like that. They were being pushed along by warfare, 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:21.320 being pushed along by overpopulation. They were moving from like wilderness, 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:24.080 like a wilderness setting, to a wilderness setting, oftentimes across 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:29.800 the tremendous hurdles, probably crossing ice sheets, crossing glaciers that 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:32.600 are coming down valleys. You have no idea, no one's 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:34.319 ever been there before. You, you have no idea what's 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.080 on the other side of the glacier, if anything, But 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:40.920 for whatever reason, you gotta go look. And there's a 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:43.720 practical aspect, like I don't know, maybe the weather is nicer, 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:46.520 maybe there's more game, and it gets rewarded because it is. 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:50.360 But it's like people moving because they just got to know. 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:53.760 They gotta go see. Is it dangerous? Was it dangerous 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:56.800 across a glacier when you had never met or talked 0:08:56.800 --> 0:09:00.280 to or heard about anybody who had ever lived south 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:02.840 there before. As far as you, you're just going into 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:06.240 the absolute unknown, but you're dying to know. And I 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:09.800 think that you, like, you can't ignore that aspect of 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:13.600 what that must have seemed like to guys. Sure, Boone's 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:15.520 like a market hunter, he hunts hides for a living, 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.160 but the god there has to have been an enormous 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:20.480 amount of curiosity about it. The reason it's so safe 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:24.240 to assume that is because the Cumberland Gap was a 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:29.080 very literal for them, like a very literal pathway into 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:32.319 a relatively untapped hunting ground. These guys were hunting stuff 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:34.439 that have been hunted by people prior to them. They 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:36.560 made a living off it. Here's a place to go 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:40.000 where the Euro Americans, like your peers, haven't tapped it 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:42.960 out yet. It's supposed to be loaded with buffalo, loaded 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:46.679 with deer, loaded without, loaded with beaver. So it's like, yeah, man, 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:48.400 you go there and make a lot of money. But 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:51.199 think about how we now feel like still today, when 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:55.480 we're not tied to the market incentives. We still dream 0:09:55.520 --> 0:10:00.400 about and talk about the secret spots, the secret hunting 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:03.240 places that haven't been tapped out. So it's like, to them, 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:06.719 was this literal gap that you could use to get 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:09.600 into the good hunting ground. But for us, it's like, 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:14.240 you can just get it. It works perfectly well as 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:17.760 nothing but a metaphor for like a passage, like a 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:21.240 keyhole that you go through that brings you into like 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:25.520 the dream landscape upon which you live your life. I 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:27.880 think that's why we still sit around here talking about 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:30.760 it today. It had to have existed in both ways. 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.800 To Boon, it had to exist as a literal thing like, no, 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:35.480 there's this big mountain. It's really hard to get through. 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:37.040 You can't really get over there, but there's a way 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:39.760 to do it. Okay, that's cool. But also like that 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:43.120 curiosity element was there too, Man, it was both. Do 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:46.600 you think that is that's deep inside of us as 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:50.880 humans at like a d N A granular level. Oh, 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:53.839 I mean it has to be, man, I mean it's 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:57.160 so hard to understand like how that stuff manifest But 0:10:57.679 --> 0:10:59.840 you put it this way if you want to explain, like, well, 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:01.600 I would it be that way? Why are humans like that? 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:07.760 Because it's rewarded. It's rewarded, there has been. You may die, yeah, 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:10.480 but but you may get a big reward. You might 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:13.240 also just if you imagine like as a species, like 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:15.880 moving or moving across landscape, going to new places. There's 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:19.080 a danger to it, but imagine the reward that you 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:23.240 get into a place where you have unlimited access to land, 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:27.600 you have unlimited access to game, You're able to produce 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:31.920 many children and have place for them to stick around. 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.000 Like there's an advantage too being out on the at 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:39.800 like being making the discoveries and finding things another way 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:41.440 to look at them. And it kind of like almost 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:44.440 defies Like you know, it's so hard to imagine, but 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:49.360 imagine the first Polynesians who were rewarded with landing in 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:52.439 Hawaii just they were just heading out on big blue 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:56.360 Ocean's like, oh, here's a giant land mass that no 0:11:56.400 --> 0:12:00.400 one lives on, and we'll now have like st angering 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:05.640 population growth and established this whole new culture on this 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:09.199 untapped landscape that we don't need to fight to get right. 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.840 It's like it is an enormous reward. Or then you 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.120 have all the people that probably sailed off into the 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:17.800 South Pacific never to be seen again and died to thirst. 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:21.160 So do you think or you get a big island 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:23.200 there seems to be and I think we would see 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:27.520 this still inside of humanity today manifested in different ways. 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.880 But there are people like Boon that push the edge 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:35.520 and they're there are settlers. There are people that stay 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:39.320 where they're at and they find gratification for life in 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.960 insecurity and staying safe. There's much to be said for 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:47.120 the latter, But then there's also there's much reward for 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.319 those who have this wandered list and that defined Boone's lot, 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:59.920 defined his life. Human movement implies that humans have to 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.560 deal with the actual topography of the Earth. I think 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:07.440 we need to understand topographically what a gap is. I 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:11.599 know just the guy to talk with. Dr Greg Dumont 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.280 is the geology professor at the University of Arkansas. I'm 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:18.560 interested in understanding the geologic history of this gap that 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:22.560 helped define Boone's life and build an empire, and if 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:27.559 why the gap sits almost slap on the spot where Virginia, 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:33.920 Tennessee Kentucky touch. However, most of the actual mountain pass 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:42.200 is in Virginia. Meet Dr Dumont. Dr Dumont, I am 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:47.840 trying to understand two things what a gap is from 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:51.880 a geologic standpoint, because we throw out this term a gap, 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:54.880 the Cumberland Gap, in such a way that we just 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:57.920 assumed that everybody knows what that is. So I want 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:01.000 to understand what a gap is is. But then the 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:05.079 second thing I want to understand is why the Cumberland Gap, 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:09.240 even from a topographic perspective, was so special. Talk to 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.240 me about like how a gap would be formed in 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:16.360 the Appalachian Mountains. Well, gaps throughout any sort of mountain 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:20.120 belt across the world are sort of a product of 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:23.640 erosion of rock that's been uplifted to make the mountain 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:28.920 in the first place, and erosion works preferentially, for example, 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:31.200 on the rocks that are weakest, so like a shield 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:35.280 versus the granite. Uh. If there are places where the 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:38.560 mountains or rocks have been fractured, you might have faults 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:43.160 that slid and they introduce a place where erosion can 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:47.240 can happen and create that notch or gap that would 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:50.400 allow people to pass through it. Other places, like if 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:53.280 you were in the Himalayas, you'd have glaciers that are 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:56.600 creating some of those notches that you could pass over. 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:02.080 And the term notch gap pass applies universally. You know, 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:04.840 you can look across the US and the rockies up 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:09.040 in Canada in the Appalachians and see similar features and 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:11.720 not all of them are caused by the same things. 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:16.600 The Appalachians were the product of several mountain building events, 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:19.760 But one that was really prominent is what's called the 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:24.960 alleghany in orogeny. When you take continental crust and other 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:29.440 material and you collide it together to make a mountain belt, 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:33.480 you end up producing faults where some rocks slide up 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:37.360 on top of another. In the Pine Mountain Thrust is 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:41.640 the main structure that brings part of the Appalachians up 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.800 on top of the adjacent rock. But then there are 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:47.880 other faults. You know, everyone's familiar with the San Andrea's 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:51.320 fault for example, and in that case, rocks are actually 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:54.640 sliding past each other on a very steep fault, like 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:59.120 uh Los Angeles is now creeping towards San Francisco, for example. 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.640 And the fall that's unique in the Cumberland Gap is 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.120 kind of like that. It's a steep fault where rocks 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:08.360 have slid past each other, called the Rocky Face fault. 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:12.360 And if you didn't have the juxtaposition of the Pine 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:15.680 Mountain Thrust and the Rocky Face fault where they sit 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:18.840 and intersect each other, it seems conceivable you wouldn't really 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:22.520 had a gap. Really, So there's two different major forces 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:27.000 working together that created to yeah, two faults that occur 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:30.560 right in that vicinity that helped create the gap. And 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.720 we talked about earlier how the rock type matters to 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:37.560 and uh, some of the high ground that's held up 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:42.480 along the ridges is a very resistant sandstone conglomerate rock, 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:46.640 and so it helps to have rocks that are more 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:49.480 resistant weathering. What kind of map would you call this? 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:52.040 So you got pulled up here. So this is what's 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:55.920 called a digital elevation model, and it's basically a three 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:59.520 dimensional representation of what hunters would see as a topographic 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:01.880 map that I don't know if anybody knows about this, 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:05.000 but there is a huge impact creater that is just 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:08.879 to the south west of what you're talking about. Is 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:13.320 that a natural like there? It's well, I know it's 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:17.320 uh not a league it is. So here's the topographic 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:19.760 map and you can see it's a depression. So he's 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:22.360 let me describe to you what I'm seeing. He's he's 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:25.480 pointing at an impact crater which looks like, I mean, 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:27.840 like an asteroid or something hit there. Is that right? 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:31.679 That is what the current thinking is that here's a 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.879 geologic map and you can see it's got this circular 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:39.160 shape to it, and there is uh, pretty decent evidence 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:43.359 that post deposition of these rocks and the Appalachian and 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:48.440 rogen e something smack down and apparently this is one 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:51.479 of the few places where coal is mined within an 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:56.440 impact creator. Yeah. Geologists call these impact creators astro bleams. 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:01.159 Daniel Boone had three interesting structures to negotiate along with 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:04.560 all of the Native Americans prior to him and everybody 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:11.480 trying to make the big trip across the Appalachians. Two 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:16.400 intersecting faults, and an astro blam where an asteroid hit 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:20.560 aided in forming the Cumberland Gap. I like connecting human 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:24.359 history to grand things like mountain building that we have 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:29.400 absolutely no control over but inflict a massive control on us. 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:33.080 The Cumberland Gap is the biggest and best gap for 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:37.800 a hundred miles in either direction, and forces above and 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:41.280 below the earth helped make it that way. It's wild 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.600 because no gap in the world has been more critical 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:52.320 in building an empire than the Cumberland Gap. The gap 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:55.480 is actually pretty new to people of European descent, but 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:59.359 Native Americans have used it since before recorded history, and 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:03.680 they call that the warriors Path or at the woman Ee. 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:08.480 This gap connected the Iroquois Confederacy and the Cherokees in 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:12.640 the South. The first recorded account of Europeans going through 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:16.480 the Cumberland Gap dates back to the sixteen seventies, but 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:21.600 Dr Thomas Walker officially named the gap it's European name anyway, 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:27.560 in the seventeen fifties. Wild and ironic, this American gap 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:32.119 was named after a straight up English chump, the Duke 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:36.760 of Cumberland, because of his recent military escapade. And wouldn't 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:39.399 you know it, they named the whole stinking Mountain range 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:42.680 after this man, who never set foot in North America. 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:48.919 Oh the injustice. The Shawnee, however, called the range was Oto, 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:53.560 which means mountains where the deer are plentiful. Now I 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:57.359 can get behind that. Dr Walker was a medical doctor, 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:00.720 a land speculator in a woodsman who took good notes 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:04.679 of his seventeen fifty travels into Kentucky. They hauled a 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:07.280 pack of bear hounds with him and ate a lot 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:10.160 of bear meat. Here's a couple of wild stories. One 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.399 of his men got bit on the knee by a bear. 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:17.520 Pretty unfortunate. Walker's horse got snake bit on the nose 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:20.520 and he rubbed it with bear grease to help cure 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:24.200 it not kidding. It's in his journal. Walker recorded killing 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:29.000 thirteen buffaloes, eight elk, fifty three bear, twenty deer, four geese, 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:33.040 hundred and fifty turkeys on their five month trip, and 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:36.680 Walker's men built the first log cabin constructed by white 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:40.040 men in Kentucky. It was no doubt quite the trip, 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:45.560 but very few remember Dr Walker's name, but they do 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:51.040 remember Boone, who crossed the gap almost twenty years later. 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:57.000 I want to take you into the Cumberland Gap. You 0:20:57.040 --> 0:21:00.880 can go there yourself. This mountain pass maintain its relevance 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:04.560 into modern times as a travel corridor, as it eventually 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:08.280 became modern US Highway twenty five. The section of road 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:11.760 was extremely treacherous in the Cumberland Gap was notorious for 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:16.240 tragic vehicle accidents, claiming an average of five lives per 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:20.600 year in this very short stretch of road. However, something 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:26.000 good happened. On October eighth, the Cumberland Gap twin bore 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:30.320 four lane tunnel was opened, which burrows through Cumberland Mountain 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:34.480 and then an incredibly encouraging feat, they removed the concrete 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:38.080 and asphalt highway that went through the old gap and 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:42.239 rewilded it and today it looked similar to what it 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:45.920 looked like when only a single wagon lane trail passed 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:49.879 through it. The gap now sits in the Cumberland State Park. 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:53.880 It's an incredible place and I took my family there. 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:59.919 So we are at the Cumberland Gap. Is the history 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:02.840 Cumberland Gap. We're in the Cumberland Gap right now. Take 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:08.960 a picture with your mama. Moccas and clad warriors battling 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:13.200 Civil Wars soldiers each was here in the historic Cumberland Gap. 0:22:13.200 --> 0:22:16.280 And now so are you. This is the historic Cumberland Gap. 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:19.080 You're there. This is it, man. I think this is 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:21.959 where James Lawrence would put his trees down if he 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:24.320 was trying to hunt the Cumberland Gap. Boys, this is 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:26.800 about the most narrow spot of the gap. You know. 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:32.399 The Native Americans called this the deer path, and James 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:36.439 Lawrence and many others before and since him made a 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:40.800 living off deer hunting in these gaps in the mountains. Guys, 0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:45.480 Daniel Boone stood right here. Think about that. I mean, like, 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:49.399 maybe his feet were right where your feet are, and 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:52.399 the vegetation of the gap would have been different. In 0:22:52.600 --> 0:22:55.480 seventeen sixty nine was the first time he came through here, 0:22:55.720 --> 0:22:58.280 but he would have stood within I mean at least 0:22:58.280 --> 0:23:01.000 ten feet of here, no doubt. I think of all 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:04.840 the Native Americans that came through this gap, the Buffalo wild. 0:23:05.119 --> 0:23:11.280 What do you think, crazy, John, I think it's pretty cool. 0:23:12.320 --> 0:23:15.199 Describe what these woods look like. Bear right here in 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:18.359 the comer. They look a lot like Arkansas, which I 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:22.600 guess is eastern deciduous. Right there, there's a lot of 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:26.560 oak trees, white oak trees. There's a lot of like 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:28.960 it's fret of green on the ground. There's a lot 0:23:28.960 --> 0:23:39.320 of rocks with covered in moss. Yeah, going into the 0:23:39.320 --> 0:23:42.000 gap was a unique experience for me. You get the 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:45.640 impression the Cumberland Gap is massive and grand, but it's 0:23:45.680 --> 0:23:50.000 really not. It's a narrow mountain gap. It's wild to 0:23:50.040 --> 0:23:53.959 think that such historical significance was derived from such an 0:23:53.960 --> 0:24:01.119 obscure place. Frederick Jackson Turner wrote, stand at the Cumberland Gap, 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:06.639 and watch the procession of civilization marching single file, the 0:24:06.680 --> 0:24:10.200 buffalo following the trail to the salt springs. The Indian, 0:24:10.480 --> 0:24:14.320 the fur trader and hunter, the cattle raiser, the pioneer 0:24:14.400 --> 0:24:19.920 farmer in the frontier has passed by. Here's Steve Ronnella 0:24:20.240 --> 0:24:24.240 on the significance of the Cumberland Gap on Boone's life. 0:24:26.960 --> 0:24:29.960 Some people's lives we see this through history. Some people's 0:24:30.000 --> 0:24:35.359 lives become defined by history, not necessarily by them. I 0:24:35.359 --> 0:24:37.440 don't know if Daniel Boone would look back at his 0:24:37.560 --> 0:24:40.520 life and see that going through the Cumberland Gap was 0:24:40.560 --> 0:24:44.440 that significant. Maybe would maybe wouldn't. But history has decided 0:24:44.720 --> 0:24:50.520 that that is this defining moment that was iconic. Man, 0:24:50.680 --> 0:24:53.480 it had significance to him. Why why was it significant? 0:24:53.520 --> 0:24:55.479 If you would have asked him and he was in 0:24:55.480 --> 0:24:57.320 the mood to discuss it, I think it would have 0:24:57.359 --> 0:25:03.200 been described as this is what we his families people him, 0:25:03.240 --> 0:25:05.320 this is what we had always been hoping to find 0:25:05.760 --> 0:25:09.440 in all those moves and all those shifting arounds, like 0:25:09.720 --> 0:25:14.600 that's the thing you were after, unlimited game, grassland, agricultural land. 0:25:14.960 --> 0:25:17.640 No other people that look like you there. The people 0:25:17.680 --> 0:25:20.720 that were, they were easily dismissed by them, reckoned with, 0:25:20.880 --> 0:25:24.479 but but not recognized as a rightful owners to it, 0:25:24.880 --> 0:25:28.439 you know. And also it was a hard thing to 0:25:28.520 --> 0:25:31.080 go do, and they knew that to do it, to 0:25:31.200 --> 0:25:34.240 try to pull it off, they knew it was risky. 0:25:34.320 --> 0:25:37.080 They knew it was a major undertaking. You had to 0:25:37.160 --> 0:25:40.320 scout it, you had the plan. It was like a thing, 0:25:41.760 --> 0:25:44.919 meaning that not to in any way equate this. I 0:25:44.960 --> 0:25:47.800 grew up in Michigan and wounded up in Montana. If 0:25:47.840 --> 0:25:51.359 I was laying out my life for someone later, I 0:25:51.400 --> 0:25:56.080 would put that as a key moment. Okay, that was 0:25:56.119 --> 0:25:58.440 like a key moment upon which many things were angered. 0:25:58.720 --> 0:26:02.680 And there's no way that Boone wouldn't regard that. Going 0:26:02.720 --> 0:26:05.240 through the Cumberland Gap, and he didn't. You know, he 0:26:05.240 --> 0:26:08.200 didn't discovered Kentucky. He wouldn't have said he discovered Kentucky. 0:26:08.480 --> 0:26:11.080 He no doubt went places that no white man had 0:26:11.119 --> 0:26:15.520