PINEVILLE, Ky. -- Famed frontiersman Daniel Boone in 1775 hacked his way through trees, underbrush and mountains to discover a pass through the Cumberland Mountains, thus opening the way for western exploration and settlement in the U. S.
But the rugged, deerskin jacket- wearing Boone probably could not envision what the valley he discovered would eventually become.
Now, the "Ken-tah-ten" (from an Iroquo Indian word meaning “land of tomorrow”) he discovered has evolved into one of the most attractive tourist locations of the tri-state (Kentucky-Tennessee-Virginia) region.
Daniel Boone has become a revered name in Kentucky and his memory is honored in numerous ways, including the naming of a national forest for him. The Daniel Boone National Forest covers about 700,000 acres over 21 Kentucky counties, including more than 3,400 miles of sandstone cliffs.
Though Boone is generally credited as being the founder of Cumberland Gap, some historians say Dr. Thomas Walker, a Virginia physician who became an explorer, discovered Cumberland Gap in 1750. But it was Boone and some 30 other woodsmen of the Translvania Company who carved out a 200-mile trail through the Gap from Kingsport, Tn., and he received most of the accolades. The gap was commonly known as the Wilderness Trail, which ran through Cumberland Gap to Kentucky. The Gap was widened in 1796 in order to allow Conestoga wagons through.
Located on U. S. Highway 25E about 70 miles north of Knoxville, the Bell County area (which includes the towns of Middlesboro and Pineville) boasts several tourist attractions, including:
* Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, covering 20,305 acres in Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. The park is the second largest historical park in the nation. The "Gap" is an 800-foot-deep natural break in the Cumberland Mountains. Indians passed through on a trail called Warriors Path; later pioneers led by Boone marked out the trail that became the Wilderness Road. More than 300,000 pioneers traveled the "Gateway to the West" between 1775 and 1810.
* Pine Mountain State Resort Park, U.S. Highway. 25E,
Pineville. Kentucky's first state park, established in 1926. The Pine Mountain range is a western section of the giant Appalachian Mountain system. The Park features a 30-room lodge plus several rustic cabins and modern cottages, restaurant, pool, planned recreation, hiking, mini-golf, handicapped facilities, nature center, picnic shelters, playground, hiking, 8.5 miles of self-guided trails, Laurel Cove Amphitheater, breathtaking outdoor setting, and the site of the annual Mountain Laurel Festival held in Pineville the last weekend of May since 1931.
* Bell County Coal House, North 20th Street
Middlesboro. Home to the Bell County Chamber of Commerce, this building is truly a unique landmark. The Coal House was built in 1926 out of 42 tons of bituminous coal. Open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Next door to the Coal House is an outdoor museum featuring coal mining equipment from the 1960s. The equipment includes a mine locomotive and coal cutting machine.
* Centennial Park & Historical Canal Walk, 21st & Lothbury St.,
Middlesboro. Nestled by the city parking lot a wall of personalized memorial bricks behind park water fountain; Vietnam, Desert Storm and Korean War memorials
* Chained Rock, Pine Mountain State Resort Park,
Pineville. One of the many attractions at Pine Mountain State Resort Park. A huge chain anchored to a boulder seems to be holding the big rock in place 1,000-feet over the city of Pineville. The chained rock became a tourist attraction in 1933 when a local civic club and other organizations decided to capitalize on the noterity of the story about the giant rock hanging over the town of Pineville. They used a four-mule team to drag a 100-foot chain, weighing almost two tons, up the mountain and drilled holes in nearby rocks and anchored the chain (each link weighing about seven pounds) to the big rock overlooking the town. Now, there is a footpath trail of about half a mile to the chained rock.
* Middlesborough Country Club and Wasioto Winds Golf Club,
two of the most interesting golf courses in the state. Middlesboro Country Club, Heywood Road, Middlesboro, is the oldest continuously played golf course in the U.S. The nine-hole tree-lined course is relatively short by modern standards (a little more than 2,700 yards from the longest tees), but some holes are challenging. The course is semiprivate with a pro-shop, concessions, club and cart rentals. Green fees/cart costs $24 for nine holes weekdays and $28 on weekends/holidays. Wasioto Winds
at Pine Mountain State Park is a championship, 18-hole course that, uniquely enough, plays entirely in a flatland valley. The course winds its way around numerous lakes and provides beautiful settings, with mountain backdrops, scenic arching bridges and abundant flora and fauna. The course is always in immaculate condition and has several sets of tees, including championship tees stretching more than 7,000 yards. There is a large clubhouse and snack bar. The course opened in 2001.
Middlesboro has also become a point of major international geologic interest in recent years as scientists have determined the town is built entirely in the crater of a giant comet which hit the earth thousands of years ago. The town is believed to be the only city in the world built on the site of a major asteroid strike.
Middlesboro also received major international attention in recent years because of the extraordinary project of retired businessman J. Roy Shoffner. Shoffner led a $5 million, 10-year project that extracted a downed U. S. P-38 fighter plane from underneath hundreds of feet of glacial ice in Greenland. He then shipped the plane parts back to Middlesboro, reassembled it and got it back into flying condition. More than 20,000 viewed the first flight of the reconditioned plane. The plane was part of The Lost Squadron, a group of P-38s which in July 1942 was escorting two Boeing B-17 bombers en route from Canada to Greenland, across the Denmark Straight to Iceland and on to England. But the group encountered heavy fog and bad weather and some crashed. Shoffner's plane was the only one ever recovered. Hundreds of thousands of people visited the Middlesboro P-38 museum over a 10-year period to see the plane, which was recently sold to an aircraft museum in San Antonio.
The Middlesboro-Pineville area includes several other points of interest, including The Pinnacle Overlook at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, giving viewers a breathtaking view of four different states and seven different towns; The Tri-State Marker at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
indicating where the states of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia all meet (it is possible to stand in all three states at once from this point); Kentucky Ridge State Forest is five miles southwest of Pineville. It is Kentucky's second largest state forest with 11,363 acres in Bell County; adjoins Pine Mountain State Resort Park with recreational and lodging facilities close by. Excellent for hunting and rugged back country hiking; many scenic overlooks.
Bell County is the only county in Kentucky to contain both a national park and
a state park.
Several special events are held in Bell County each year, including the Mountain Laurel Festival each spring, Great American Dulcimer Convention, Cumberland Mountain Fall Festival each October, Fall Photography Weekend, and a New Year’s Eve Celebration.
For more information on any of the locales or special events in Bell County you may contact the Bell County Tourism Commission, 2215 Cumberland Ave., Middlesboro, Ky., 40965, or call toll-free 800-988-1075 (e-mail :[email protected] or the web site at www.mountaingateway.com.

This story was published on 14 Jun 2008.