Talk:Cumberland Gap

Untitled
March 13, 2006

The "Geological Features" section covers the crater details well but needs some work. For example this section:

"The 12-mile long Cumberland Gap consists of four geologic features: (1) the Yellow Creek valley, (2) the natural gap in the Cumberland Mountain ridge, (3) the eroded gap in the Pine Mountain and (4) the 3-mile diameter impact crater in which Middlesboro, Kentucky is located."

The Gap is not twelve miles long. The passage across the mountains from the Gap to the Cumberland River ford at Pineville is about 12 miles.

The Cumberland Gap is a geologic feature unto itself, a gap in Cumberland Mountain that is perhaps a mile long but maybe much shorter depending on how you measure such things. The features of the passage are the Gap in Cumberland Mountain, the impact crater, a part of the Yellow Creek valley, a low pass over the Log Mountains, the gap in Pine Mountain and the Cumberland River.

Much of what is known as the Yellow Creek valley is contained within the impact crater. Yellow Creek flows to the Cumberland River but even the earliest travelers, including Dr. Thomas Walker, left Yellow Creek and cross directly north over the Log Mountains to the gap at Pineville.

Gap Cave should probably be mentioned somewhere. I can add that in the future.

The Gap is just EAST of the Tri-State Marker but that might be subject to interpretation.

Obviously I have a great deal of interest in Cumberland Gap and want the article to be as close as possible to being correct.

Mike Crockett

Samuel Stalnaker?
" The Cumberland Gap was discovered by Captain Samuel Stalnaker who met Dr Thomas Walker in 1748. Dr. Thomas Walker, a Virginia physician and explorer is credited with discovering the Gap, however, his personal journal entries indicate otherwise."

I grew up in the area and I've never heard of Captain Samuel Stalnaker. Does he have a Wiki entry? Where can we find out about this person?

Also, I agree with everything Mr Crockett stated above. All of which are things I've stated here before but no one seems to care enough to fix.

Mari 15:51, 24 July 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by MariAdkins (talk • contribs)


 * We're going to need a more solid source other than this obscure paper. I'm not finding anything outside of Stalnaker family websites.  This may fall under WP:FRINGE.  Bms4880 (talk) 17:17, 24 July 2012 (UTC)


 * I have removed it, asked for better/more reference. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 18:10, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Map
As critical as the Cumberland Gap was to the history of American migration west, a map is really necessary that shows the Gap and its relation to passage through the mountains.--Parkwells 18:06, 18 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Good suggestion. I inserted a map that was already here, but at a thumbnail scale... The article needs more text in order to accommodate all of the images. --Orlady 18:18, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Cumbrland Gap in popular culture
I recall Lonnie Donegan recording Cumberland Gap, and I still have it on 78 somewhere (and on mp3) - might it predate the quoted skiffle group? Lonnie's recording was very popular in our house in UK —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jpedley (talk • contribs) 20:38, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I think this is interesting information but seems to be like "trivia" because it isn't verifiable or properly sourced, see WP:IPC. These tidbits of info would probably serve better on pages specifically for each topic with a hyperlink to Cumberland Gap since they are more pop culture material where this article is about geography and places. So if no one has any strong opposition I suggest removing it. Brendan.Hunstad (talk) 18:15, 29 July 2014 (UTC)


 * Note there is a separate article for the song, Cumberland Gap (folk song). Bms4880 (talk) 18:57, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

Planned Edits
Hello! I'm a student at Ohio University and planning on doing some edits to this article and would like anyone involved to be aware. Right now I am thinking about bringing this article current and increase its grading to be more useful to the community. I'm starting the editing in my User's draft on Cumberland Gap if you would like to take a look and I am open for all suggestions and feedback.Brendan.Hunstad (talk) 18:38, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

Made Disabig Edits
This page is erroneously linked in a number of historic pages, and as all the world knows, that bugs me since I love my history of the U.S. I changed the intro a bit, but most significantly added to the entry the following clear message:
 * ''Not to be confused with the Cumberland Narrows, another, but more northerly E-W water gap in the Appalachian Mountains (site of the 'National Road' between Cumberland, Maryland and Brownsville, Pennsylvania linking the water navigable routes of the Potomac and Monongehela) providing the historic 18th & 19th Century emigrant's path to the water routes in Pennsylvania to the Ohio Country and Northwest Territory nor is this about the water gap at Pineville, Kentucky through which the Cumberland River flows.

This should help others be motivated to fix such erroneous links with apropos edits. // Fra nkB 16:30, 31 August 2015 (UTC)


 * Is that not a bit wordy for a disambiguation in the header? Bms4880 (talk) 17:19, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

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Abraham Wood
The reference to Abraham Wood discovering Cumberland Gap should be checked and the statement verified.

→″The earliest written account of Cumberland Gap dates to the 1670s, by Abraham Wood of Virginia″→

The source cited for this information, Ahlman et al 2005, would seem to be a credible source (government sponsored study, done by University of Tennessee researchers), but they do not cite the basis for this information. Fallam and Bates (1671), sponsored by Woods, never got further than just beyond the New River. The Needham -Arthur Expedition of 1673, also sponsored by Woods got considerably further, but it is unclear that they came through Cumberland Gap.

[|The Travels of James Needham and Gabriel Arthur through Virginia, North Carolina, and Beyond, 1673-1674, edited by R. P. Stephen Davis, Jr. Southern Indian Studies 39:31-55, 1990].

TwelveGreat (talk) 22:29, 6 January 2021 (UTC)


 * If a credible source casts doubt on the statement, it should be edited. Wikipedia editors aren't historical researchers, however. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 22:41, 6 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Nor am I. Just flagging a doubtful statement.  The fact that Ahlman et al do not cite their source for this, automatically makes it questionable.