Rebuilding Daniel Boone's footsteps - Clippings

American Forests, Wntr, 2003 by Fran Severn

Most park rangers cringe at the thought of construction equipment in their forests. But the staff at Tennessee's Cumberland Gap National Historical Park enthusiastically greeted backhoes and earthmovers in spring 2001 because of what their arrival signaled. The project would remove a dangerous stretch of highway, rebuild a mountainside, and recreate part of the "Wilderness Road," the 200-mile-long trail Daniel Boone blazed through Cumberland Gap from Virginia to Kentucky.

The portion of the Wilderness Road that crossed Cumberland Mountain was destroyed by highway construction in the early 1900s. Plagued by bad weather and poor design, the stretch of road known locally as Massacre Mountain was the site of dozens of fatal accidents.

Rerouting the 20,000 cars that used it daily was on the National Park Service's official wish list for decades. That wish came true in 1996 when a road opened through Cumberland Mountain, allowing a portion of the more dangerous road to be closed. That, in turn, allowed the National Park Service to begin to replace the missing mountainside and rebuild that section of the Wilderness Road. Three and a half miles of highway were dug out; in their place went earth and fill, sometimes to a height of 30 feet.

Contrasting old and new technology, contractors used period maps, documents, and pioneer diaries along with modern satellite photos to restore the original contours of the mountain and recreate the trail. Power lines and other signs of civilization were removed. Even a strip mine within sight of the mountain summit agreed to shut down operations, filling in and replanting its open pit to preserve the landscape.

Once construction ended, the reforestation began. Students from nearby Lincoln Memorial University planted 20,000 native seedlings in April 2002. The seed sources came from the park so new trees would have the same phenotypes as existing ones, thus ensuring genetic links to the vegetation's past. Soil-stabilizing rye grass was planted under an erosion blanket that will decompose as the new grasses and seedlings mature.

The official dedication, which took place in October 2002, was three years ahead of schedule, thanks to a combination of funding and cooperative weather. The section of the Wilderness Road through the National Park is only a half-mile long but links up with other parts of the road in Virginia and Kentucky, for a total of 1.5 miles. Rangers like to say the Wilderness Road has come full circle: "from an Indian path through the wilderness to a major highway and back again."