The Emigrant's Dream

Cumberland Gap, the break in the ridgeline ahead, was far more than a pass through a long, rugged mountain barrier. For a generation of American pioneers, it was the gateway from old lives and limitations to a frontier wilderness full of promise and the chance to start a better life. In 1775, Reverend John Brown captured the excitement surrounding Kentucky, writing that to hear people speak of it, one would think it was a newfound paradise. In 1796, Moses Austin wrote of emigrants bound for Kentucky who expected land there despite having none, nothing to pay for it, and no firsthand knowledge of the country beyond what others said about its good land.

Middlesborough, Kentucky · United States