Ever since pioneers discovered Cumberland Falls in the late 1700s, visitors have been drawn to its beauty. In 1875, only a few years after the first homestead here, the first hotel on this site was built, and Cumberland Falls soon became a popular summer resort. Called the Cumberland Falls Hotel, the inn was a two-story wooden structure with 40 rooms on each floor, built with logs floated from a sawmill upstream. Later, a separate building was added for a dining room, with a ballroom on the second floor. In 1902, Henry Brunson purchased the hotel and renamed it the Brunson Inn, which he and his family operated until 1931, when Cumberland Falls became a state park. The hotel then became known as the Moonbow Inn and continued under that name until fire destroyed it in 1949, after which it was not rebuilt. In earlier days, reaching Cumberland Falls was difficult: visitors came on the Cincinnati Southern Railroad to Parker’s Lake, 12 miles west, then rode mule-drawn jolt wagons the rest of the way on a dirt road, a trip whose last 12 miles took four hours.