Cumberland Gap's Wilderness Road followed an ancient buffalo trace that early explorers used to go north into Kentucky. For most of the 1700s, it was suitable only for packhorses and foot travelers, and only after 1796 was it widened and improved enough for horse-drawn wagons to haul a ton of cargo up this grade. A short segment here preserves one of the few surviving original roadbeds left unaltered by 20th-century highway construction. In the late 18th century, travelers passed through vast stands of thick oaks, beeches, hickories, chestnuts, and maples, but such old hardwood forests are now virtually unknown in Appalachia.