Broke camp and started by driving through the mountain (The Cumberland Gap Tunnel) from Virginia to Tennessee. Then drove up to Pinnacle Overlook. While it is not nearly as high (2440 ft.) as Clingsman Dome or Mount Mitchel it has its own unique spectacular view. Perched above the town of Cumberland Gap, Tennessee you can see the town, the roadway going into the Cumberland Tunnel, and mountain line that divides the mountain between Virginia and Kentucky… an aerial view from one state of three states.
Once I came down from Pinnacle Overlook I preceded on the Wilderness Road north to where Col. Henderson, Col. Luttrell, and Daniel Boone founded Fort Boonseborough, near present day Lexington, Kentucky.
click here fro pictures and history from previous visit to Ft. Boonesborough
After visiting Sycamore Shoals and Elizabethton I drove north to Bristol Tennessee to begin the 1st portion of the Wilderness Road. Upon leaving Bristol you are quickly in Virginia heading west towards the Cumberland Gap. The first portion of the Wilderness Road takes you through Virginia to the Cumberland Gap at the junction of the Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia state lines.
I made it to the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park (VA), and spent the night at the Cumberland Gap Wilderness Road Campground. The next morning I would start the drive through the Gap and on to the end of the Wilderness road at Fort Boonesborough near Lexington Kentucky.
I left Johnston City, TN., with a full agenda for the day:
Visit Elizabethton, TN., and Sycamore Shoals State Park
Begin my drive of the Wilderness Road
traverse the Cumberland Gap.
The three goals tie into my family history and ancestors (Littrell-Luttrell) .
The first connection: has to do with the Transylvania Company headed by Richard Henderson. The company, formed by Henderson was made up of Henderson and eight other partners. Associates of Judge Henderson from his days as a Judge in North Carolina. One of these partners was an indirect ancestor of my family line, a GGG++Uncle, John Luttrell.
John Luttrell, one of 8 partners with Richard
Henderson, hired Daniel Boone to establish the
Wilderness Trail from Virginia to central Kentucky.
John Luttrell was at the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals and later, with Richard Henderson, joined Daniel
Boone at the founding of Fort Boonesborough.
John Luttrell, commissioned Colonel, died fighting the
British in North Carolina during the Revolution.
The treaty of Sycamore Shoals was signed in the area of the state park on the edge of Elizabethton, and the journey to join Boone in Kentucky began there heading north to the path being blazed by Boone and Thomas Luttrell, a half brother of John Luttrell.
The second connection: Following the Revolution we find our direct ancestor, Rhodham Luttrell, and several extended family members, living along the Wilderness Road in counties on the Virginia side of the Cumberland Gap. Years later we find Rhodham and several cousins and a brother have crossed the gap into Kentucky, traveling the Wilderness Road north before heading west into southcentral Kentucky.
