The is an important waterway in the
Southern United States . It is 687 miles (1,106 km) long. It starts in
Letcher County in eastern
Kentucky on the
Cumberland Plateau , flows through southeastern Kentucky before crossing into northern
Tennessee , and then curves back up into western Kentucky before draining into the
Ohio River at
Smithland, Kentucky .
In
1748 ,
Englishman Dr. Thomas Walker led a party of hunters across the
Appalachian Mountains from
Virginia . Walker was an explorer and surveyor of renown, and is described as a man of mark among the pioneers. They gave the name "Cumberland" to the lofty range of mountains they crossed, in honor of the Duke of
Cumberland , a picturesque region of lakes and mountains in the northern
England . Walker's party pursued their journey by way of the
Cumberland Gap into what is today Tennessee. Finding a beautiful mountain stream flowing across their course they called it the "Cumberland River." Previous to this time Cumberland River had been called by the natives and '''Shauvanon''' by the French traders. It is probable that Walker's party hunted along the river as far as
French Lick , and from there back to Virginia through Kentucky.
The Cumberland River is a wild river above the headwaters of Lake Cumberland.
Cumberland Falls , a 68-foot
Waterfall on this section of river, is one of the largest waterfalls in the eastern United States, and the only place in the Western Hemisphere where a
Moonbow can be seen. Most of the river below Lake Cumberland's
Wolf Creek Dam is navigable because of a number of
Lock s and
Dam s. A 90 mile section of its
Big South Fork is protected by the
National Park Service as
Big South Fork National River And Recreation Area .
Dams at various locations of the Cumberland River have created large reservoirs for recreation such as
Lake Barkley in western Kentucky and
Lake Cumberland (the deepest lake in the Tennessee and Cumberland river valleys) in southern Kentucky, and
Old Hickory Lake to the east of Nashville. Laurel Lake, on the Laurel River in southern Kentucky, the
Dale Hollow Reservoir on the Obey River in northeast middle Tennessee, and
Percy Priest Lake on the Stones River in
Nashville are each created by dams just upstream from their respective confluence with the Cumberland River.
Several
American Civil War battles occurred near the Cumberland River, including the battle for
Fort Donelson . The
Union Army Of The Cumberland was named after the river.
Source: ''Early History of Middle Tennessee'' by Edward Albright, 1908
