2007-19 Purple Cone Flower, Tennessee
Hello All,
This week found us traveling North to the little historic town of Rugby, TN. It was founded in 1880 by noted English author/social reformer Thomas Hughes. He called Rugby a lovely corner of God's earth. He intended it to be a cooperative, class-free, agricultural community for younger sons of English gentry and all other interested in starting life anew in America. We toured the buildings and snapped a few photos, but overall we were not that impressed.
Our next destination was the town of Cumberland Gap on the Northern border of Tennessee (where Kentucky and Virginia meet). This part of the country is loaded with history. While in the area we visited the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and thoroughly enjoyed it. There were lots of purple cone flowers around the visitor center and the honey bees loved them--hence the picture of the week.
This week found us traveling North to the little historic town of Rugby, TN. It was founded in 1880 by noted English author/social reformer Thomas Hughes. He called Rugby a lovely corner of God's earth. He intended it to be a cooperative, class-free, agricultural community for younger sons of English gentry and all other interested in starting life anew in America. We toured the buildings and snapped a few photos, but overall we were not that impressed.
Our next destination was the town of Cumberland Gap on the Northern border of Tennessee (where Kentucky and Virginia meet). This part of the country is loaded with history. While in the area we visited the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and thoroughly enjoyed it. There were lots of purple cone flowers around the visitor center and the honey bees loved them--hence the picture of the week.
Cumberland Gap was named after
an English royal--the Duke of Cumberland. Prince William Augustus (1721-1765)
was the third and favorite son of King George II. The popular young nobleman
was sometimes called "Sweet William" after he successfully crushed
the 1745 Jacobite rebellion in Scotland. In Virginia, Peter Jefferson, Joshua
Fry, and Thomas Walker--all politically well connected planters--formed the
Loyal Land Company in 1749 to sell Virginia's western lands. The Governor's
Council in Williamsburg granted Loyal Land title to 800,000 acres west of the
Cumberland Mountains. Sometime after 1750 Thomas Walker explored the gap and
named it for Sweet William.
The Cumberland Mountains are only one link in a great chain of ridges and valleys that stretch 900 miles from New England to Alabama. Nature provided only three good routes for a mass migration through the maze: the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York, the Potomac's passage that linked the Chesapeake to the Ohio Valley, and the Cumberland Gap. There is a 150-mile long wall of steep mountains and cliffs in this area that prevented settlers looking west in the late 1700s from passing into what is now Kentucky and points further west. For some 300,000 pioneers from the mid-Atlantic and southern states, this was the best road west. Probably no name is more associated with the Cumberland Gap and the opening of the west than Daniel Boone. In 1775 he was commissioned to blaze a road through the gap. It became the Wilderness Road, establishing his place in history as a frontiersman and pathfinder.
We are sad to report that the Tail of the Dragon here in East Tennessee has struck again. Three more motorcycle riders lost their lives this week attempting to tame the 318 curves. The county sheriff has increased patrols on the 11-mile stretch of road in the Smoky Mountains. But it seems there are always some trying to push the envelope of safety.
Until next time,
Dave and Barb
The Traveling Browns
The Cumberland Mountains are only one link in a great chain of ridges and valleys that stretch 900 miles from New England to Alabama. Nature provided only three good routes for a mass migration through the maze: the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York, the Potomac's passage that linked the Chesapeake to the Ohio Valley, and the Cumberland Gap. There is a 150-mile long wall of steep mountains and cliffs in this area that prevented settlers looking west in the late 1700s from passing into what is now Kentucky and points further west. For some 300,000 pioneers from the mid-Atlantic and southern states, this was the best road west. Probably no name is more associated with the Cumberland Gap and the opening of the west than Daniel Boone. In 1775 he was commissioned to blaze a road through the gap. It became the Wilderness Road, establishing his place in history as a frontiersman and pathfinder.
We are sad to report that the Tail of the Dragon here in East Tennessee has struck again. Three more motorcycle riders lost their lives this week attempting to tame the 318 curves. The county sheriff has increased patrols on the 11-mile stretch of road in the Smoky Mountains. But it seems there are always some trying to push the envelope of safety.
Until next time,
Dave and Barb
The Traveling Browns