Two rustic pioneer cabins sit amidst a lush green field at Martin’s Station Wilderness Road State Park in Ewing, Virginia. Named after Joseph Martin, the station became an important stopping point on the western side of the Cumberland Gap, which now serves as the border of Tennessee, Kentucky, and southwest Virginia. For pioneers looking to settle on lands east of the southern Appalachia mountains, the station served as the last fortified settlement on the Wilderness Road entering Kentucky.
A reproduction of McHargue’s Mill in Levi Jackson Wilderness Road Park, located in London, Kentucky. The reproduction was built by the Civilian Conservation Corp in 1939 on the banks of the Little Laurel River. The historic Wilderness Road (and Boone Trace), pioneered by Daniel Boone were the main southern routes used by settlers moving west through the American frontier, from Virginia to Kentucky beginning in 1775. The early route was steep and difficult to traverse, making it only accessible on foot and by horseback, but eventually the trail was improved and extended to reach Louisville, Kentucky on the Ohio River. The route is sometimes called the Cumberland Route because it traversed the Cumberland Gap in the Appalachian Mountains. The park is named after Levi Jackson, a prominent settler, whose family moved to Kentucky from Tennessee in 1825. The land on which the park is built was farmed and owned by Levi Jackson and his descendants until 1931, when the land was donated to the state of Kentucky. A number of buildings in the park, including the mill were built during the Great Depression, by the Civilian Conservation Corps, and funding from the National Park Service.
