About

Before Europeans improved it as the road to Kentucky, the main trail connecting the Cherokee Indians in the Great Smoky Mountains with the Shawnee in Ohio ran through Moccasin Gap on its way to Cumberland Gap. Settlers started coming through Moccasin Gap toward Kentucky in spite of the 1770 Treaty of Lochaber, causing the Shawnee to start Lord Dunmore’s War in 1774. During the Cherokee Wars from 1777 to 1794, settlers were often ambushed at Moccasin Gap.