Moccasin Gap

Moccasin Gap is a Virginia historical marker in in Gate City, Scott County, dedicated 2016.

US 58/23, just west of Wilcox Ave., in Gate City

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

Moccasin Gap in Clinch Mountain links the valleys of the Holston and Clinch Rivers. Through here passed the main trail between Cherokee territory to the south and Shawnee lands in present-day Ohio. Hunters and explorers of European descent were using the gap by the mid-18th century. In 1775 Richard Henderson, a land speculator, hired Daniel Boone to clear a route to Kentucky. Boone and 30 men widened the existing Indian path to create the Wilderness Road, over which thousands of settlers later passed. The arrival of the railroad in the 1880s and the construction of U.S. highways in the 20th century ensured that Moccasin Gap would remain a significant transportation route.

Maps this old were drawn largely by eye, so places on them can sit miles from where they really are. The pin is ours and marks the marker's location today.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library

Historical maps covering this location

1776 · Carte nouvelle de l'Amérique Angloise contenant tout ce que les Anglois possédent sur… (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1796 · Kentuckey. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1796 · Map of The Tennassee (sic) Government. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1797 · Tennassee Government. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1807 · Map Of Virginia (lower left sheet) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Kentuckey, 1796, covering the location of Moccasin Gap, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Kentuckey, 1796, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

Example

For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

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Marker program managed by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

Moccasin Gap

Historical maps covering this location

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