Since their formation, mountain chains have acted as barriers to migration just as the passes through them have been funnels for movement and travel. A famous passageway is the Cumberland Gap through the Appalachian Mountains of eastern North America. In the dim past it was the cloven hoof of the bison that beat a path through these mountains and paved the way for the whispered tread of the moccasin- clad Indian.

The Indian first entered this region about twelve thousand years ago and quickly expanded the buffalo paths into an extensive network of trails, that rival our modern highways. One of these trails, known as the Warriors Path, passed through Cumberland Gap and connected the Great Lakes with the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the tribes along its length claimed Kentucky as their hunting grounds. Their travel back and forth across the Cumberland Gap soon formed a distinctive trail that anyone could follow.