Description
For your consideration, we have a Cumberland Gap Kentucky 2016 5oz Silver Quarter Dollar. The Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in Kentucky is the second release in 2016 of the U.S. Mint’s popular America the Beautiful Silver coin series.
The design features a frontiersman gazing across the mountains to the West. Many pioneers used Cumberland Gap on their journey into the western frontiers of Kentucky and Tennessee. Design candidates were developed in consultation with representatives of Cumberland Gap National Historical Park.
Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, Kentucky was chosen for the America The Beautiful series as it honors a site where Native Americans and settlers traveled through a break in the Appalachian Mountains. The buffalo, the Native American, the lone hunter, the pioneer . . . they all traveled through Cumberland Gap, the first gateway to the West, into the wilderness of Kentucky.
After the Revolutionary War, people wanted to settle west, and used the Cumberland Gap as a way to get through the Appalachian Mountains. Eventually a railroad was built and it became strategically important to both the North and South during the Civil War. In 1940, Cumberland Gap won National Park status in Kentucky as it was a vital in the country’s expansion during the 1800’s. Today, Cumberland Gap greets about one million visitors a year and has many trails and scenic spots throughout the park, such as Pinnacle overlook.
Learn more about the US Mint’s American the Beautiful Silver Coin series here.
