The Anglo-Saxons of the Kentucky Mountains



Appalachians are distinguished by a central zone of depression,
flanked on the east by the Appalachian Mountains proper, and on the
west by the Allegheny and the Cumberland Plateaus. This central
trough is generally designated as the Great Appalachian Valley. It
is depressed several hundred feet below the highlands on either side,
but its surface is relieved by intermittent series of even-crested ridges
which rise iooo feet or more above the general level, running parallel
to each other, and conforming at the same time to the structural axis
of the whole system. The valleys between them owe neither wvidth
nor form to the streams which drain them. The Cumberland Plateau
forms the western highland of the Great Valley in Eastern Kent ucky,
Tennessee, and Northern Alabama. This plateau belt reaches its
greatest height in Kentucky, and slopes gradually from this section
to the south and west. Its eastern escarpment rises abruptly 800 to
i500 feet from the Great Valley, and shows everywhere an almost
perfectly straight skyline. The western escarpment is very irregular,
for the streams, flowing westward from the plateau, have carved
out their valleys far back into the elevated district, leaving narrow
spurs running out into the low plains beyond. The surface is highly
dissected, presenting a maze of gorge-like valleys separating the
steep, regular slopes of the sharp or rounded hills. The level of the
originally upheaved mass of the plateau is now represented by the
altitude of the existing summits, which show a remarkable unifonnity
in the northeast-southwest line, and a slight rise in elevation from
the western margin towards the interior.
  About io,ooo square -miles of the Cumberland Plateau fall within
the confines of the State of Kentucky, and form the eastern section of
the State. A glance at the topographical map of the region shows the
country to be devoted by nature to isolation and poverty. The east-
ern rim of the plateau is formed by Pine Mountain, which raises its
solid wall with level top in silhouette against the sky, and shows only
one water-gap in a distance of 150 miles. And just beyond is the
twin range of the Cumberland. Hence no railroads have attempted
to cross this double border-barrier, except at the northeast and
southeast corners of the State, where the Big Sandy and Cumber-
land Rivers have carved their way through mountains to the west.
Railroads, therefore, skirt this upland region, but nowhere penetrate
it. The whole area is a coalfield, the mineral being chiefly bitumin-
ous, with several thousand square miles of superior cannel coal. The
obstructions growing out of the topography of the country, and the
cheap river transportations afforded by the Ohio for the Kanawha



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