Cumberland Falls is located in the Daniel Boone National Forest. Also known as the “Niagra of the South”, Cumberland Falls is the only spot in the Western Hemisphere where the mist from the water falling from a 125 foot curtain, 68 feet to the boulders below creates a moonbow. A lunar rainbow of refracted light, bent by the mist of the water. The spectacular moonbow can be seen on only when certain conditions align. It has to be within a few days of a full moon, with clear skies, sufficient rising mist, favorable wind speed and direction, water clarity. These conditions must occur fairly regularly at Cumberland Falls because three quarter of a million people visit the park annually and few are disappointed.

The 677 mile Cumberland River is created where three smaller streams, Poor Fork, Clover Creek, and Martin’s Fork converge near Harlan Kentucky, 120 miles upstream from Cumberland Falls. The river winds through the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee, then back up to Kentucky and empties into the Ohio River near Paducah.

Recorded history shows people have been drawn to the wondrous site of Cumberland Falls since from the beginning The falls lies on the border of Whitley and McCreary Counties in southeastern Kentucky. Cumberland Falls State Resort Park was designated Kentucky’s third state park in 1931. A lot of the first construction at the park, including construction of Dupont Lodge and cabins for visitors, was undertaken during the Depression by Civilian Conservation Corps, and Works Progress Administration employees. The Lodge has 20 woodlands rooms, 25 cottages, and a campground, one of fifty in the area. A spectacular building of knotty pine and hemlock beams has a spectacular view of the Cumberland River Valley.

Extensive schedules are posted on web sites as to when the moonbow will be visible. If you did happen to miss it by poor planning there are plenty of other activities to take your mind off of it.

Fishing, white water rafting, canoeing, horseback riding, are all available near the falls.

Thomas Coleman DuPont was a Kentucky Native, a U.S. Senator, and a fan of Cumberland Falls. Disturbed by plans to build a hydroelectric dam at the site of the falls, he purchased and donated the 600 acres surounding the site, and donated it to the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
He urged the commonwealth to set aside the property as a state park. He died a year later, but his wishes were carried out.

Author Ron Stemple
Copyright 2006, Ron Dowell