Cumberland Falls

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Cumberland Falls by day. On clear moonlit nights, the mist from the falls occasionally produces a moonbow.

For the Cumberland Falls meteorite of 1919, see meteorite falls.

Cumberland Falls, sometimes called the Little Niagara, the Niagara of the South, or the Great Falls, is a large waterfall on the Cumberland River in southeastern Kentucky. Spanning the river at the border of McCreary and Whitley counties, the waterfall is the central feature of Cumberland Falls State Resort Park, which itself is surrounded by the Daniel Boone National Forest.

On average the falls, which flow over a resistant sandstone bed, are 68 feet (21 m) high and 125 feet (38 m) wide, with a water flow of 3,600 cubic feet per second (100 m³/s).

Under a full moon on clear nights, an elusive lunar rainbow or moonbow is sometimes formed by the mist emanating from the falls. The site is promoted as the only one in the world to feature this phenomenon, with Victoria Falls at the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe having lost its status due to forest cultivation. Actually, almost any waterfall can produce a moonbow under ideal conditions; however, many comparable sites have too much light for this feature to be visible.

1 History and preservation
2 The Falls in entertainment and popular culture
3 Further reading
4 External links

[edit] History and preservation

Long known to Native Americans of the area, Cumberland Falls received its name from Zachary Green, whose party discovered it during an expedition in 1770. From the 1860s to the 1930s, Cumberland Falls and the surrounding land were privately held. The Moonbow Inn, a popular hotel dating to around 1875, was perched on a ledge overlooking the falls.

The area was a favorite vacation destination for T. Coleman du Pont, a Kentucky native and U.S. Senator from Delaware. Disturbed by plans to build a hydroelectric dam at the site, Louisville Times editor and conservationist Tom Wallace spearheaded a campaign to save the Falls from 1926-1931. In 1930, Wallace and other conservationists pursuaded DuPont to purchase and donate 600 acres (2.4 km²) surrounding the falls to Kentucky, urging the commonwealth to set aside the property as a state park. Despite DuPont's death later that year, additional land was purchased, and in 1933 the state legislature designated the property as Kentucky's third state park. Much of the early work at the park, including construction of DuPont Lodge and cabins for guests, was undertaken during the Great Depression by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) employees.