When next the white man reached the country--a century and a half later--he found the Xualans had been swept away by the conquering Cherokees, and he witnessed there the most sanguinary contest between Indians of which our annals give any account--a pitched battle two days in duration, between the invading Shawnees, who lorded it over what is now Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana--and the Cherokees, who dominated the country the southeast of the Cumberland range.

Again the Cherokees were victorious, and the discomfited Shawnees retired north of the Gap.
Then the white man delivered battle for the possession the land, and bought it with the lives of many gallant adventurers.

Half a century later Boone and his hardy companion followed, and forced their way into Kentucky.
Another half century saw the Gap the favorite haunt of the greatest of American bandits--the noted John A.Murrell--and his gang.

They infested the country for years, now waylaying the trader or drover threading his toilsome way over the lone mountains, now descending upon some little town, to plunder its stores and houses.
At length Murrell and his band were driven out, and sought a new field of operations on the Lower Mississippi.

They left germs behind them, however, that developed into horse thieve counterfeiters, and later into guerrillas and bushwhackers.
When the Rebellion broke out the region at once became the theater of military operations.