(This article first appeared in the July print edition of the Hendersonian.)
In the Land of Daniel Boone, between “the narrows” and “the gap,” between Barbourville and Middlesboro, Pine Mountain watches over the winding Cumberland River valley.
Pine Mountain State Resort Park, Kentucky’s first state park, is right there on the mountain, located just outside of Pineville and a few short miles away from Cumberland Gap.
You can find it near the juncture of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia in that little corner of our state where the border angles northeast toward Coal Country and deeper into Appalachia.
As the weather starts turning nice in the spring, there are blossoms all over that mountain and the warblers sing, setting the stage for some traditional pageantry that’s been a part of their community for decades—the annual Mountain Laurel Festival.
And when there are hints of winter’s approach, the forest and ridges turn gold, orange, red, plum, mahogany and all other shades in the warm spectrum, creating a visual feast to behold.
Park history
After the Kentucky State Park Commission launched in 1924, the citizens of Bell County, where Pineville is located, were interested in creating a state park, and several local citizens and county officials collaborated to donate the land.
It took nearly a decade for development to get going, but much like with Henderson’s John James Audubon State Park, the Civilian Conservation Corps played a large role.
The CCC constructed roads, bridges, shelter houses and hiking trails. They built log cabins for lodging and constructed a lodge out of native sandstone rock and chestnut logs. That original structure is still a section of the lodge.
Today the state resort park has 30 motel-style rooms with private balconies overlooking mountain scenery, 20 cottages, a convention center decorated with wildlife art by Ray Harm (who lived nearby), a nine-hole golf course with clubhouse/pro shop, recreational opportunities (including swimming pool and miniature golf), the Laurel Cove Natural Amphitheater with chair-back seating for 1,000, the smaller Sourwood Amphitheater and the Mountain View restaurant in the Herndon J. Evans Lodge. On a clear day you can see Tennessee (12 miles away) from the dining room’s windows.
Hiking
With 14 miles of trails in the 1,500-acre park, there are plenty of options. Because this is a mountainous area, most are rated from moderate to very strenuous because of length, elevation change or obstacles. Hiking boots and poles are highly recommended. An easy trail is the Clear Creek Hollow Trail that follows the route of an old railway route that once was a rail spur off the Louisville & Nashville (L&N) Railroad. The trail is used by hikers, walkers, runners and mountain bikers, and its features include four trestle bridges.
A legend
High on the slopes of Pine Mountain is a large rock outcropping that appears menacing toward the city of Pineville just below.
You know. Like maybe it could fall on the town square.
Called “Chained Rock,” the outcropping made the news on June 24, 1933, when the townsfolk in a newly formed “Chained Rock Club” made good on a “fib” that had been told the town’s children for years.
As legend goes, worried children had been assured that the rock was “chained” so that it would not give way and come tumbling down on them. (It wasn’t.)
But to finally make good on that promise, the Pineville Kiwanis Club located a giant steam shovel chain at the Kentucky-Virginia Stone Company, and a team of mules assisted by Kiwanis, Boy Scouts and members of the CCC carried it up the mountain and eventually “secured” the rock.
At least one segment on Kentucky Educational Television’s “Kentucky Life” show tells the story of how it was done and can be viewed at this link: https://ket.org/chained-rock-over-pineville/
Pine Mountain State Park trivia:
• The Mountain Laurel Festival, which started in 1931 and takes place in May, may be the state’s oldest festival. One of its many features is a pageant featuring representatives from each of the state’s colleges and universities.
• The forest viewed from the lodge dining room is the state’s largest state forest, Kentucky Ridge State Forest (15,251 acres).
• The evergreens are Eastern Hemlock, and some are 3-4 feet in diameter and more than 300 years old.
• Animals that are residents of the park include white-tailed deer, black bear, bobcat, coyote, gray fox, red fox, minks, muskrat, assorted rodents, wild turkey, great horned owl, barred owl, screech owl and two venomous snake species (timber rattlesnake and copperhead.)
• In the first week of May there’s a warbler migration in the state park, and at least 120 bird species are present annually.
• The peak of fall color is typically the second to third week in October. The mountain laurels bloom in the third and fourth weeks of May.
