Kingdom Come State Park | |
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Location in Kentucky Location in United States | |
Type | Kentucky state park |
Location | Harlan County, Kentucky |
Coordinates | 36°59′48″N82°58′44″W / 36.99667°N 82.97889°W |
Area | 1,283 acres (519 ha) [1] |
Created | June 11, 1961 [2] |
Operated by | Kentucky Department of Parks |
Status | Open year-round |
Website | Official website |
Kingdom Come State Park is a part of Kentucky's state park system in Harlan County atop Pine Mountain near the city of Cumberland. It was named after the 1903 best-selling novel The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come by native Kentuckian John Fox, Jr. [2] Features of the park include Raven Rock, Log Rock, and a 3.5-acre (1.4 ha) mountain lake. The section of the park is also a legally dedicated state nature preserve by the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves.
Raven Rock is a naturally bare, large rock face composed mostly of limestone, leaning at a 45° angle over 290 feet (88 m) in the air. [1] Nearby is the Cave Amphitheater. In the back of the Cave Amphitheater are deep crevices that house thousands of bats. Also within the park is a natural sandstone bridge called "Log Rock", which resembles a petrified tree that has fallen over. The Log Rock has been severely vandalized over the years, and the underside is now covered with people's names that they have spray-painted or scratched onto the stone. There are also numerous overlooks to the valleys below. Among the most popular of these viewing points is the Creech Overlook.[ citation needed ]
Black bears inhabit Kingdom Come State Park and adjoining lands in the Cumberland, Kentucky area. Black bears naturally recolonized extreme eastern Kentucky counties (Harlan, Letcher, Bell, and Pike) over the last three decades[ when? ] from the neighboring states of Virginia, West Virginia, and Tennessee. The species was not reintroduced to Kingdom Come State Park or any portion of Kentucky east of Interstate 75. [3] It is illegal to feed black bears. [4]
Other wildlife species also call Kingdom Come State Park home, including the state-threatened common raven, fox, multiple species of hawks, cottontail rabbit, multiple bat species, coyote, multiple species of amphibians, and an array of insect life.
Fourteen hiking trails, a 9-hole miniature golf course, lake with paddle boats, picnic shelters, fishing, and primitive campsites are available at the park. The park offers access to Little Shepherd Trail, a 38-mile (61 km) primitive road for mountain biking and adventure driving that winds across the Pine Mountain ridgetop to the city of Harlan. [5] [6]
The Kentucky Coal Mining Museum, Portal 31 Mine Tour, and Benham Schoolhouse Inn are operated by the Kentucky Community and Technical College System in Benham. [7]
Letcher County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,548. Its county seat is Whitesburg. It was created in 1842 from Harlan and Perry counties, and named for Robert P. Letcher, Governor of Kentucky from 1840 to 1844.
Harlan County is a county located in southeastern Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 26,831. Its county seat is Harlan. It is classified as a moist county—a county in which alcohol sales are prohibited, but containing a "wet" city, in this case Cumberland, where package alcohol sales are allowed. In the city of Harlan, restaurants seating 100+ may serve alcoholic beverages.
Benham is a home rule-class city in Harlan County, Kentucky, in the United States. The city was formally incorporated by the General Assembly in 1961. The population was 512 at the 2020 census, up from 500 at the 2010 census.
Cumberland is a home rule-class city in Harlan County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population according to the 2010 Census was 2,237, down from 2,611 at the 2000 census.
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The Cumberland Gap is a pass in the eastern United States through the long ridge of the Cumberland Mountains, within the Appalachian Mountains and near the tripoint of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. At an elevation of 1,631 feet (497 m) above sea level, it is famous in American colonial history for its role as a key passageway through the lower central Appalachians.
The Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Park, commonly known as the Cumberland Trail, is a Tennessee hiking trail following a line of ridges and gorges along the eastern escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau and Cumberland Mountains in Tennessee. The trail begins at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and ends at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park and Prentice Cooper Wildlife Management Area just outside Chattanooga, Tennessee. The trail travels through 11 Tennessee counties and two time zones.
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John Fox Jr. was an American journalist, novelist, and short story writer.
Frozen Head State Park and Natural Area is a state park in Morgan County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The park, situated in the Crab Orchard Mountains between the city of Wartburg and the community of Petros, contains some of the highest mountains in Tennessee west of the Blue Ridge.
Bad Branch Falls State Nature Preserve is a forested gorge covering 2,639 acres near Whitesburg, KY in Letcher County, Kentucky. The deep and narrow gorge, adjacent to the Jefferson National Forest is carved into the face of Pine Mountain. Sandstone boulders and cliffs along with riglines and knobs provide views into the Appalachia area. The terrain is landscaped with streams, rivers, and a 60-foot waterfall. With a variety of habitat types, this nature preserve is home to many unique and unknown species of flora and fauna.
Colonel Denning State Park is a 273-acre (110 ha) Pennsylvania state park in Lower Mifflin Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The park is in the Doubling Gap of Blue Mountain on Pennsylvania Route 233 between Newville and Landisburg. Doubling Gap Lake is a man-made lake covering 3.5 acres (1.4 ha). Colonel Denning State Park is surrounded by Tuscarora State Forest.
Cumberland Falls State Resort Park is a park located just southwest of Corbin, Kentucky and is contained entirely within the Daniel Boone National Forest. The park encompasses 1,657 acres (671 ha) and is named for its major feature, 68-foot-tall (21 m) Cumberland Falls. The falls are one of the few places in the western hemisphere where a moonbow can frequently be seen on nights with a full moon. The park is also the home of 44-foot (13 m) Eagle Falls. The section of the Cumberland River that includes the falls was designated a Kentucky Wild River by the Kentucky General Assembly through the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves' Wild Rivers System. The forest in the park is also a dedicated State Nature Preserve.
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