In 1775, a man named Daniel Boone went through the Cumberland Gap–a notch in the Appalachian Mountains located near the intersection of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. It goes through the interior of Kentucky and to the Ohio River. Known as the Wilderness Road, the trail would serve as the pathway to the western United States for over 300,000 settlers over the next 35 years. Boone’s pioneering path led to the establishment of one of the first settlements in Kentucky, including Boonesboro. Kentucky joined the Union as the 15th state in 1792.