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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 high and 125 feet wide, with a water flow of 3,600 cubic feet per second.
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 being the last remaining of only two in the world to feature this
phenomenon, with Victoria Falls, at the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, begin destroyed due to the installation of a dam up stream.
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.
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, in 1930
DuPont purchased and donated 600 acres 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.
With a reported 700,000 to 1 million visitors per year, the park
remains one of Kentucky's busiest and most profitable state parks.
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