In 1775, frontiersman Daniel Boone was commissioned to establish a road through the Cumberland Gap, which became the 200-mile-long Wilderness Road from Virginia to Kentucky.

Referred to as Buggs Island Project while it was built in 1952, this human-made lake — Virginia’s largest — was renamed Kerr Lake in honor of Congressman John H. Kerr.

In October of 1859, abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the U.S. Armory at Harpers Ferry, an influential event leading to the Civil War.

In Harpers Ferry National Park, the junction of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers is known as “the Point.”

Found inside Lookout Mountain, Ruby Falls is the tallest, deepest underground waterfall open to the public in the United States.

Flowing for 340 miles, the James River begins in the Appalachian Mountains and runs east to the Chesapeake Bay in Hampton Roads.

Most visitors to the Appalachian Trail go for shorter hikes, but around 3,000 “thru-hikers” attempt to take on all 2,190 miles of the path at once.

In 1927, producer Ralph Peer set up a recording studio in Bristol, Tennessee, where country music was born.

One of America’s most scenic drives, the Blue Ridge Parkway runs for 469 miles between North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains and Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park.

Charles Frazier’s debut novel, “Cold Mountain,” was a bestseller. The actual mountain is found southwest of Asheville, North Carolina.

The Alleghenies, Catskills, and Green Mountains are all subranges of the 2,000-mile-long Appalachian range.

During Prohibition, bootleggers modified their cars to be able to outrun law enforcement, which led to drivers setting up organized races — the early origins of NASCAR.

Built in 1895, George Washington Vanderbilt’s 8,000-acre Biltmore Estate in Asheville is the largest private residence in America.

Knoxville drew 11 million people to the 1982 World’s Fair, officially known as the Knoxville International Energy Exposition.

The only bear found throughout Appalachia is the American black bear, which grows up to six feet in length and three feet tall.

The southern end of the Appalachian range is Flagg Mountain, found outside Weogufka in central Alabama.

At 6,684 feet above sea level, North Carolina’s Mount Mitchell is the highest point in the United States east of the Mississippi River.

In 1986, Dolly Parton opened the popular Dollywood theme park in her hometown of Pigeon Forge.

Pittsburgh is the largest city in the Appalachian region, with a population of about 300,000 residents.

West Virginia is called the Mountain State for a reason. It’s the only state to lie completely within the Appalachian region, with an average elevation of 1,654 feet.