Editing Cumberland County, Tennessee (section)

==History==
Cumberland County was formed in 1856 from parts of [[Bledsoe County, Tennessee|Bledsoe]], [[Roane County, Tennessee|Roane]], [[Morgan County, Tennessee|Morgan]], [[Fentress County, Tennessee|Fentress]], [[Rhea County, Tennessee|Rhea]], [[Putnam County, Tennessee|Putnam]], [[Overton County, Tennessee|Overton]], and [[White County, Tennessee|White]].<ref name=tehc>G. Donald Brookhart, "[http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=336 Cumberland County]," ''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture''. Retrieved: June 25, 2013.</ref>  During the Civil War, the county was nearly evenly split between those supporting the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] and those supporting the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]].<ref name=tehc />

In 1787, the [[North Carolina]] legislature ordered widening and improvements to [[Avery's Trace]], the trail that ran from North Carolina through [[Knoxville]] and what is now Cumberland County to [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]]. They raised funds by a lottery and completed a project that built a wagon road. This slightly improved travel, but still required a bone jarring trip. The road was often muddy and crossed stone slabs so that it was only passable in some places on foot. Reportedly wagons could not get down the steep grade at Spencer's Mountain without locking brakes on all wheels and dragging a tree behind to slow the descent. The mountain top was described as "quite denuded of trees."

[[File:Cumberland-County-Courthouse-1910.jpg|left|210px|thumb|Cumberland County Courthouse, photographed in 1910]]

Cumberland County was the site of an important [[potassium nitrate|saltpeter]] mine. Saltpeter is the main ingredient of gunpowder and was obtained by leaching the earth from Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave. Richard Green Waterhouse settled in this area in 1800. In his "Diary, Journal, and Memoirs" he states that he went with William Kelly into Grassy cove and explored his (Kelly's) saltpeter cave on October 7, 1812.<ref>Larry Matthews, "Caves of Grassy Cove," National Speleological Society, August 2014, pp. 29-30. {{ISBN|978-1-68044-003-4}}.</ref>

According to Barr (1961), Dicky Mathews began the manufacture of gunpowder at the cave in 1859. His son was killed by an explosion at Powder House Spring below the cave. This is an exceptionally large cave and evidence of mining extends far from the entrance. The leaching vats were located in a large room near the entrance, but this room is damp and the wooden vats have deteriorated to the point that they are difficult to recognize.<ref>Thomas C. Barr, Jr., "Caves of Tennessee", Bulletin 64 of the Tennessee Division of Geology, 1961, 568 pages.</ref>

During the 1930s, as part of the [[New Deal]], the federal government's [[Subsistence Homesteads Division]] established the [[Cumberland Homesteads]] outside of Crossville. The program provided land and houses for 250 impoverished families. Cumberland Mountain State Park was built as part of this project.<ref name=tehc />