Virginia’s traditional songs and melodies were carried westward along the Wilderness Road, spreading north to Illinois and other areas of the Midwest, and west to Texas and California. Civil War soldiers of both sides learned the song “Cumberland Gap” as well as other melodies of the upland south, and they took this traditional music to their homes. Radio and recordings made it possible for Virginia’s traditional musicians to be heard across the nation beginning in the 1920s. Groups such as the Carter Family, the Powers Family, and the Stanley Brothers have inspired keepers of tradition in many distant places.

Duffield was an important way station on the South Atlantic & Ohio Railroad, which evolved to become a major coal-hauling route for today’s Norfolk Southern. Huge “Mallet” steam locomotives pulled and pushed the coal trains over the steep grades. A famous Carter Family number—“The Lonesome Pine Special”— memorialized the passenger train of that name, which stopped at Duffield each day until it was discontinued in 1939. The surrounding area is rich in natural beauty and recreational opportunities with easy access to Natural Tunnel State Park and the Jefferson National Forest. The Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail follows U.S. Highway 58 through scenic Lee County passing by Wilderness Road State Park and through Cumberland Gap National Historical Park to the Kentucky state line.