Evening star., 1926-02-07
KENTUCKY'S NIAGARA
BY FREDERIC ]. H4SkIt.

Whether hydro-electric development
in the Kentucky mountains shaiI
silence forever the thunder OF cum
berland Falls is a question before the
Federal Power Commission. Tits dis
cussion has brought TO general notice
a cataract, second in size 10 niagara
in the area east of the MisstSeippi
and until recently was almC I'M
known save TO readers OF reference
books.
II is SO inaccessible that few Ken
tuckians, comparatively, have seen 1t.
A thin stream of patrons or 4 sum,
rner hotel at the falls had trickled
into the picturesque gorge OF rumper'
land River for almost century. Dut
to mention the falls in Louisville or
Lexington is 10 find that scarcely
any one there has witnessed the plunge
of the Cumberland over n ledge SIS
feet from the level of the pool below
it, and perhaps 120 feet above the mol
lowed bottom Of the pool.
Cumberland River is 6SS miles long
Between Nashville. Tenn, and its en-
trance into the Ohio In Kentucky, II
is navieable the year round as a re-
suit of locks and dams. On the upper
river within the boundaries OF Ken
lucky 1t is navigable only in Winter
and Spring, save for 80 miles, petWcen
Burnside, on the Southern Railway
line from Cincinnati to Chattanooga,
and Palace. The so-called Palace Pool
made by the single lock that has been
built in kentucky's section OF the
river, is navigable at all times.
Low Water in Summer.
During Summer, when only bateauX
or canoes can be used between
Palace and the Tennessee line, the
Palace Pool holds impounded a small
fleet of steamers which ply between
the lock and the railroad, loaded with
poultry and other farm produce from
a section which the pool has de-
veloped by providing an outlet to
markets.
The Cumberland's headwaters are
In Looney Creek. w C flows
through the mining town OF Lynch,
In Harlan County, Ky. about 1000
feet above sea level. The Cumber-
lands mouth, after il runs a serpen-
tine course through Tennessee, Is in
McCracken County. KY, near Padu-
cab. The river, when developed for
slack water navigation between
Nashville and Palace, will open to
markets the produce of a group OF
contiguous Kentucky counties which
are without railroads or improved
highways and whose riches consist
mainly of fertile soil.
Because of q Federal law under
which power dams in non-navigable
sections of partly navigable streams
may not be built without a permit
from the Federal Power Commission
save at the risk that their removal
or disuse will be forced by the Fed
eral Government in the interest of
navigation it is necessary for the
company which wishes to build dams
below and above Cumberland Falls
to procure the consent Of the Fed
eral Commission.
Wanted as State Park.
When an Indianapolis corporation
procured an option on the Gunner
land Falls tract of 2,400 acres Ken
lucky had no state Park Commission.
No movement looking to the creation
of State parks had been inaugurated.
A State Park Commission was
created by an act of the Legislature.
1t was authorized to accept donations
Of areas suitable for reservation as
State parks. No money for purchas-
Ing land was provided. Under the
law the State geologist was made
chairman of the commission. The
State geologist, DR.. Willard Rouse
Jillson, published book describing
areas he deemed especially suitable
for preservation as recreation ground.
He included Cumberland Falls and
said that its destruction by a power
dam would be hardly less than
tragedy.
Newspapers quoted DR.. Jillson's
book. Advocates of conservation in
Kentucky and elsewhere became in
terested. Champions Of Cumberland
Falls, most of whom never had seen
the cataract, began pelting the Fed
eraI Power Commission with protests
against projected dam which would
halt the stream above the falls and
convey its waters through f1ume
along the mountain side to point
below the falls where they would
generate power that would be trans
mitted to points outside of Ken
lucky and used also, possibly by
plants not now In existence. in the
Cumberland Falls region.
Neither the members OF the Federal
Power Commission nor the executive
secretary of that body, 0. c. Merrill
had seen Cumberland Falls. Very
few Of the Kentucky editors who dis
cussed the impending dam construc-
ton had seen the falls. Among those
who were interested, but who had
not visited Cumberland Falls. was
Tom Wallace. chief OF the editorial