During William Clark’s life, he spent the night in many and varied locations but none more interesting geologically than on the evening of 6 November 1809. Mr. (William) White’s Tavern was in Ferndale, KY, present-day intersection of Old U S 25 E and KY 1534,⁽¹⁾ at the edge of a meteorite impact crater having a diameter of 3-miles. This geological significance was not determined until 1962 by USGS Scientist Englund and Roen.⁽²⁾⁽³⁾

On 7 November the Clark party had breakfast at Mr. White’s then traveled through the impact crater and along a road that today is Avondale Ave. in Middlesboro, KY. This route crossed Little Yellow Creek in more than one location, during a season already described by Clark as rainy and cold, before reaching the “saddle” and crossing Cumberland Mountain. William was traveling a trail he had used before, a trail first recorded by Dr. Thomas Walker in his journal.⁽⁴⁾ Dr. Walker had learned of the “gap” in the limestone barrier from the Indians. Cave Gap, re-named by Dr. Walker as Cumberland Gap, would be celebrated by Frederick Jackson Turner in his 1893 “Frontier Thesis”, a thesis in which William Clark played a central figure in opening of the West.⁽⁵⁾