Donna Comer, age 13, of Bardstown, Kentucky, for her question:

How were the Kentucky Cumberland Mountains named?

In the 1740s, news traveled slowly and the American colonists often waited months to learn about important events in Europe. One such event occurred on April 15, 1746, on the battlefield of Culloden in Scotland. There the army of the Stuart prince Charles Edward met the army of the Duke of Cumberland    to fight for the crown of England.. The prince was defeated, to say the least. This bloody battle ended the long series of Stuart wars and crushed their last claim to the British throne. William, Duke of Cumberland, was regarded as the hero of Culloden by some    and by others he was called the butcher of Culloden.

When at last the news reached Virginia, apparently the people there regarded Duke William as the hero of his day. In 1748, a party of Virginians explored the scenic mountains that border their state, Kentucky and Tennessee. They discovered a river and a stupendous gap in the mountain range. It was these Virginians who named the Cumberland Mountains, the Cumberland River and the Cumberland Gap    all in honor of their hero of Culloden.