1953 Map of Sandgap

About this map

Sandgap sits at a crossroads of the Kentucky highlands during the early 1950s, serving as a hub for a landscape defined by its network of hollows and ridges. This era captures a rural community structured around local institutions, including School No 1 and School No 2, and churches such as Birch Lick Ch and Lettered Rock Ch. The terrain is dominated by the Cumberland National Forest, where a Fire Lookout Tower stands as a sentinel over the deep drainage basins of Horse Lick Creek and Clover Bottom Creek. The settlement patterns follow the winding watercourses, with small communities like Waneta and Hurley established near the junctions of branches and forks. This map reveals a way of life where geography dictated the placement of every schoolhouse and chapel, from the Cavanaugh Sch in the north to the Upper Indian Cr Sch near the forest interior.