looking at findagrave and tracing the genealogy of people - I've noticed that some areas of the south were settled by people from outside the south. Like I see a lot of people who were born in Pennsylvania and then died in VA and NC. Is there some story behind that? I think the area now called US-11 may have actually been the route they took to settle.
It's hard to pull a an ox-drawn wagon over mountains on unprepared roads. Coming down is even more treacherous. A runaway wagon ends up with all your possessions and a pile of firewood. If you are lucky, you still have a horse.
As the wikipedia article notes, there is a gap on the east side in Pennsylvania that allows entry, and then exits via the Cumberland Gap into Tennessee and Kentucky, and also into the Piedmont area of North Carolina.
