Appalachian Community Histories – Burnside, Pulaski County: From Point Isabel and Camp Burnside to the Town Beneath the Lake
Beneath the waters of Lake Cumberland lies much of a Kentucky town that once served as an important center of river commerce, railroad transportation, and manufacturing in the southern part of Pulaski County. Before the construction of Wolf Creek Dam, Burnside occupied the land surrounding the junction of the Cumberland River and its South Fork, where steamboats arrived with passengers and freight, lumber mills processed timber from the surrounding countryside, and trains connected the community to distant markets. By the beginning of the twentieth century, its businesses, hotels, schools, and residential neighborhoods had made it a significant commercial center in the Upper Cumberland region.
The town’s history, however, began long before the arrival of the railroad. Originally known as Point Isabel, the settlement became associated with Union military operations during the Civil War and eventually adopted the name of Major General Ambrose E. Burnside. Its greatest period of commercial development followed the war, when the combination of navigable water and railroad connections encouraged the establishment of manufacturing businesses and brought new residents to the community.
During the early 1950s, the construction of Wolf Creek Dam permanently changed the landscape. Much of the original town was cleared, its residents relocated, and its former streets and commercial district submerged beneath the expanding waters of Lake Cumberland. Although Burnside survived on higher ground, the community that had developed along the river could no longer exist in its original form. Its history survives through photographs, historical maps, contemporary newspapers, the recollections of former residents, and the writings of Harriette Simpson Arnow, who spent much of her childhood there.
Point Isabel and the Early Settlement of the Cumberland River
The earliest history of Burnside is closely connected to the Cumberland River, which provided one of the principal transportation routes through southern Kentucky before the development of modern roads and railroads. At the junction of the Cumberland and its South Fork, the surrounding land offered access to the waterways that connected communities throughout the Upper Cumberland region.
According to Kentucky Historical Society markers numbered 979 and 980, settlers from Virginia and the Carolinas established a community here around 1800. The settlement became known as Point Isabel, a name that preceded both the Civil War and the arrival of the railroad. Its location near the junction of two rivers made it useful for trade and transportation, although the surviving sources provide considerably more information about its nineteenth-century development than about its earliest families.
The community’s changing postal history reflects its gradual development. A published study of Kentucky post offices records the establishment of a post office called Cumberland on June 19, 1874, followed by the use of Point Isabel and eventually Burnside. The Burnside post office opened on January 5, 1880, with Frederick S. Wallace serving as postmaster, while the town was formally incorporated on March 6, 1890. These changes occurred during the same general period in which railroad transportation and manufacturing were transforming the settlement into a commercial center.
Camp Burnside and the Civil War
The Civil War brought Point Isabel into a much larger struggle for control of Kentucky and East Tennessee. Throughout the conflict, Union commanders recognized the importance of the roads and river crossings connecting central Kentucky with the Cumberland Mountains, particularly as Federal forces attempted to establish and maintain supply routes into Confederate-held territory.
In 1863, Union troops established a rendezvous and supply base at Point Isabel in connection with Major General Ambrose E. Burnside’s campaign into East Tennessee. The Kentucky Historical Society records that the encampment became known as Camp Burnside in official military dispatches and that the general’s name remained associated with the community after the war.
The encampment formed part of a wider military network supporting the Union advance southward. Burnside’s Army of the Ohio had assembled substantial supplies and troops at Camp Nelson, near Nicholasville, before beginning its offensive in August 1863. The campaign ultimately carried Union forces into Knoxville and established a Federal presence in East Tennessee, where a substantial portion of the population had remained sympathetic to the Union. Point Isabel’s role as a supply and rendezvous location reflected the military importance of the routes connecting Kentucky with the mountains to the south.
The association with Burnside gave the settlement a new identity, but the general did not establish the original community. Point Isabel had existed for decades before Federal troops arrived, and its subsequent development owed as much to its geography and transportation connections as to its wartime history. Nevertheless, the Civil War name endured, becoming part of the identity of the town that developed during the following decades.
The Railroad, Steamboats, and the Rise of Industrial Burnside
Burnside’s greatest commercial expansion followed the arrival of railroad transportation and the development of industries that depended on moving large quantities of timber and manufactured goods. Situated at the head of steamboat navigation on the Cumberland River and served by the Cincinnati and Southern Railroad, the town occupied an advantageous position where river freight and railroad transportation could meet.
The National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Burnside Historic District describes the community as an important manufacturing and shipping center during the late nineteenth century. Lumber products dominated its industrial economy, particularly fence posts, boxes, and other manufactured wooden goods, while its transportation facilities also handled coal. By 1894, Burnside had approximately 500 residents, numerous commercial establishments, and factories that contributed to its standing as one of Pulaski County’s manufacturing centers.
One of the individuals associated with this period was Alonzo French, who arrived in Burnside in 1886 and established the Burnside Manufacturing Company. His business manufactured red cedar faucets and posts, illustrating how the region’s timber resources supported specialized manufacturing rather than simply the shipment of unprocessed lumber. French eventually sold the business in 1918 and became a retail coal agent for the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company.
The railroad extended Burnside’s commercial reach beyond the Cumberland River, while steamboats continued to connect the town with communities farther downstream. Together, these transportation networks encouraged the development of businesses that served both local residents and travelers passing through the region. Their importance is reflected in surviving historical records, including a Kentucky Historical Society postcard dating to approximately 1907 that depicts a stagecoach leaving the Ramsey Hotel in Monticello on the Burnside and Monticello route. The image documents another part of the transportation network that connected Burnside with neighboring Wayne County before automobiles became widespread.
Burnside’s industrial prosperity also influenced its residential development. Successful business owners constructed substantial homes on the hillsides overlooking the river, particularly along what is now Lakeshore Drive, while the commercial heart of the community remained closer to the transportation facilities below. As the town expanded, the distinction between its lower commercial district and its residential neighborhoods on higher ground became increasingly important, particularly when the Cumberland River flooded.
The Seven Gables Hotel and Everyday Life in Old Burnside
By the early twentieth century, Burnside had developed into a community whose daily life revolved around its businesses, schools, churches, river traffic, and railroad connections. The streets near the river formed the center of commercial activity, while the surrounding hillsides contained residences that overlooked the town and the Cumberland River valley.
One of Burnside’s most recognizable landmarks was the Seven Gables Hotel, a substantial building that became an important feature of the town’s landscape. A surviving postcard published by Curt Teich & Company around 1915 shows the large white hotel, providing visual evidence of the accommodations available to visitors during Burnside’s years as a transportation and commercial center. The original postcard is preserved in the Kentucky Historical Society’s Ronald Morgan Kentucky Postcard Collection.
The physical arrangement of the historic community is also documented by the Sanborn Map Company, which published a four-sheet fire insurance map of Burnside in May 1908. These maps provide an important contemporary record of the town before the construction of Lake Cumberland, preserving information about its streets, building locations, construction materials, and commercial and industrial properties. The original sheets are now held by the Library of Congress and offer an opportunity to reconstruct portions of the community that later disappeared beneath the reservoir.
For residents, however, Burnside was more than a manufacturing and transportation center. Its stores, schools, and neighborhoods formed the setting of ordinary life, and the railroad and river provided a constant connection to the world beyond Pulaski County. Much of what is known about the community’s social history comes from the people who experienced it firsthand, particularly the author Harriette Simpson Arnow and the former residents interviewed by Kentucky Educational Television.
Harriette Simpson Arnow and the Memory of Old Burnside
One of Burnside’s most important connections to Appalachian literature is Harriette Simpson Arnow, whose childhood in the town influenced her understanding of the people and communities of the Cumberland region. Born in Wayne County in 1908, Arnow moved to Burnside with her parents and sisters in 1913, shortly before her fifth birthday. She spent much of her childhood there before eventually becoming a nationally recognized novelist and historian of Appalachian life.
Although Arnow is widely associated with novels such as The Dollmaker and Hunter’s Horn, she also devoted considerable attention to the history of the Cumberland region. Her historical works Seedtime on the Cumberland and Flowering of the Cumberland explored the region’s settlement and development, while her 1977 book Old Burnside returned directly to the community in which she had grown up.
Published by the University Press of Kentucky, Old Burnside combines Arnow’s childhood memories with historical accounts of the town and its surroundings. The book describes the general stores, the Seven Gables Hotel, schools, lumber mills, and the activity surrounding the river and railroad, reconstructing a community whose lower streets had disappeared by the time she wrote it. Her account also places Burnside within the wider history of the Upper Cumberland region, connecting personal recollections with the economic and social changes that reshaped the town.
Arnow’s work is particularly valuable because she experienced Burnside before its relocation and later returned to its history after the creation of Lake Cumberland. Her memories preserve details of a community that cannot be fully recovered through government records or historical maps alone, while her research provides a broader historical framework for understanding the town’s development and disappearance.
Burnside’s Early Boy Scout Troop
Another distinctive episode in Burnside’s history occurred in the spring of 1908, when Myra Greeno Bass organized a group of 15 boys into a scouting troop several years before the national Boy Scouts of America organization was established in 1910.
According to Kentucky Historical Society Marker No. 1007, Bass used an English scouting handbook to organize the boys for hiking, camping, and other outdoor activities. The group became known as Eagle Troop, with Horace Smith serving as troop leader, and its members wore red bandannas as their identifying insignia.
The historical marker describes the group as a reputed first American Boy Scout troop, although the distinction should be understood as a historical claim rather than an independently established national priority. Nevertheless, the documented organization of the Burnside group in 1908 represents an early example of the scouting movement’s influence in the United States and adds another chapter to the community’s history during its years of commercial prosperity.
Bernice Mitchell and Burnside During World War II
By the Second World War, Burnside had experienced changes in the transportation economy that had supported its earlier industrial expansion. The decline of steamboat commerce during the early twentieth century reduced the importance of its river facilities, although the town retained its residential neighborhoods, businesses, and established community institutions.
One of the most valuable surviving records of Burnside during this period is the collection of papers belonging to Bernice Mitchell, a local resident born in 1913. The Filson Historical Society preserves her correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings, and copies of the Burnside Gazette, a newsletter that she wrote and mailed to Pulaski County residents serving in the armed forces during World War II.
Published from 1941 through 1947, the Burnside Gazette recorded local news, community activities, and information about servicemen stationed overseas. Mitchell also corresponded individually with soldiers and encouraged other residents to write regularly to men serving away from home. Her efforts became associated with an initiative known as the Burnside Home Front, which sought to maintain connections between military personnel and their families and neighbors.
The surviving newsletters provide an unusually detailed documentary record of small-town life during wartime. Their significance extends beyond military history because they preserve information about the community’s residents, relationships, and everyday activities during the final decade before the destruction of much of Old Burnside.
Mitchell later contributed to the preservation of the town’s history by corresponding with Harriette Simpson Arnow during the preparation of Old Burnside. Their surviving correspondence, together with the letters and recollections of other former residents, became part of an archival collection documenting both the town itself and the effort to remember it after its relocation.
Wolf Creek Dam and the Destruction of Old Burnside
The most dramatic transformation in Burnside’s history began with the federal government’s decision to construct Wolf Creek Dam on the Cumberland River. The project was authorized under the Flood Control Act of 1938 and the Rivers and Harbor Act of 1946, with construction beginning in August 1941. Work was delayed during the Second World War, but the dam was completed for flood-control operations in 1950 and reached full beneficial use in August 1952.
According to the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the primary purposes of the project were flood control and hydroelectric power generation. The completed reservoir, known as Lake Cumberland, extended approximately 101 miles along the river and transformed the surrounding valleys into a major artificial lake.
For Burnside, the project required the removal of much of the community that had developed along the original riverbanks. The lower commercial district, residential properties, and other structures occupying land within the reservoir area had to be cleared or relocated, while many residents moved to higher ground or left the community altogether.
The National Register nomination for the Burnside Historic District identifies 1951 as the year in which most of the original community was destroyed. Other historical accounts describe the town’s relocation and the creation of the reservoir in 1952, reflecting the fact that demolition, population relocation, dam construction, and reservoir impoundment occurred over several years rather than in a single event.
The relocation permanently changed Burnside’s physical appearance and disrupted the economic and social relationships that had developed around the old riverfront. Former residents interviewed for Kentucky Educational Television recalled that some families moved uphill, while others scattered to different parts of Kentucky. Many remembered the lower commercial district, sometimes called the Bottoms, as the center of the community, where businesses had occupied Main Street near the river.
The displacement was particularly difficult for residents who could not afford to replace their former homes. In a Kentucky Life documentary, one former resident recalled that rental houses in Old Burnside had cost approximately $10 to $12 per month, while comparable affordable housing was not available on the higher ground where the town was being relocated. Another remembered taking his father to a bluff overlooking the changing landscape, where the older man saw what had become of the town and wanted to leave.
The documentary recollections illustrate the personal consequences of a project that also served important regional purposes. The dam reduced flood risks along the Cumberland River and generated electricity, while Lake Cumberland eventually became a significant recreational destination. Yet for the people who had lived and worked in Old Burnside, its construction meant the disappearance of familiar streets, businesses, neighborhoods, and places associated with generations of family history.
The Surviving Homes of Historic Burnside
Although much of the original town was demolished or submerged, several historic residences survived on higher ground. Among the most important are four houses along Lakeshore Drive that were recognized as the Burnside Historic District and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 14, 1984.
The district includes the French House, Horton House, Kiser House, and Jumonville House, each representing a portion of the residential community that developed during Burnside’s late nineteenth-century prosperity. The houses retain important architectural features and occupy their original hillside setting, providing a surviving connection to the town that existed before Lake Cumberland.
The French House, constructed around 1890, belonged to Alonzo French, whose manufacturing business contributed to Burnside’s industrial development. The Horton House dates to 1889, while the Kiser House contains a log core dating to approximately 1880 and was originally constructed by Dr. L. B. Cook, who operated the town’s first drugstore. The Jumonville House, built around 1900, completes the group of surviving residences.
Together, these buildings provide evidence of Burnside’s architectural and economic history, particularly the prosperity that resulted from its manufacturing businesses and transportation facilities. While the commercial heart of the original town lies beneath the reservoir, the surviving houses preserve part of the landscape that residents would have recognized during the community’s earlier years.
Remembering the Town Beneath Lake Cumberland
Today, Burnside’s identity is closely associated with Lake Cumberland and the recreational opportunities that developed following the construction of Wolf Creek Dam. The nearby General Burnside Island State Park preserves the Civil War general’s name, while the modern community occupies higher ground overlooking a landscape that bears little resemblance to the river valley of the early twentieth century.
Yet the history of Old Burnside has not disappeared entirely. Historical photographs and postcards preserve views of its hotels, buildings, and transportation networks, while the 1908 Sanborn maps provide a record of the community’s former streets and structures. The surviving houses along Lakeshore Drive illustrate its residential development, and the newspapers preserved by the Pulaski County Public Library offer additional opportunities to reconstruct the businesses and everyday events of the town before its relocation.
The personal records preserved by Bernice Mitchell and the recollections collected by Harriette Simpson Arnow are equally important because they document a community through the experiences of the people who lived there. Together with the oral histories recorded by Kentucky Educational Television, these collections preserve stories that would otherwise have disappeared alongside the town’s original streets and neighborhoods.
Burnside’s history illustrates how transportation, industry, war, and large-scale engineering projects transformed communities throughout the Appalachian region. The rivers that encouraged its settlement and commercial expansion eventually became part of the reservoir that forced much of the original community to relocate. Although Lake Cumberland permanently changed the landscape, the surviving historical record ensures that the story of Old Burnside remains connected to the people and places of Pulaski County.
Sources & Further Reading
Arnow, Harriette Simpson. Old Burnside. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1977. Reprint, 1996. https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813108605/old-burnside/
Filson Historical Society. Bernice Mitchell Papers, 1941–1988. Collection Mss./A/M681. Louisville, KY: Filson Historical Society. https://filsonhistorical.org/research-doc/mitchellbernice/
Filson Historical Society. Bernice Mitchell Added Papers, 1941–1997. Collection Mss. A M681a. Louisville, KY: Filson Historical Society. https://filsonhistorical.org/research-doc/mitchell-bernice-added-papers-1941-1997/
Sanborn Map Company. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Burnside, Pulaski County, Kentucky. Four sheets. New York: Sanborn Map Company, May 1908. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3954bm.g031351908/?st=gallery
National Park Service. Burnside Historic District. National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form, 1984. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/1d2f0590-3549-4731-a36b-0b24a77e11b1
National Park Service. Burnside Lodge. National Register of Historic Places, 1984. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior. https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/84001946
Kentucky Historical Society. “Burnside.” Historical Marker No. 979. Kentucky Historical Marker Database. https://history.ky.gov/markers/burnside
Kentucky Historical Society. “Burnside.” Historical Marker No. 980. Kentucky Historical Marker Database. https://history.ky.gov/markers/burnside-2
Kentucky Historical Society. “First Boy Scout Troop.” Historical Marker No. 1007. Kentucky Historical Marker Database. https://history.ky.gov/markers/first-boy-scout-troop
Kentucky Historical Society. “Harriette Simpson Arnow (1908–1986).” Historical Marker No. 1807. Kentucky Historical Marker Database. https://history.ky.gov/markers/harriette-simpson-arnow-1908-1986
Kentucky Historical Society. “Coach and Four.” Historical Marker No. 818. Kentucky Historical Marker Database. https://history.ky.gov/markers/coach-and-four
Curt Teich & Company. “Seven Gables Hotel, Burnside, KY.” Postcard, ca. 1915. Ronald Morgan Kentucky Postcard Collection, Graphic5.Box1.379. Kentucky Historical Society Digital Collections. https://www.kyhistory.com/digital/collection/Morgan/id/2744/
Art Manufacturing Company. “Burnside and Monticello Stage Leaving Ramsey Hotel, Monticello, Ky.” Postcard, ca. 1907. Accession 12.392. Kentucky Historical Society Digital Collections. https://www.kyhistory.com/digital/api/collection/LIB/id/2027/download
The Burnside Item. Burnside, KY. May 17, 1899. Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky Newspapers on Microfilm, reel 98-0086. https://www.kyhistory.com/digital/api/collection/LIB/id/1469/download
The Burnside Star. Burnside, KY. April 21, May 5, and May 19, 1916. Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky Newspapers on Microfilm, reel 98-0038. https://www.kyhistory.com/digital/api/collection/LIB/id/1469/download
Pulaski County Public Library. Pulaski County Digital Archives. Historical newspapers, census schedules, court records, tax lists, and other local historical materials. Somerset, KY. https://pulaskilibrary.advantage-preservation.com/
Kentucky Educational Television. “Life in the Old Pulaski County Town of Burnside.” Kentucky Life, season 3, episode 12. June 28, 1997. https://www.pbs.org/video/old-burnside-a015ar/
United States Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville District. “Wolf Creek Dam.” January 11, 2024. https://www.lrd.usace.army.mil/Missions/Projects/Article/3642683/wolf-creek-dam/
United States Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville District. “Lake Cumberland.” January 10, 2024. https://www.lrd.usace.army.mil/Missions/Projects/Article/3640580/lake-cumberland/
Roberts, Lee. “Wolf Creek Dam Provides Enormous Flood Risk Management Benefits.” U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville District, January 13, 2023. https://www.lrd.usace.army.mil/News/News-Releases/Display/Article/3639147/wolf-creek-dam-provides-enormous-flood-risk-management-benefits/
United States War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1880–1901. Cornell University Library, Making of America. https://collections.library.cornell.edu/moa_new/waro.html
Kentucky National Guard. The Paper Trail of the Civil War in Kentucky, 1861–1865. Kentucky National Guard Historical Publications. https://kynghistory.ky.gov/Our-History/History-of-the-Guard/Documents/ThePaperTrailoftheCivilWarinKY18611865%202.pdf
Poindexter, Sarah-Jane. “Dispatches from the Kentucky Home Front: Bernice Mitchell and the Burnside Gazette, 1941–1947.” Filson News 8, no. 1 (Spring 2008). Article identified in the Filson Historical Society’s magazine index. https://filsonhistorical.org/research-doc/filson-news-magazine-article-index-2000-summer-2019/
Tibbals, Alma Owens. A History of Pulaski County. 1952. https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=Alma+Owens+Tibbals+A+History+of+Pulaski+County
National Park Service. “The Battle of Mill Springs.” Mill Springs Battlefield National Monument. https://www.nps.gov/misp/battle-of-mill-springs.htm
Visit Burnside. “The Town Beneath the Water.” Local history of Old Burnside and its relocation following the construction of Wolf Creek Dam. https://visitburnside.com/the-town-beneath-the-water/
Author Note: The history of Old Burnside reminds us that even when an entire community’s landscape disappears, its people and their stories can survive through historical records and shared memories. I hope this account encourages readers to explore the surviving photographs, family histories, and firsthand recollections that preserve the memory of this once-bustling Cumberland River town.