Black Mountain (Pine Mt)

US-23 crosses Pine Mountain at Pound Gap, the Kentucky-Virginia state line. The gap sits at 2,392 ft (Wikipedia, "Pound Gap"). On the Kentucky side the road carries the Country Music Highway name, and it links Pound, Virginia and the Virginia coalfields with Jenkins, Whitesburg, and the eastern Kentucky coalfields toward Pikeville. Truckers run it loaded. US-23 is described as one of the nation's busiest coal-haul roads, and it is part of Kentucky's Coal Haul Highway System (truckinginfo.com, "Kentucky Finishes U.S. 23 Project"; KYTC Coal Haul Highway System).

A quick naming note, because the title can mislead. Black Mountain is Kentucky's highest peak at 4,145 ft, but US-23 does not go over it. Black Mountain is reached by Route 160 near Lynch, not by US-23 (Wikipedia, "Black Mountain (Kentucky)"). The road truckers actually drive crosses Pine Mountain through Pound Gap at 2,392 ft. So when you see references to a 4,145 ft summit, that is a different mountain on a different road.

The crossing itself is a steep four-lane grade through a blasted rock cut at the gap. The current road is the product of a long modernization. Kentucky finished four-laning US-23 from the Virginia line to Portsmouth, Ohio in late August 1999, closing the final 12-mile Dorton to Jenkins section after a project that ran roughly 30 years and was made costly by the mountainous terrain (truckinginfo.com, "Kentucky Finishes U.S. 23 Project"). There is no published percent-grade figure for the Pound Gap climb from KYTC or VDOT, so treat it as a steep mountain grade and drive it that way rather than to a number.

• US-23 crosses Pine Mountain at Pound Gap, elevation 2,392 ft, on the KY/VA state line (Wikipedia, Pound Gap)
• Black Mountain (4,145 ft) is Kentucky's highest peak but sits on Route 160, not US-23 (Wikipedia, Black Mountain Kentucky)
• US-23 is called one of the nation's busiest coal-haul roads and is part of KY's Coal Haul Highway System (truckinginfo.com; KYTC)
• Kentucky finished four-laning the 156-mile US-23 to Portsmouth, Ohio in late August 1999, the final Dorton to Jenkins segment (truckinginfo.com)
• No mandatory or seasonal chain law applies on US-23 in Kentucky or Virginia; chains are optional adverse-weather equipment (TheTrucker chain-law guide)
• In the October 2012 Sandy storm, NWS measured 12 to 18 in above 2,000 ft and 18 in at 2,400 ft on Pine Mountain (NWS Jackson, KY)
• No published percent-grade figure or runaway-truck ramp is documented for the Pound Gap climb

There is no chain-control season here, because neither Kentucky nor Virginia runs a posted, level-based chain program. You will not find R-1, R-2, or R-3 signs on US-23, and there are no named chain-up or brake-check areas with mile markers at Pound Gap. Chains are legal equipment for adverse conditions, not a posted requirement, and Kentucky limits chain dimensions under KRS 189.190 (cross-chains no more than 3/4 inch, spacing no more than 10 inches). US-23 over Pound Gap is an all-year four-lane route. It does not gate shut on a calendar. What closes it is weather and crashes: heavy snow or ice on the higher terrain, or wrecks and rockfall. In the late-October 2012 Sandy snowstorm, the NWS office in Jackson, KY reported near-impassable conditions at times on Hwy 23 over Pound Gap (NWS Jackson, KY). When that happens it reopens once crews clear it, not on a fixed date. Check 511 Virginia and GoKY before you cross.

People used this gap long before the trucks. Christopher Gist recorded the Pound Gap route on April 1, 1751 while surveying for the Ohio Company, and long-hunters including Daniel Boone later used it to enter Kentucky (ExploreKYHistory). During the Civil War, on March 16, 1862, Union forces under Brigadier General James A. Garfield drove Confederate troops out of the gap in the Battle of Pound Gap (ExploreKYHistory; Wikipedia, "Pound Gap"). There is darker local history too. On May 14, 1892, whiskey hauler Ira Mullins and four others were ambushed and killed at the spot now called Killing Rock, about 500 yards southeast of the gap along the old Fincastle Trail. "Doc" Taylor, the "Red Fox," was convicted and hanged at the Wise County Courthouse on October 27, 1893 (Appalachian Historian; HMDB historical marker).

The modern road has its own story. The 1998 reconstruction cut into the mountain and exposed the Pine Mountain thrust fault, and on September 26, 1998 the roadcut was named Kentucky's first Distinguished Geologic Site (Wikipedia, "Pound Gap"). The next year, in late August 1999, Kentucky completed the four-laning of US-23 from the Virginia line all the way to Portsmouth, Ohio (truckinginfo.com).