Kephart simply wrote that the song was of modern and local origin. Kentucky ballad collector H. H. Fuson published a lengthy version of Cumberland Gap in 1931, with the first three lines in the opening stanza reading Lay down, boys, an' take a little nap and the last line reading They're all raisin' Hell in the Cumberland Gap, somewhat echoing the lyrics transcribed by Kephart a quarter-century earlier. Fuson's version also mentions key historical events in the Cumberland Gap's pioneer period and the battle for control of the gap during the Civil War. His last stanza ends with the line Fourteen miles to the Cumberland Gap. This last line would appear again in a 1933 field recording of the song by an obscure Harlan, Kentucky fiddler known as Blind James Howard, and published by John Lomax (who conducted the recording) in his 1934 book, American Ballads and Folk Songs.