Maps showing mines, prospects, and exposures in the Beaver Creek Wilderness, McCreary County, Kentucky
The Beaver Creek Wilderness occupies an area of 4,791 acres within the cliffline bordering the Beaver Creek drainage in McCreary County, southeastern Kentucky. It is in the Daniel Boone National Forest and includes part of the Beaver Creek Cooperative Wildlife Management Area, which is managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. The area is located about 11 mi southeast of Burnside, Ky., and is accessible from the north and south via U.S. Route 27 and Forest Service Road 50, located at its northwest border (index map). From the east, the area can be reached via State Route 90 and Forest Service Road 46, located at the eastern edge of the area. Access by foot into the interior is provided by an abandoned Forest Service road and by several primitive trails that extend along the major streams. The Beaver Creek Wilderness is located at the western edge of the Appalachian coal region and is within the highly dissected Cumberland Plateau section of the Appalachian Plateaus physiographic province. It is drained by Beaver Creek and its tributaries, which flow northeastward into Lake Cumberland, a .reservoir on the Cumberland River about 1 mi north of the wilderness. Altitudes range from about 730 ft on the lower part of Beaver Creek to about 1,200 ft at its headwaters.