page_title: Daniel Boone
section_title: Kentucky
hierarchical_section_title: Daniel Boone / Kentucky
caption_attribution_description: Daniel (1734-1820) and his wife Rebecca travelling westwards to Kentucky;
context_page_description: Daniel Boone was an American explorer and frontiersman. He is probably most famous for exploring Kentucky when it was not part of the U.S. In 1769 he made the Wilderness Road, a trail through the Appalachian Mountains from North Carolina and Tennessee and through Kentucky. He spent the last 20 years of his life in Missouri.
context_section_description: Boone first heard of the lands of Kentucky while he was serving with General Braddock in 1755. The person he heard it from was John Findley, another member of the wagon train. Findley had been there as a trader at a Shawnee village called "Blue Lick". He talked about Kentucky as a paradise full of wild game. Boone decided he had to see Kentucky. On a long hunt in the winter of 1767–68 he, his brother Squire and a friend named William Hill moved westward trying to find Kentucky. They reached as far as the present site of Prestonsburg, Kentucky where they remained the rest of the winter. Not realizing they had reached Kentucky, they returned to North Carolina in the spring. Boone again met John Findley and asked him for the route from North Carolina to Kentucky. Findley was not a backwoodsman but did know of a trail the Cherokee used when they made war on the Carolina colonies. In the summer of 1769 Boone and five companions used the warrior's trail to get to Kentucky. They hunted and explored the area. Most of his friends were killed or captured by Indians, but Boone and his brother escaped every time. He made another attempt to reach eastern Kentucky in 1763 but had to turn back. In 1775 he founded the settlement of Boonesborough, Kentucky.
  In 1778, Boone and a party were gathering salt when they were attacked. Boone was captured and taken to Detroit where the indians made him a member of their tribe. Boone soon escaped and returned to Boonesborough. In one of the last battles of the American Revolutionary War, Boone, a lieutenant colonel, was at the Battle of Blue Licks on 19 August 1782. The Americans were led into an ambush. Boone was one of the last to retreat. His son Israel Boone was killed in the battle. Boone was the hero of the battle, but other leaders had not listened to his warnings that it was a trap. Boone remained a leading figure in Kentucky for the next 24 years. Through a series of defective land titles and being cheated by land speculators, Boone lost all his lands in Kentucky. There were swarms of people coming into Kentucky and Boone felt crowded. Kentucky was no longer the wilderness it was when he first came there. Now he wanted to discover new lands. He was drawn to the wilds of what is now eastern Missouri.
caption: Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers Through the Cumberland Gap by George Caleb Bingham
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