By Tom Morrow

Daniel Boone, born Nov. 2, 1734, was an American pioneer, explorer, woodsman, and frontiersman, whose frontier exploits made him one of the first folk heroes and arguably our first trailblazer of the United States.
Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now Kentucky, which was then part of Virginia, but on the other side of the mountains from the settled areas. Contrary to popular belief, Boone did not wear a coonskin cap – that was Davy Crocket.
Boone blazed his Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap in the Appalachian Mountains from North Carolina and Tennessee into Kentucky. There, he founded the village of Boonesborough, Kentucky, one of the first American settlements west of the Appalachians. Before the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 Americans migrated to Kentucky/Virginia by following the route marked by Boone.
Boone was a militia officer during the Revolutionary War (1775–83), which in Kentucky was fought primarily between the American settlers and the British-aided Indians. Boone was captured by Shawnee warriors in 1778. He escaped and alerted Boonesborough the Shawnees were planning an attack. Although heavily outnumbered, Americans repulsed the Shawnee warriors in what became known as the Siege of Boonesborough.
Boone was elected to the first of his three terms in the Virginia General Assembly during the Revolutionary War, and fought in the Battle of Blue Licks in 1782. Blue Licks, a Shawnee victory over the Patriots, was one of the last battles of the Revolutionary War, coming after the main fighting ended in October 1781 when British Gen. Lord Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown, Va.
Following the war, Boone worked as a surveyor and merchant, but fell deeply into debt through failed Kentucky land speculation. Frustrated with the legal problems resulting from his land claims, in 1799, Boone emigrated to eastern Missouri, where he spent most of the last two decades of his life (1800–20).
Boone remains an iconic figure in American history. He was a legend in his own lifetime, especially after an account of his adventures was published in 1784 by John Filson, making him famous across Europe as the typical all-American frontiersman. An American edition made him equally famous across the United States. After his death, he was frequently the subject of heroic tall tales and works of fiction. His adventures—real and legendary—were influential in creating the archetypal Western hero of American folklore. In American popular culture, he is remembered as one of the foremost early frontiersmen. The epic Daniel Boone mythology often overshadows the historical details of his life.
Because he grew up on the frontier, Boone had little formal education, but deep knowledge of the woods. The historian John Mack Faragher cautions that the folk image of Boone as semiliterate is misleading, and argues that he “acquired a level of literacy that was the equal of most men of his times.” Boone regularly took reading material with him on his hunting expeditions—the Bible and Gulliver’s Travels were favorites. He was often the only literate person in groups of frontiersmen. Boone would sometimes entertain his hunting companions by reading to them around the evening campfire.
On July 14, 1776, Boone’s daughter Jemima and two other teenaged girls were captured outside Boonesborough by an Indian war party, who carried the girls north towards the Shawnee towns in the Ohio country. Boone and a group of men from Boonesborough followed in pursuit, finally catching up with them two days later. Boone and his men ambushed the Indians while they were stopped for a meal, rescuing the girls and driving off their captors. The incident became the most celebrated event of Boone’s life. James Fennimore Cooper created a fictionalized version of the episode in his classic novel “The Last of the Mohicans,” (1826).
A popular image of Boone which emerged in later years is that of the backwoodsman who had little affinity for “civilized” society, moving away from places like Boonesborough when they became “too crowded”. In reality, however, Boone was a leading citizen of Kentucky at this time.
When Kentucky was divided into three Virginia counties in November 1780, Boone was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Fayette County militia. In April 1781, he was elected as a representative to the Virginia General Assembly, which was held in Richmond. In 1782, he was elected sheriff of Fayette County.
Boone spent the last 20 years of his life in Missouri. He died on Sept. 26, 1820. He has become one of America’s most iconic characters and it’s fair to say much of his life has been exaggerated throughout history. Nonetheless, he deserves a revered place in our history.

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