(1734–1820). The American frontiersman Daniel Boone became a legendary hero for having blazed a trail through the Cumberland Gap. The opening of the gap, a pass in the Appalachian Mountains near the junction of Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, made possible the settlement of Kentucky and of lands to the west.

Youth

Early expeditions

In 1755 Boone joined the expedition of Gen. Edward Braddock attempting to drive the French from Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh). When an attack by French and Indian forces ended the trip, Boone returned home and married his childhood sweetheart, Rebecca Bryan.

It was in the fall of 1767 that Boone first went a short way through the Cumberland Gap to hunt. From 1769 to 1771, along with several companions, he lived in Kentucky, hunting and trapping. In 1773 Boone led his own and several other families to Kentucky. Cherokee Indians attacked the group. Two of the party, including Boone's son James, were tortured and murdered, and the survivors turned back. The following year Boone helped defend frontier forts against Indian attacks.

Boonesboro

In March 1775 Boone and 28 companions were hired to create a trail through the Cumberland Gap to the Kentucky River. The trail, which became known as the Wilderness Road, ran from eastern Virginia into the interior of Kentucky and beyond. It became the main route to the region then known as the West. This helped to make possible the opening of settlements in Kentucky. The group built log cabins and a fort at the end of the trail to create one of the first settlements. They named it Boonesborough (now Boonesboro).

In August 1775 Boone took his wife and Jemima, their daughter, to Boonesborough. When settlers began to move into Kentucky, the Shawnee became alarmed and attacked Boonesborough and other settlements. On July 14, 1776, a Shawnee raiding party captured 14-year-old Jemima and two friends. Boone and his companions followed the raiders and rescued the girls.

Kentucky was made a county of Virginia, and in 1776, during the American Revolution, Boone became a captain in the Virginia militia. He was captured by the Shawnee in 1778. Five months later he escaped to warn Boonesborough's settlers of an attack. The siege by British soldiers and Indians came in September 1778, but the settlement successfully withstood it. Boone was elected to the Virginia legislature in 1781.

Later years

Although he was a courageous and resourceful leader, Boone did not prosper. He established extensive land claims over thousands of acres in Kentucky, but because he neglected to file papers or pay taxes, he rarely could make good on the claims. At one point he and his family moved up the Ohio River and into the Kanawha Valley, in what is now West Virginia. At times Boone kept a store or tavern, guided settlers over the mountains, or sold horses. After the American Revolution he worked as a surveyor along the Ohio River.

In 1791 Boone was elected to the Virginia legislature for a second time. Then, in 1799 he followed his son Daniel Morgan Boone to Missouri, in the Louisiana Territory, where he continued to hunt and trap. Boone received a tract of land from the Spanish governor and was appointed a magistrate. But he found himself landless again when the United States bought the territory from France in 1803.

In about 1810 Boone returned to Kentucky. He later settled down in Missouri with his family. He died on or about September 26, 1820. He was buried on a hilltop overlooking the Missouri River, but his body was later returned to Kentucky.