Celebrating Boone Trace 1775–2025
Welcome to our Online Journal by The Friends of Boone Trace
The Friends of Boone Trace, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that is preserving the original path which Daniel Boone and his survey party from the Transylvania Company marked in March and April 1775. In 2025, Boone Trace will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the opening of this original trail. Our new Online Journal will share with you news and stories about our work and the upcoming celebration.
Boone Trace begins at Long Island on Holston River (present day Kingsport, TN) to the Cumberland Gap. It then goes through Middleboro, Flat Lick, Pineville, Barbourville, close to Corbin, then London, Hazel Patch, close to Livingston and Mount Vernon, and on to Berea, Richmond, and to Boonesborough. This original path follows streams, buffalo traces and animal trails as it heads in a northerly direction towards the Bluegrass of Central Kentucky.
At Flat Lick, Boone Trace departs from the Warrior’s Path going north, (an Indian trail known to native Americans for thousands of years). For many tribes, the Warrior’s Path was the principal northern route to Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. At Hazel Patch, Boone Trace departs from Skaggs’ Trace, (which was a long hunters’ path that runs through Crab Orchard), and ultimately through Stanford (Logan’s Fort) Danville, Harrodsburg (Fort Harrod) to Louisville (called the “Falls on the Ohio”). Later, (by 1796), both Boone Trace and Skaggs’ Trace evolved into what became known as “The Wilderness Road”.
For Most Americans, The Way West
The trip for travelers was going into “the dark abyss”, the unknown, with the uncertainty of life-ending moments from Indians, accidents, or other people. Yet many families came anyway… following the small “horse path” (i.e., Boone Trace) because they wanted a new life with greater opportunities.
In 1796 the State of Kentucky paid for improvements to the road to widen it for carts and wagons, as more people came through the Gap and up the trail called the “Wilderness Road.
For Daniel Boone, the Trace was a singular achievement. One historian has said:
“Every age has its towering heroes, but only a few are heroes for every age. Daniel Boone was one of these transcendent figures; his feats of exploration and individual courage dazzle Americans as much today as they did 200 years ago.”
Lawrence Elliott: The Long Hunter, a new life of Daniel Boone (1976)
Yet the stories of Boone Trace are not necessarily about Daniel Boone. Dr. Thomas D. Clark, the respected Kentucky historian and a recognized authority on the history of the South and West, stressed the importance of the trail as:
“the emigration artery (through) which poured hundreds of thousands of emigrants westward”
For most Americans during this time, there was only one way west — through the Cumberland Gap, Boone Trace and the Wilderness Road. The significance of the historic use of the trail is the key determinant rather than the trail’s association with Daniel Boone himself. Various historians estimate that between 100,000 to 200,000 people traveled through the Cumberland Gap on their way west.
First Families of Boone Trace: A Family History Project
In the year 2025, Boone Trace will celebrate 250 years of existence. As part of the 250th anniversary celebration of the Boone Trace, The Friends of Boone Trace is starting a new project that will seek to identify families that were present when Daniel Boone was in Kentucky or likely knew or traveled with Daniel Boone on Boone Trace.
This project is called First Families of Boone Trace. The time period is limited to 35 years, from 1775 to 1810, (from Boone’s arrival via Boone Trace and Wilderness Road to 1810, to several years after Lewis and Clark return via the Trace from their “Voyage of Discovery”). We seek to document where families came from; (including towns, counties and states); when they traveled via the Cumberland Gap; when/where they settled in Kentucky; and when/where they are buried (including possible location of grave sites).
To date, historians have identified 334 families or 648 individuals who were early settlers at Boonesborough. (See the “Gathering of Boonesborough Descendants story for the attached list.) But we have just begun our research.
We Need Your Help
There are five steps you can take to become involved in the First Families of Boone Trace Project.
First, you can join us on Facebook: First Families of Boone Trace (closed group) to interact with your friends and share your enthusiasm for this endeavor. Our focus research has revealed a great deal of interest and passion for learning about our forefathers’ adventures on Boone Trace and the Wilderness Road.
Second, share your research about your own family history. Many of you know extensive family genealogy about your relatives. If they traveled West during the time period of 1775–1810, then they very likely traveled through Kentucky via the Cumberland Gap. We have a data form available for you to complete, so enter your information and share it with us. From time, to time, we will report the results of our combined research and share our progress.
Third, share your family’s stories. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of family stories passed down through the generations of people who first traveled to Kentucky. We want you to tell us these tales and display your maps, pictures and documents on Facebook. We seek to make history come alive via first person accounts of trail life.
Fourth, please follow us on the Online Journal Medium: Celebrating Boone Trace (1775–2025). This official journal of our organization allows us to share in-depth reports, stories, documents and journals that provide you with specific information about our work with Boone Trace.
Fifth, you can attend a special event at Fort Boonesborough on June 23, 2018. The Fort Boonesborough State Park is sponsoring a “Gathering of Descendants of Boonesborough” event. The park is welcoming everyone who had ancestors in the area of Fort Boonesborough in the 18th century and who played a part in the early settlement. We will be available during this event to tell you more about our First Families of Boone Trace project. Please check out our second story for a list of possible families and individuals present at the settlement.
At this event you may explore resources and information about many of the folks who were here in those early days, ideas of where to find genealogical information, and museum exhibits of artifacts from the original fort site. Authors will be on hand to sign books about early days of the fort, the people, and surrounding areas, and an ongoing historical interpretation of the daily lives, chores, skills and trades of those who came here during that time.
Representatives from the Society of Fort Boonesborough, the Boone Society, Dr. Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History, The Filson Club, Eastern Kentucky Library and Archives, and local historical societies will be on hand to assist with information on genealogy, early Kentucky cemeteries, and early Madison county family history. A representative from the Kentucky Secretary of State’s Land office for a presentation on early Kentucky Land Patents and the processes involved in obtaining land in early Kentucky. and more. This event is free with regular paid admission to the fort.
