DID YOU KNOW?
The Cumberland Gap today is a V-shaped passage through the Appalachian Mountains at the intersection of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. Today the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park extends for 20 miles and ranges between one and four miles in width. It is over 20,000 acres, 14,000 of which remain wilderness. Featuring historic buildings and caves, the park offers visitors a glimpse of what helped shape the nation. They can trace the experiences of early explorers through hiking trails, scenic vistas, guided tours, and cave expeditions.
Now, just to give you a glimpse into
But before that, Boone was born on November 2, 1734, in a log cabin in Exeter Township, near Reading, Pennsylvania. His father, Squire Boone Sr., was a Quaker blacksmith and weaver who met his wife, Sarah Morgan, in Pennsylvania after he emigrated from England. Daniel Boone, the couple's sixth child, received little formal education. Boone learned how to read and write from his mother, and his father taught him wilderness survival skills. Boone was given his first rifle when he was 12 years old. He quickly proved himself a talented woodsman and hunter, shooting his first bear when most children his age were too frightened. At age 15, Boone moved with his family to Rowan County, North Carolina, on the Yadkin River, where he started his own hunting business.
Now, in 1755, Boone left home on a military expedition that was part of the French and Indian War. He served as a wagoner for Brigadier General Edward Braddock during his army's calamitous defeat at Turtle Creek, near modern-day Pittsburgh. A skilled survivor, Daniel Boone saved his own life by escaping the
the life of this famous pioneer, Daniel Boone, he was an American explorer and frontiersman who blazed a trail through the Cumberland Gap as I have already mentioned, thereby providing access to America's western frontier.
Also, it should be noted that before the Wilderness Road could be used, the Indian population had to be moved out of the area. After that, this became a toll road in 1792 for horses only. It was made wider to accommodate wagons for traveling pioneers in the year 1796, all because of Daniel Boone and his men.
In the year 1792, the state of Kentucky was admitted into the union as the 15th state. From 1790-1840 this Wilderness Road opened a route to westward expansion with 300,000 settlers using it, and my family was one of those settlers, because of their marriage in Virginia, which was in a city at the start of the road.