MARCH/APRIL 2014
5
“That Little Road” Opened
the Way West
Trail created by Daniel Boone has great
historical significance
by Abby Malik, Staff Writer
West of the Mississippi River,
you’ll find the Oregon Trail and
New Mexico’s Santa Fe Trail. East
of the Mississippi, Dr. John M. Fox
hopes Boone Trace will someday
be as legendary and appreciated as
those trails.
Boone Trace was created by
Daniel Boone and 30 other men
during a two-month period in
1775. It opened the wilderness for
settlers to travel through the Cumberland Gap to Boonesborough,
Ky. No other road, Fox said, is of
greater historical significance to
Kentucky’s founding in 1792 and
to the opening of the West.
“It must be remembered that at
that time, there were no actual
roads into Kentucky or west of the
Alleghenies,” he said. “No towns,
no roads – nothing.”
Since 2008, Fox, a surgeon with
Colorectal Surgical & Gastroenterology Associates in Lexington,
has dedicated most of his free time
to preserving Boone Trace. The
71-year-old travels the 194-mile
trail – affectionately called “That
Little Road” – primarily on his
motorcycle. Fox feels a strong
connection to Boone, a man he
says “is in Kentucky’s DNA.”
“The trail feels like hallowed
ground,” he said. “It may sound a
little crazy, but I often sense the
presence of Daniel Boone going
down the trail.”
While Boone Trace actually
begins in Kingsport, Tenn., Fox’s
preservation efforts start in
Martin’s Station, Va., about eight
miles from the Kentucky border,
and stretch north through five
Kentucky counties, ending at
Fort Boonesborough in Madison
County.
But, Fox said, the trail is “slipping
away, right before our eyes.” He
has two primary concerns about
Boone Trace’s future: Original
markers are disappearing and the
actual path is being threatened
by commercial and residential
growth.
Fox has worked to research the
precise location of Boone’s path,
looking for long-forgotten sites
and markers. In 1915, a chapter
of the Kentucky Daughters of
the American Revolution (DAR)
placed 14 markers along Boone
Trace. Fox has uncovered and
documented nine of them.
In 2012, Fox and two others
incorporated Friends of Boone
Trace, a historic preservation, education and research organization.
Friends of Boone Trace works
to find allies for its preservation
efforts, including the Kentucky
Historical Society (KHS), the
DAR and more. Besides advocacy
activities, the Friends of Boone
Trace travels the trail by car and
motorcycle, and for the past three
years, members of the Lexington
Harley Owner Group (HOGS)
have organized motorcycle rides.
Last October, the Friends of
Boone Trace hosted a dedication
ceremony for a new KHS Hazel
Patch Historical Marker at Levi
Jackson Wilderness Road State
Park in Laurel County. The marker
documents a location important
to Boone Trace’s history: It is at
Hazel Patch that Boone’s trail
forked. Boone Trace went north
to Boonesborough and Wilderness Road stretched west toward
Louisville. The group’s efforts also
include going high tech, and soon
Dr. John Fox often rides his Harley V-Rod on Boone Trace. He says he
can feel Daniel Boone’s spirit there.
KHS’s “Explore Kentucky” smartphone app will feature Boone
Trace pictures and mapped points
of interest.
In addition, Fox’s work with a
group of history-minded Madison
County citizens recently resulted
in the donation of the Twetty’s
2 HAMBURG JOURNAL
Fort site to the Boonesborough
chapter of the DAR. A deadly
skirmish occurred at Twetty’s Fort
just before the start of the Revolutionary War.
Anyone interested in Friends
BOONE Continued on Page 31
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