June 7th is (Daniel) Boone Day

National Boone Day, celebrated each year on June 7, commemorates when frontiersman Daniel Boone first began exploring the valleys and forests of the present day Bluegrass State of Kentucky on June 7, 1769.  Boone founded the village of Boonesborough, Kentucky which is one of the first American settlements west of the Appalachians.

Daniel Boone, an American pioneer, explorer and frontiersman was born on November 2, 1734.  His frontier exploits made him one of United States first folk heroes.

By the end of the 18th century, following the route marked by Boone, more than 200,000 European people had migrated to Kentucky/Virginia.

Daniel Boone married Rebecca Bryan on August 14, 1756. They lived in a cabin on his father’s farm and had ten children.  He supported his family as a market hunter, collecting pelts for the fur trade.

During the Revolutionary War, Boone was a milita officer and in 1778 was captured by the Shawnee warriors whom adopted him into their tribe.  He later left the Indians, returning to Boonesborough to help defend the European settlements in Kentucky/Virginia.

Following the war, Daniel Boone emigrated to eastern Missouri where he spent most of the last two decades of his life.  Boone died of natural causes on September 26, 1820 at the age of 85.  His last words were, “I’m going now, my time has come”.

There are many places in the United States that are named after Daniel Boone including the Daniel Boone National Forest, the Sheltowee Trace Trail , the town of Boone, North Carolina, and seven different counties.  Schools are also named after Boone, including locations in Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Chicago.