Summary and Analyze
Kentucky Historical Society
FIRST EXPLORATIONS OF DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY Author(s): Willard Rouse Jillson Source: Register of Kentucky State Historical Society, Vol. 20, No. 59 (MAY, 1922), pp.
204-206 Published by: Kentucky Historical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23372914 . Accessed: 27/10/2014 17:00
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204
FIRST
EXPLORATIONS
By Willard
OF DANIEL
Rouse Jillson,
BOONE
Sc. D.*
IN KENTUCKY.
The
name
Daniel
Boone
will
forever
That
Boone
did not know he was in he wintered at the
be
linked
with Road,
Cumberland
Wilderness
Gap, the and the middle waters Until that recent Boone’s to and have hun been ex Vir in set
Kentucky,
though
well known Salt Lick ten miles west of Prestonsburg on the left fork of Middle Creek in Floyd County, is an interest ing disclosure explorations
take precedence
of the Kentucky River. ly it has been assumed Kentucky dreds or explorations eastern this rugged less
were district, history
limited
concerning in Kentucky
by two
these his first which
over
now
his
of pages
of interesting his
and more
years
dependable concerning
well
authenticated
adventures
in1 the
written tling ginia’s
pioneering resulted through
Cumberland region. ly
ploits which ultimately Central “back Kentucky door.”
River Gap—Kentucky The Salt Lick Boone fortunate has been located by the with the at the Postof at
selected
“With the excep tion of a recent book** or two, the ex tensive Boone gest into for him Kentucky researches bibliography any earlier those than fails to sug
explorations which he
writer who is well acquainted
district on the farm of Ben Hale of middle ofice. this place Creek near Goodloe in the
mouth of Salt Lick Fork of the left fork The cause of the Salt Spring
made through Cumberland Recent manuscript library of
Gap in 1769. writer in the the by the late Society Dr. of the at of
is found The salt
geological water
structure of the locality which is a basin syncline. or brackish had its origin in the original connate or marine waters of deposition contained in the local and
Pottsville which Sandstones, comprise the Shales, Coals
Lyman C. Draper Wisconsin State Madison, hitherto ever, in bringing
in the archives Historical
Wisconsin, unpublished
have resulted, how history showing
to light two pages
surficial rocks of this region. There is presented reproductions the Draper herewith photostat as well as a typed copy of Volume 2B 152
that Boone made his first, a hunting trip into Kentucky,
the headwaters
in the year 1767, through
country of the Levisa or
manuscript
West
fork of the Big Sandy
River.
♦Member of the Filson His Club, Kentucky torical etc. Society, •»Daniel Boone, and Thwaites, Appleton, Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road, Bruce, Macmillan.
153, pages 140-141, which proves be yond a doubt that Boone first saw Ken tucky on the headwaters Fork of the Big Sandy of the Levisa Incident River.
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tive
Pagre from to Boone’s
C. Draper’s Dr. Lyman manuscript in Kentucky. first explorations
library,
Madison,
Wisconsin,
rela
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tive
Pag-e from to Boone’s
C. Draper’s Dr. Lyman manuscript first explorations in Kentucky.
library,
Madison,
Wisconsin,
rela
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First
Explorations
of Daniel
Boone
in Kentucky.
205
ally there is thus added another interest ing and illustrious chapter to the real history of the Big historians. Sandy Region which has been so long neglected by
Kentucky
are the guides which God has set for the its course that this stream must flow into the Ohio, pursued their journey along its banks, until, as they thought, they had
travel ed well nigh a hundred miles, and had penetrated of the probably pursuing Spring, considerably to the westward Cumberland Mountains ; when striking it, they a
buffalo-path, came to the and Salt stranger in the wilderness.’ and Hill, concluding from So Boone
uaniel The
Boone—Kentucky Manuscript Lyman torical consin, C. Draper, Society Madison, consin. Library State of Wis Wis
Data of His Dr.
in
which some twenty-eight years afterwards was known as Young’s Salt Works. Situated ten miles directly west
mucñ ex
As
iíoone
s mind
had
been
ercised the past two years with the hope dû finding a country more desirable than Carolina, and the Florida Exploration bad resulted so unfavorably, he now be gan to
bend his thoughts seriously to wards making a determined attempt to discover the fair region of Kentucky, so fascinatingly portrayed to him by Find lay Hill a dozen
years gone by. William coun yet remained in the Yadkin
of the present town of Prestonsburg, on the Lick Fork of Middle Creek, a tri butary Sandy, Eastern
“Here
of the West in Floyd
or Louisa
Fork
of
County, in the extreme part of Kentucky.
they were caught in a severe
mow storm, which :amp, and “emain
which issued bluff on
compelled them to they at length concluded to all winter. The Salt Spring, from the foot of a rocky the southern bank of the
try, and to him Boone fully made known Hill entered his plans and wishes. heartily
were made
into
for
them,
the
and
arduous
preparations
enterprise.
stream, proved more valuable to them than mines of the precious metals, for it was the means of enticing buffaloes and other animals there in great numbers, to drink
the waters or lick the brackish soil; and all Boone next to husbanding was, as Peter was and Hill had to do, their ammunition, commanded in the
They having near head Sandy.
started crossed
in the fall of 1767,
per
haps accompanied leghanies,
by Squire Boone, and the Blue Ridge and Al and Clinch the they fell upon has that
and the Holston of the West
their sources, waters Beautifully declared,
Fork of Big the historian ‘the streams
Bancroft
vision, ‘rise; kill and eat.’ And here it was, that Boone saw the first buffaloes he ever beheld, and enjoyed many a de licious feast from the favorite rump of
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206 that animal, ding, quite
Register
of the
Kentucky
State
Historical
Society
or a tender loin of venison. and much over-run
As the country thus far had been forbid hilly, with laurel, doned they became discouraged; they aban
“Boone and Hill had become very much attached to each other, and were * * * * often employed on
and notes S. (Manuscript) Statement, *”M. who with Col. Nathan of conversations Boone, of winter in the Salt Works visiting Young’s in his father with on a hunt 1796-
97, while his from facts these received that region, own lips: father’s Salt called “At the Salt Young’s Spring in settled early Young, by James Works, made times,
some sixty years ago the pioneers since then a well has been sunk at the salt; It is same spot, where some salt is yet made. Salt Creek now known as the Middle Works,
in a wild mountainous and is situated country, in its immediate the settlements neighbor let M. S. (Manuscript) hood being sparse. of Prestons ters of Edwin Esq.,
Trimble, of Paintsville, and John Howes, Esq., burg, 1853.” Ky., March,
and as winter passed
away,
all hope of finding Kentucky by this route, and made the best of their way back to the Yadkin. know, until several the name of the stream Nor did Boone afterwards,
near which he years
had wintered.*
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