250 years ago, Daniel Boone alongside over thirty fellow trailblazers, cleared a path through hundreds of miles of Appalachian forests, creating a trail that future pioneers would use as they traveled through Kentucky and beyond. The Boone Trace trail as it’s referred to today, began near Kingsport, Tennessee where trailblazers used existing paths developed by buffalo herds to travel through Cumberland Gap and Middlesboro. This path would eventually end after Boone and his axemen established Kentucky’s second ever settlement, Fort Boonesborough. Although the trail stopped there, the progress the trail inspired would continue for decades. Boone’s journey is largely considered to be a major contributing factor in Kentucky becoming recognized as a state and opening the western half of the United States up for exploration. Hundreds of thousands of settlers passed through the state on Boone’s Trace trail, and this week, hikers are commemorating those journeys as part of the “America 250 Boone’s Trace Hike”. On Wednesday, the group made their way to Pleasant View House at Battlefield Park in Richmond, for a special presentation.
Following the presentation, the hikers continued on their journey to another Richmond stop on the trail, Twetty’s Fort. The hike is a commemorative relay where a ceremonial axe, a replica of ones used while clearing Boone’s Trace, is handed off at each stop to a new hiker who will carry it on to the next stop. Hike organizer and President of Friends of Boone Trace, John Fox, tells us that Boone’s journey, along with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, served as the beginning of the country as we know it today.
The “America 250 Boone’s Trace Hike” will continue tomorrow making a stop at Gibson Bay before the group finishes out the hike at Fort Boonesborough this Saturday, where they will have an arrival ceremony and celebrate the 250th anniversary of the settling of Kentucky.
