A History of the Daniel Boone National Forest 1770 - 1970

The foregoing pages relate the principal events which have taken place, in the general country in which the Daniel Boone National Forest is located; during the 200 years since Daniel Boone and his companions came through Cumberland Gap in the spring of 1769 in search of the site of Eskippakithiki, and to explore the country as a possible site of a new colony for the Transylvania Company to establish.

This story ends with the end of fiscal year 1970 (30 June, 1970). It is anticipated that additional chapters will be added at the end of each 10-year period to maintain this as a continuing record of the historical events and major activities which involve the Daniel Boone National Forest.

The anticipation of this process should motivate the Forest to maintain more detailed records and to evaluate records, reports, correspondence and similar materials before permitting them to be discarded as a part of the "cleaning out the files" routine each year.

In writing this history I have made no attempt to cover large project-type activities in progress such as Job Corps, major recreation developments on Cave Run and Laurel River Reservoirs and activities of a similar nature. Only the perspective of time??distance will permit a proper evaluation of their impacts and benefits to the Forest Service.

In a like manner I cannot help wondering as to what the next ten years will see develop. Will the Red River Dam be built; and if so, where? What will be the eventual policy of management of the 100,000 acres of forest land surrounding the reservoir — wilderness or multiple use? Will the Redbird Purchase Unit be expanded to cover all of the three forks of the Kentucky watershed with funds to restore the strip-mined lands and heal the watershed? How much of the Daniel Boone National Forest land along the Big South Fork will the National Park Service demand as a part of the Big South Fork National Recreation Area?

All of these questions, and many more, come to mind as I write these closing lines of a story which I have researched and written over the past four years. It is a story which I have believed should be written for a long time; and I am glad to have had a part in it. You may believe that I will be eagerly awaiting to read the next installment in 1980.