A History of the Daniel Boone National Forest 1770 - 1970

It is apparent that Judge Henderson had laid a firm and favorable foundation with the leaders of the Cherokee which insured the approval of the sale of the desired lands to the Transylvania Company by the Cherokee Nation at the Grand Council. The assurance of Henderson and his associates is manifest in the extensive and detailed plans for the occupancy and development of these lands made well in advance of the Council meeting. Among these plans was the selection of the site of the initial settlement and headquarters of the Transylvania Company in an area adjacent to the mouth of Otter Creek on the Kentucky River, as advised by Daniel Boone who had visited that area.

Judge Henderson was well aware of the apprehension he had created with the public announcement of his venture the previous December. As news of the pending Great Council of the Cherokees spread along the frontier, he knew that observers of the Royal Governors of both North Carolina and Virginia were reporting his progress in the land purchase. This was confirmed when on February 10, 1775, Governor Martin of North Carolina denounced his operations in a proclamation against Richard Henderson and his Confederates. He also knew that his action was causing great concern in Virginia where Governor Dunmore had personal ambitions in the establishment of settlements on the western lands. The possibility of legal action to restrain his activities by one or both Governors was strong indeed. For this reason, Henderson and his associates were determined to initiate occupancy of their purchase at the earliest possible date.

In anticipation of this need Henderson had employed Daniel Boone to lead a party of woodsmen to the proposed headquarters site on the Kentucky River, cutting and marking the trail enroute. With the need of initiating this expedition on short notice, Daniel Boone had spent most of the winter and early spring in recruiting a force of experienced woodsmen and assembling them at Long Island in the Holston River, a site readily adjacent to the Grand Council site at Sycamore Shoals on the Watauga.

As the Grand Council progressed according to plan and the enthusiasm of the Cherokees was increased by the displays of trade goods offered, Judge Henderson was convinced that the purchase of the lands in question was in the bag. At his direction, on the morning of March 10, 1775, the company of woodsmen led by Daniel Boone departed from Long Island in the Holston to mark the trail to the Kentucky River. This was a full week prior to the actual signing of the treaty which took place on March 17, 1775. Bakeless tells that this early departure probably met with the full approval of Daniel Boone, as records show that on April 19, 1775, one of his creditors issued a warrant against Boone's property. The document still exists with the words "No goods" written across the back. A resulting warrant for his arrest for debt bears the words, "Gone to Kentucky."

The party of travelers who left the Holston that morning of March 10, 1775, was composed of several elements. First, there was Daniel Boone and his group of carefully selected woodsmen, which included his brother Squire Boone and his old friend Michael Stoner who had accompanied him to Kentucky the previous year to warn the surveyors of the Indian troubles resulting from Lord Dunmore's War. Two other groups traveling to Kentucky had elected to travel with Boone's party for guidance, company and protection. One was that of Colonel Richard Callaway of Virginia, a former neighbor of the Boones on the Yadkin. The other was that of Captain William Twetty and seven companions from Rutherford County, North Carolina, traveling to Kentucky in search of land. The latter parties were accompanied by Negro servants, hunting dogs and loaded pack horses. Exclusive of servants, the party totaled 30 well mounted and well armed men. As no trouble with Indians was expected, the party was equipped for wilderness travel and hunting.

We are indebted to one of Captain Twetty's party, Felix Walker, whose writings tell us that, "By general consent the accompanying group put themselves under the management and control of Daniel Boone, who was to be our pilot and conductor through the wilderness to the promised land . . . . perhaps no adventurers since the days of Don Quixote, or before, ever felt so cheerful and elated in prospect . . ."

Boone knew that the trail to Powells Valley was well marked and traveled. From there his plan was to follow hunter and Indian trails, game trails, and streams wherever possible marking the trail plainly with axe blazes as they went. Where such trails did not exist, he planned for his axemen to cut a trail through forest and cane brake wide enough for mounted and foot travel with such aids as they could make at stream crossings — a crude route at best.

The party proceeded without incident across the high passes of the Blue Ridge, Clinch and Powell mountains, the rivers between and on to Cumberland Gap, that six-mile passage through the towering cliffs which led through the Cumberland Mountains, long a barrier to the westward movement. At that point they joined the Warrior's Path, long a major trail used by all of the tribes in their travels. From the Gap they followed the Warrior's Path for about 50 miles, crossing the Cumberland River near the present City of Pineville and proceeded a few miles to where they left the Path and followed a buffalo trace and a hunter's trace in a northwesterly direction across the Laurel and the Little Laurel rivers to the vicinity of the Hazel Patch. Here they crossed the Rockcastle River and the trace ended. For the next 30 miles the expedition cut their way through dead bush, patches of dense cane, thickets of undergrowth and deep forests. For the first time the party found progress slow and the work of clearing a trail hard labor. From the Rockcastle River the route followed Roundstone Creek, which it crossed repeatedly, and finally emerged on the edge of the Bluegrass country through what is today known as Boone's Gap, just south of the present city of Berea.

As the party emerged from the dense forest into the Bluegrass, they were pleased and somewhat amazed by the country spread before them. Felix Walker of Captain Twetty's party wrote ". . . . As the cane ceased we began to discover the pleasing and rapturous plains of Kentucky. A new sky and a strange earth seemed to be presented to our view. So rich a soil we had never seen before; covered with clover in full bloom, the woods were abounding in wild game — turkeys so numerous that it might be said that they appeared but one flock, universally scattered in the woods."

Once through Boone's Gap the morale of the members of the party, dampened by the hard labor and rough travel from the Rockcastle to that point, was amply restored by the sights of the Bluegrass and the knowledge that only two more day's travel would bring them to their destination on the Kentucky River.

On the evening of March 24, 1775, the party made camp on a small woodland stream in the rolling Bluegrass country about five miles south of the present City of Richmond, Kentucky. As no recent signs of Indians had been observed since leaving Cumberland Gap, no trouble from that source was anticipated and no guard posted about the camp. About an hour before daylight the next morning, the camp was fired on from the darkness by Indians. Those who were able grabbed rifles and powder horns and left the flickering light of the smouldering campfires for the safety of the darkness and surrounding woods. All prepared to repel the anticipated Indian attack as best they could.

On reaching the darkness and taking stock of the situation, Squire Boone found that he had grabbed his buckskin hunting shirt instead of his possible bag containing powder horn and bullet pouch and was without ammunition except for the one load in his rifle. He was forced to crawl cautiously in the darkness until he found Daniel from whom he borrowed powder and ball enough to last until he could retrieve his own.

The little group crouched in the half-light of pre-dawn with rifles ready until the increasing light assured them that the Indians had left, taking some of their horses with them. Daniel Boone assembled his party and took stock of the situation. It was found that Captain Twetty had been shot through both knees and was in great pain. Immediately after the first volley of rifle fire, an Indian had dashed for him to take his scalp but his faithful bulldog, who had been sleeping by the campfire, grabbed the Indian by the throat and threw him off balance. A second Indian following close behind had brained the bulldog with his tomahawk, and both Indians had disappeared into the darkness. Captain Twetty's servant Sam, who had also been sleeping by the campfire, had received a ball in the head from the first volley. He had leaped to his feet in a purely reflex action and had fallen dead into the campfire. A third member of Captain Twetty's party, Felix Walker, was also seriously wounded by the first volley of gunfire which seems to have been directed largely toward that part of the camp occupied by the party of Captain Twetty.

It was out of the question to continue to travel with the two seriously wounded men and with the possibility of further Indian attack. The example of courage and firmness displayed by Daniel and Squire Boone, Stoner and the other experienced woodsmen helped to calm the rest of the party. This was further aided by giving them a job of constructing an enclosure of logs to serve as a breastworks in the event of more Indian attacks, collecting equipment and supplies within the enclosure and preparing food for all. When this was done, Sam and the bulldog were buried near the enclosure with due ceremony as the first casualties of the expedition.

Daniel Boone immediately set about organizing his camp to protect his people and animals and to shelter the wounded. As no doctor was available, Daniel Boone did his best to make the two wounded men as comfortable as possible with the simple remedies of the frontier. In recalling the incident afterward, Felix Walker wrote, "But let me, with feeling recollection and lasting gratitude, ever remember the unremitting kindness, sympathy, and attention paid me by Colonel Boone in my distress. He was my father, my physician, and friend; he attended me as his child, cured my wounds by use of medicines from the woods, nursed me with paternal affection until I recovered, without expectation of reward."

The firmness and fortitude of Daniel Boone and others soon restored the courage of the entire party. Although some members of the party had started back for the settlements, those that remained were resolved to protect themselves and their possessions from the Indians and to continue the journey. Their courage is illustrated by an incident which occurred on the second morning after the attack when one of the men who had run deep in the woods in his initial fright decided to return to the party. As he approached the camp moving from one tree to the next, he was observed by a black servant of Colonel Callaway who was gathering wood for the fire. She immediately ran back to the camp and gave the alarm. Daniel Boone grabbed his rifle, ordered the men to form as planned, take cover behind trees and to give battle and not to run till they saw him fall. Felix Walker writes of this incident, "I believe they would have fought with equal bravery to any Spartan band ever brought to the field of action . . . . ." The man behind the tree announced his name and came in, thus relieving the alert and the apprehension of the party.

On the third day Captain Twetty died of his wounds and was buried beside the enclosure with his servant Sam and his bulldog. Because of this, the enclosure was named Twetty's Fort (sometimes called Little Fort), and the spot is so known to this day. It is located near Highway U.S. 25, about five miles south of Richmond and marked by a Kentucky Historical Society highway information marker. It has been written that this attack on the Daniel Boone party at Twetty's Fort was the first battle between a group of white men and a group of Indians in Kentucky.

As the party was immediately in need of meat, Daniel Boone sent out parties of hunters to bring in meat and to scout the surrounding country for Indians which might be lurking among the hills and woods to renew the attack. One of these parties of scouts met a young man a few miles from camp who said that he was Samuel Tate's son, and told how the previous night Indians had fired on their party while drying moccasins around a fire; and two men of the party, Thomas McDowell and Jerimiah McPeters, were killed and scalped. The rest of the party ran barefooted through the light snow and escaped. One of them, Samuel Tate of Powells Valley, took to the stream to hide his tracks, it being a moonlight night and the light snow provided good tracking. To this day the small stream which flows into the Kentucky River near Boonesborough is known as Tates Creek.

The two Indian attacks, occurring within two days, were interpreted by many of Boone's party as an indication of an Indian war, which caused a few of the party to leave for the settlements. Daniel Boone, as the official representative of the Transylvania Company, took immediate action to protect the people in the area and to inform his employer of the situation and the needs of his advance party. The action taken by him could well be a credit to a trained officer of the army in a similar situation. He first quieted the fears of the members of his own party by his fearless and confident attitude of leadership. He dispatched runners from his party to all known parties in the general vicinity (such as the group at Harrodsburg and the Tate party) to assemble at the mouth of the Otter on the Kentucky River for mutual protection. Not knowing whether or not Judge Henderson had left Sycamore Shoals on the Watauga to follow the trail blazed by the Boone party, and desiring reinforcements and additional supplies as soon as possible, Daniel Boone wrote the following letter to Henderson to inform him of the situation and, if possible, to influence him to join him soon or send reinforcements. Here is Boone's letter to Henderson:

"April the First, 1775

Dear Colonel:

After my compliments to you I shall acquaint you of our misfortune. On March the 25 a party of Indians fired on my Company about half an hour before day and killed Mr. Twetty and his negro and wounded Mr. Walker very deeply, but I hope he will recover. On March 28 as we were hunting for provisions we found Samuel Tate's son, who gave us an account that the Indians fired on their camp on the 27 day. My brother and I went down and found two men killed and scalped, Thomas McDowell and Jerimith McPeters.

"I have sent a man down to all the lower companies in order to gather them all to the mouth of Otter Creek. My advise to you, sir, is to come or send as soon as possible. Your company is desired greatly, for the people are very uneasy, but are willing to stay and venture their lives with you, and now is the time to flustrate their intentions and keep the country, whilst we are in it. If we give way to them now, it will ever be the case. This day we started from the battle ground, for the mouth of Otter Creek, where we shall immediately erect a fort, which will be done before you can come or send — then we can send 10 men to meet you, if you send for them.

I am sir your most obedient,
Daniel Boone"

Several days having elapsed since the Indian attacks, without further sign of Indians and Felix Walker's wounds sufficiently healed to permit him to travel in a litter slung between two horses, the Boone party resumed its travel on the morning of April 1, 1775, to cover the remaining 12 miles to the mouth of the Otter on the Kentucky River.

Leaving the site of Twetty's Fort and the graves of two of their party, the little expedition resumed its journey down the meandering valley of Otter Creek, cutting their way through the recurring patches of cane. Arriving at the junction of Otter Creek with the Kentucky River, they were pleased to find a broad, well-beaten buffalo trace which paralleled the south bank of the river. Moving down this trace a bit over a mile they arrived at the site selected long ago by Daniel Boone and concurred to by Colonel Henderson as the site for the first settlement of the Transylvania Company and its headquarters.

As the party of horsemen approached the chosen site, their attention was diverted by the sound of trampling by many hooves. The sight which met their eyes is best described by an eyewitness, Felix Walker, who wrote, ". . . On entering the plain we were permitted to view a very interesting and romantic sight. A number of buffaloes, of all sizes, supposed to be between two and three hundred, made off from the lick in every direction; some running, some walking, others loping slowly and carelessly, with young calves playing, skipping and bounding through the plain. Such a sight some of us never saw before, nor perhaps may never again." At the sight of the men and horses the entire herd of buffalo forded the river and disappeared into the forest.

As Daniel Boone gave the order to halt and dismount, the members of his party realized with relief and wonder that they had reached the end of the trail and arrived at the objective which had seemed so distant and unreal when they left the Holston only three weeks before. Their safe arrival was a tribute to their leader, Daniel Boone, and to his skill and woodsmanship acquired through many years of wilderness experience. Dr. William S. Lester, in his book, The Transylvania Colony, tells us that, "In 15 days of wilderness travel Daniel Boone had brought his little expedition 200 hundred miles over rough country little frequented by men, 50 miles of it through trackless wilderness, dead brush and extensive patches of cane. With the true sense of topography of a modern engineer he had followed the most accessible route. He had followed the rivers and creeks, found the lowest mountain passes and the best fords with unerring accuracy. It is significant that today's railroads, surveyed by the most skillful engineers, lie for the most part along the route he established."

This Trace, from below the Rockcastle to Boone's Gap, had crossed an area of forest land that would, some 200 years later, become a part of a great national forest named in honor of that Kentucky pioneer, Daniel Boone, whose personal interest, exploration and leadership, and personal participation was largely responsible for the first marked trace from Cumberland Gap to the Kentucky River and which was the base for the Wilderness Road over which the forces of western migration would flow to achieve the settlement of middle America.

Here, in April, 1775, on the south bank of the Kentucky River about a mile below the mouth of Otter Creek, Daniel Boone and his party of tired woodsmen and land seekers unloaded their pack horses, cooked a simple meal and started the erection of several log huts for shelter and defense.

The site to which Daniel Boone had conducted the party bore a striking resemblance to the site of the Great Council at Sycamore Shoals. It was located on a level bench of land extending nearly two miles below the mouth of Otter Creek along the south side of the beautiful Kentucky River. The area varied in width from the river to the hills which rose sharply to the south from one-fourth to one-half mile of level to gently rolling land suitable for farming, pasture or a townsite. Across the river to the north the forested hills rose sharply from the riverbank, broken only by occasional draws, where small streams or drains entered the river.

Map Showing Route of the Boone Trace Through the Wilderness of Southeastern Kentucky, 1775 (click on image for a PDF version)

The location on this plain where Daniel Boone had halted his little party was about one-and-one-fourth miles downstream from the mouth of the Otter Creek where a small lick, fed by two springs, traversed the plain to the river. These two springs, destined to become famous in history, were one of the reasons for the selection of this particular location as the settlement site. The spring nearest the river was a sulphur spring whose waters had impregnated the soil along the lick below it with salt forming a self-replenishing salt lick which had attracted herds of buffalo, elk, deer and other animals to that particular spot for generations. The second spring, located further up the lick from the river, provided a strong flow of clear, fresh water which provided the principal source of water for the settlement. For some unknown reason this second fresh-water spring soon became known as the Lick Spring rather than the sulphur spring which was the source of the salt for the lick.

Adjacent to these springs there grew a number of huge trees which towered over the site in majestic splendor. Four of them were particularly impressive. Three were huge sycamores whose white bark had been rubbed smooth by the herds of buffalo and deer which, for centuries, had crowded about the lick to partake of the salty soil. These trees so impressed everyone who saw them that the site about the springs was named Sycamore Hollow, and is known by that name to this day.

The fourth tree of the group was an elm of such magnificent size, spread of limb and symmetrical proportion that it stood out in its perfection and appearance from all of the rest of the huge trees in the hollow. It, too, was to become famous in the history of the settlement.

The ground beneath these great trees and for nearly a half-mile in either direction was free from undergrowth due to the trampling of generations of game herd attracted to the lick. The soil was rich, firm and, except for the trampled area immediately adjacent to the lick and the broad buffalo trace along the river, thickly covered with large patches of white clover and carpeted throughout with a natural grass of great richness and beauty. The sight of this beautiful verdant valley beside the sparkling river on that fine spring day appeared to the weary travelers as a glimpse of the paradise which Daniel Boone had told them about.

Being a practical woodsman and bearing the responsibility of command of the expedition, Daniel Boone immediately initiated action to provide defense and shelter for his people. He selected a level site about 60 yards back from the river and 250 yards below the lick as the site for the first cabins. After the men had eaten and rested, he asked them to begin the construction of several small log cabins for shelter and defense. Here he encountered a difficulty that was to hamper the defense and development of the settlement throughout its existence — the trait of human self-interest and the tendency to ignore danger until it immediately threatened. Although having been subject to Indian attack only a few days previously and knowing of the attack on the Tate party in the immediate vicinity, the members of the party were so intent on looking over the land and selecting a particular tract for themselves that they refused to work on the construction of the cabins as Boone directed. After some persuasion 15 of the men (probably the woodsmen originally selected by Boone and in the pay of the Transylvania Company) started the construction of several cabins. The walls were completed to a point where they provided some defense, but the cabins were not completed with roofs for many months. These cabins were immediately named Boone's Fort, which name remained until the cabins were burned by the Indians during the fierce attack in the summer of 1777.

Probably the primary motive which induced each of the individuals in the Boone expedition to join it was the desire to acquire good land in Kentucky. So strong was this desire that, by popular demand, all other work was suspended and the land adjacent to Boone's Fort was surveyed into two-acre lots, which were distributed to the members of the party by drawing lots. It is obvious that these men believed strongly that the first on the ground should have the first choice of the land. The murder of a member of the party by Indians on April 4 again heightened the apprehension of some members of the party into considering a return to the settlements; but Daniel Boone's calm example, coupled with the desire for land and the wholesale killing of buffalo and deer for their skins, persuaded them to remain.

Many other parties in the vicinity left for the settlements in fear of a general Indian war; but Daniel Boone's calm example and advice, coupled with their confidence in him, probably prevented the initial stand of the Transylvania Company in Kentucky from being abandoned. Scouting the country for several miles around were Daniel and Squire Boone, Stoner and other experienced woodsmen, who soon established that the Indians who had attacked the Boone and the Tate parties were few in number and were probably a small hunting party en route from their hunting grounds on the Dick's River to their home village north of the Ohio River. The opportunity to steal a few horses and lift a few white scalps had been too much of a temptation for them to resist. The confidence of the Boone party in this deduction was well founded, as the settlement was not disturbed by Indians again for over a year, a benefit of the Treaty of Point Pleasant of the previous year.

The arrival of a messenger from Colonel Henderson bearing a reply to Boone's letter of April 1 asking for reinforcements did much to quiet the fears of the members of the Boone party. Captain William Cocke had left the Henderson party as they crossed the Cumberland and brought the news that Colonel Henderson, with 40 mounted riflemen, were enroute and would join the Boone party in a few days. Geo. W. Ranck in his Boonesborough tells that, "When Captain Cocke arrived, the savages were almost forgotten, and he, greatly to his surprise, found that his plucky adventure and the letters he brought excited as much interest as the news of reinforcements which he had risked his life to bring."

The Transylvania proprietors, meeting at Oxford in the County of Granville in North Carolina in September of 1775, recognized the outstanding service rendered by Daniel Boone in the establishment of the initial settlement of that company in Kentucky by awarding to him a present of 2,000 acres of land, together with the thanks of the proprietors.

The Transylvania Company was not alone in recognizing the skill, leadership and experience displayed by Daniel Boone in bringing the trail-marking party safely to the mouth of the Otter. Felix Walker of Captain Twetty's party, to whose journal we are indebted for an eye-witness account of the trip from the Holston to the Kentucky, included in his records his personal evaluation of Daniel Boone. He wrote, "I must not neglect to give honor to whom honor is due. Colonel Boone conducted the company under his care through the wilderness with great propriety, intrepidity, and courage; and was I to enter an exception to any part of his conduct, it would be on the grounds that he appeared void of fear and of consequences — too little caution for the enterprise. But let me, with feeling recollection and lasting gratitude, ever remember the unremitting kindness, sympathy, and attention paid to me by Colonel Boone in my distress. He was my father, my physician, and friend; he attended me as his child, cured my wounds by the use of medicine from the woods, nursed me with paternal affection until I recovered, without expectation of reward."