The Tragic Life Of Daniel Boone

No question that life on the frontier was unimaginably difficult. (Indoor plumbing alone was far, far in the future.) Settlers were moving into hunting grounds and lands claimed by Native American tribes, who sometimes pushed back, sometimes violently. Boone was responsible for helping create The Wilderness Road, a track that led through the Cumberland Mountains

No question that life on the frontier was unimaginably difficult. (Indoor plumbing alone was far, far in the future.) Settlers were moving into hunting grounds and lands claimed by Native American tribes, who sometimes pushed back, sometimes violently. Boone was responsible for helping create The Wilderness Road, a track that led through the Cumberland Mountains and into the rich, previously unsettled (by Europeans) land known as "Kentucke."

He largely supported his increasingly large family by hunting and trapping, going on long expeditions into the wilderness. He founded a settlement, Boone's Station, later known as Boonesborough, in what's now Kentucky, one of the first English-speaking settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains.

Boone and his family lived there from 1775-79. During that time his daughter Jemima was kidnapped by Native tribes. He rescued her, but fell captive himself in 1778, says History. He was adopted by Shawnee tribe's chief, and given his own tribal name, but escaped after four months and returned to warn the settlement of the imminent attack. He led the successful defense of the village during a nine-day siege.

He was involved in other battles as well — he was well regarded as a militia leader — and took part in one of the last skirmishes of the American Revolution, the Battle of Blue Licks in 1782, where his son, Israel, died in front of him. Another son, James, had been killed in a battle with Native Americans at the age of 16, says Daniel Boone Trail.

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