Okla-homey
9/26/2007, 05:22 AM
Sept 26, 1820 : The famous frontiersman Daniel Boone dies in Missouri
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/2315/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxdboone1820dt0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
187 years ago, on this day in 1820, the great pioneering frontiersman Daniel Boone dies quietly in his sleep at his son's home near present-day Defiance, Missouri. The indefatigable voyager was 86.
Boone was born in 1734 to Quaker parents living in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Following a squabble with the Pennsylvania Quakers, Boone's family decided to head south and west for less crowded regions, and they eventually settled in the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina.
There the young Daniel Boone began his life-long love for wilderness, spending long days exploring the still relatively unspoiled forests and mountains of the region. An indifferent student who never learned to write more than a crude sentence or two, Boone's passion was for the outdoors, and he quickly became a superb marksman, hunter and woodsman.
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9025/xxxxxxxxxdanielboonekq7.gif (http://imageshack.us)
Never satisfied to stay put for very long, Boone soon began making ever longer and more ambitious journeys into the relatively unexplored lands to the west. In May of 1769, Boone and five companions crossed over the Cumberland Gap and explored along the south fork of the Kentucky River.
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/3889/xxxxxxxxxxxxdanielboonemj3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
"Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers Through the Cumberland Gap" painted by George Caleb Bingham (c.1852)
Impressed by the fertility and relative emptiness of the land--although the Shawnee and other tribes who lived there hardly considered it to be empty--Boone returned in 1773 with his family, hoping to establish a permanent settlement.
An Indian attack prevented that first attempt from succeeding, but Boone returned two years later to open the route that became known as Boone's Trace (or the Wilderness Road) between the Cumberland Gap and a new settlement along the Kentucky River called Fortress Boonesboro.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/1363/zzzzzzzzzzzzbboroes3.gif (http://imageshack.us)
The fortified settlement at Boonesborough
After years of struggles against both Indians and their British soldier allies during the period of the American Revolution, Boonesboro eventually became one of the most important gateways for the early American settlement of the Trans-Appalachian West.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/7757/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxssbn6293al7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The image of Daniel Boone was wildly popular in the 1960's in American culture. Daniel Boone's name was applied to this fleet ballistic missile submarine launched during he period.
Made a legend in his own time by John Filson's Boone Autobiography and Lord Byron's depiction of him as the quintessential frontiersman in the book Don Juan, Boone became a symbol of the western pioneering spirit for many Americans.
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/1638/xxxxxxxxdanielboonejg1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
If you were a child in the 1960's I bet you remember this TV show starring Fess Parker as Daniel Boone in the weekly show of the same name. Parker also played Davy Crockett in a Disney serial.
Ironically, though, Boone's fame and his success in opening the Trans-Appalachian West to large-scale settlement later came to haunt him. Having lost his Kentucky land holdings by failing to properly file title to them, Boone moved even further west in 1799, trying to escape the civilized regions he had been so instrumental in creating.
Finally settling in Missouri--though he never stopped dreaming of continuing westward--he lived out the rest of his life doing what he loved best: hunting and trapping in a fertile wild land still largely untouched by the Anglo pioneers who had followed the path he blazed to the West.
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/5261/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxdanielboonehomeys3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
House in Defiance MO where Daniel drew his last breath
Daniel Boone was a man,
Yes, a big man!
With an eye like an eagle
And as tall as a mountain was he!
Daniel Boone was a man,
Yes, a big man!
He was brave, he was fearless
And as tough as a mighty oak tree!
From the coonskin cap on the top of ol' Dan
To the heel of his rawhide shoe;
The rippin'est, roarin'est, fightin'est man
The frontier ever knew!
Daniel Boone was a man,
Yes, a big man!
And he fought for America
To make all Americans free!
What a Boone! What a doer!
What a dream come-er-true-er was he!
On a related aside, if you would enjoy experiencing a remnant of Boone-esque culture out west in Missouri, check out Weston, Missouri just north of Kansas City. There, former Kentuckians enticed westward by Boone himself, settled and brought a bit of the Bluegrass State culture with them -- including tobacco cultivation and distilling. Weston MO is the epicenter of American tobacco cultivation west of the Mississippi and whiskey was made there for over a century.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/9391/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxuntitleduk9.png (http://imageshack.us)
One of two traditional Weston tobacco auction houses and the only tobacco auction market west of the Mississippi River
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/221/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzuntitledqo7.png (http://imageshack.us)
All of this Missouri tobacco was formerly auctioned where the purchaser could examine the tobacco prior to purchases. Today it's mostly contracted before it's even harvested. As a result the quality is now much lower. This tobacco, picked primarily from messican farm workers without a long history of experience in tobacco fields, is crusted with dried mud and will have to be cleaned by the buyer.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/8992/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzuntitledzx8.png (http://imageshack.us)
Whiskey and tobacco...like peas and carrots. Also produced in Weston MO.
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/7166/insane7zopp6.jpg
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/2315/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxdboone1820dt0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
187 years ago, on this day in 1820, the great pioneering frontiersman Daniel Boone dies quietly in his sleep at his son's home near present-day Defiance, Missouri. The indefatigable voyager was 86.
Boone was born in 1734 to Quaker parents living in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Following a squabble with the Pennsylvania Quakers, Boone's family decided to head south and west for less crowded regions, and they eventually settled in the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina.
There the young Daniel Boone began his life-long love for wilderness, spending long days exploring the still relatively unspoiled forests and mountains of the region. An indifferent student who never learned to write more than a crude sentence or two, Boone's passion was for the outdoors, and he quickly became a superb marksman, hunter and woodsman.
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9025/xxxxxxxxxdanielboonekq7.gif (http://imageshack.us)
Never satisfied to stay put for very long, Boone soon began making ever longer and more ambitious journeys into the relatively unexplored lands to the west. In May of 1769, Boone and five companions crossed over the Cumberland Gap and explored along the south fork of the Kentucky River.
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/3889/xxxxxxxxxxxxdanielboonemj3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
"Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers Through the Cumberland Gap" painted by George Caleb Bingham (c.1852)
Impressed by the fertility and relative emptiness of the land--although the Shawnee and other tribes who lived there hardly considered it to be empty--Boone returned in 1773 with his family, hoping to establish a permanent settlement.
An Indian attack prevented that first attempt from succeeding, but Boone returned two years later to open the route that became known as Boone's Trace (or the Wilderness Road) between the Cumberland Gap and a new settlement along the Kentucky River called Fortress Boonesboro.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/1363/zzzzzzzzzzzzbboroes3.gif (http://imageshack.us)
The fortified settlement at Boonesborough
After years of struggles against both Indians and their British soldier allies during the period of the American Revolution, Boonesboro eventually became one of the most important gateways for the early American settlement of the Trans-Appalachian West.
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/7757/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxssbn6293al7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The image of Daniel Boone was wildly popular in the 1960's in American culture. Daniel Boone's name was applied to this fleet ballistic missile submarine launched during he period.
Made a legend in his own time by John Filson's Boone Autobiography and Lord Byron's depiction of him as the quintessential frontiersman in the book Don Juan, Boone became a symbol of the western pioneering spirit for many Americans.
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/1638/xxxxxxxxdanielboonejg1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
If you were a child in the 1960's I bet you remember this TV show starring Fess Parker as Daniel Boone in the weekly show of the same name. Parker also played Davy Crockett in a Disney serial.
Ironically, though, Boone's fame and his success in opening the Trans-Appalachian West to large-scale settlement later came to haunt him. Having lost his Kentucky land holdings by failing to properly file title to them, Boone moved even further west in 1799, trying to escape the civilized regions he had been so instrumental in creating.
Finally settling in Missouri--though he never stopped dreaming of continuing westward--he lived out the rest of his life doing what he loved best: hunting and trapping in a fertile wild land still largely untouched by the Anglo pioneers who had followed the path he blazed to the West.
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/5261/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxdanielboonehomeys3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
House in Defiance MO where Daniel drew his last breath
Daniel Boone was a man,
Yes, a big man!
With an eye like an eagle
And as tall as a mountain was he!
Daniel Boone was a man,
Yes, a big man!
He was brave, he was fearless
And as tough as a mighty oak tree!
From the coonskin cap on the top of ol' Dan
To the heel of his rawhide shoe;
The rippin'est, roarin'est, fightin'est man
The frontier ever knew!
Daniel Boone was a man,
Yes, a big man!
And he fought for America
To make all Americans free!
What a Boone! What a doer!
What a dream come-er-true-er was he!
On a related aside, if you would enjoy experiencing a remnant of Boone-esque culture out west in Missouri, check out Weston, Missouri just north of Kansas City. There, former Kentuckians enticed westward by Boone himself, settled and brought a bit of the Bluegrass State culture with them -- including tobacco cultivation and distilling. Weston MO is the epicenter of American tobacco cultivation west of the Mississippi and whiskey was made there for over a century.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/9391/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxuntitleduk9.png (http://imageshack.us)
One of two traditional Weston tobacco auction houses and the only tobacco auction market west of the Mississippi River
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/221/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzuntitledqo7.png (http://imageshack.us)
All of this Missouri tobacco was formerly auctioned where the purchaser could examine the tobacco prior to purchases. Today it's mostly contracted before it's even harvested. As a result the quality is now much lower. This tobacco, picked primarily from messican farm workers without a long history of experience in tobacco fields, is crusted with dried mud and will have to be cleaned by the buyer.
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/8992/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzuntitledzx8.png (http://imageshack.us)
Whiskey and tobacco...like peas and carrots. Also produced in Weston MO.
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/7166/insane7zopp6.jpg