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Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05
Aug 7, 2008 issue
Daniel Boone Days: Marking Boone’s Local Trails
Story by Terry Harmon
Editor’s Note: On Friday, September 5, Robert Morgan, author of Boone: A Biography, will conduct a symposium on Daniel Boone as part of the inaugural Daniel Boone Days festival. High Country Press is presenting a series of historical articles about the frontiersman to stimulate interest in local history and provide background material to stimulate questions and discussion at the symposium. For more information about Daniel Boone Days, click to www.danielboonedays.com.
The following article is the first of two about the Daniel Boone markers in Watauga County. Next week’s article focuses on Boone Trail Highway and Memorial Association Markers.
On any given weekday morning, hundreds of Wataugans make their commutes to and from their jobs in Boone. Most are likely retracing the footsteps of frontiersman Daniel Boone who passed through present-day Watauga County on various hunting trips, as well as during his excursion from his home on the Yadkin River to the Cumberland Gap. The premiere of Daniel Boone Days this September is a perfect time for celebrants to remember Boone’s passages through our county and the markers that have been placed locally to commemorate them.
Identifying the Trails
According to early Watauga County historian John Preston Arthur (1851-1916), Boone knew his general course from piedmont North Carolina to Kentucky was northwest, and, “laden with camp equipage, salt, ammunition and supplies, he followed the easiest, most direct, and most feasible route….” This route has historically been considered to be via Cook’s Gap and Three Forks to the Benjamin Howard cabin in Boone, then through Hodges Gap, two miles down Brushy Fork Creek, across Dog Skin Creek, over the Graveyard Gap, along the base of Rich Mountain, across Sharp’s Creek (now Silverstone) to the gap between Zionville and Trade, Tenn., and on to Roan’s Creek, Tenn.—so named because it was the stream on which Boone abandoned a roan horse gone lame. Portions of this route were rude buffalo trails formerly used by Indians during their hunts, and Boone is believed to have followed them because they were well established.
Opinions vary, however, on the location of Boone’s “Wilderness Trail” to Kentucky. Some state that he passed through Meat Camp, skirting the Town of Boone five or six miles to the north. Meat Camp was supposedly so named because it was a camp where Boone and others stored meat taken during their hunts.
There is also a tradition that Boone went from Brushy Fork to Cove Creek to Rock House Branch, across Ward’s Gap to Beaver Dam, across Baker’s Gap to Roan’s Creek, and then down the Watauga River to Butler, Tenn. A slight variation claims he went from Brushy Fork across George’s Gap to Beaver Dam and onward. According to Arthur, “If he took either of these routes he preferred to cross two high mountains and to follow an almost due southwest course to following a well-worn and well-known Indian trail which was almost level and that led directly in the direction he wished to go.”
Some believe the pioneer camped on Boone’s Branch of Hog Elk and crossed the Blue Ridge four miles northeast of Cook’s Gap. Still others claim a tradition that Boone passed through Deep Gap (six miles further north than Cook’s Gap and out of the direct course), crossed Bald Mountain and Long Hope Creek and went through the Ambrose Gap into Tennessee.
It is likely that at one point or another, Boone followed each of these routes, as well as more than one buffalo trail or “trace” during his mountain hunting trips. Despite some opposing arguments, it has been widely believed that on “his first great trek to Kentucky,” he took a well-known route that is now generally recognized as the Daniel Boone Trail and that corresponds with U. S. Highway 421 and portions of Old U. S. Highway 421—sometimes overlapping it and at other places running parallel to it.
The DAR Markers
Well over a century after Boone traversed here, the Edward Buncombe Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), in fall 1913, placed trail markers, winding through North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Six of these iron plaques on large stone boulders were placed within Watauga County—one each at Cook’s Gap (now on the Blue Ridge Parkway), the original Three Forks Baptist Church site, Boone Courthouse, Hodges Gap, Graveyard (or Straddle) Gap (between Brushy Fork Baptist Church and Dog Skin Creek), and Zionville. The DAR markers highlighted the year 1769, a date chosen between 1760, when Boone went on his first hunting trip to Kentucky, and 1775, when he led a band of settlers there.
The placement of the DAR markers occurred one year after William Lewis Bryan (1837-1928), Boone’s first mayor and a relative of Daniel Boone’s wife, Rebecca Bryan Boone, had erected the Daniel Boone cabin monument on present-day Rivers Street. Bryan, a historian and trail finder, had also originally conceived of the idea of marking Boone’s trail and would have done so himself had the DAR not assumed the role. He personally recommended the placement sites of each of the DAR markers and participated in their installation, although he was supposedly criticized by some for supporting this particular route as a means of promoting the Town of Boone.
The determination of the location of Boone’s trail to Kentucky was made after statements of individuals living along the supposed trail were taken by Arthur in May and June of 1909 and ultimately deposited with the North Carolina State Historical Commission. The DAR, under the leadership of Lucy (Mrs. Lindsay) Patterson (1865-1942) of Winston-Salem, used this information to determine final placement of their markers. According to Arthur, “A straight line between Holman’s Ford [North Carolina] and Roan’s Creek [Tennessee] would pass nearer to the points named by the DAR than to any other points Boone is known to have been in this locality. A well-defined and much traveled Indian trail also marked this identical route, and Boone doubtless followed it into Tennessee.”
In direct opposition to Arthur’s comments and the determination of this trail by Bryan and the DAR, E. W. Wadsworth wrote the following for the Watauga Democrat on July 27, 1978:
“The Wilderness Trail marked by Daniel Boone followed the buffalo trail and Indian path, but this trail never passed through the environs of the Town of Boone.
“Although we should continue to honor the wonderful spirit and love which Col. W. L. Bryan exemplified in marking Daniel Boone’s trail through Watauga County in 1912, in light of new study, however, we should recognize his error, tradition notwithstanding. In marking Boone’s trail through the county, Colonel Bryan merely followed the road then existing from the town of Boone, through Hodges Gap to Cove Creek and on to Zionville, where it now joins U. S. 421 to Shouns and Mountain City. Colonel Bryan did not follow the old buffalo trail and Indian path, the correct route used by Boone and his followers in passing through the county.
“Marked by Colonel Clyde Miller in 1976 as part of Watauga County’s observance of the nation’s Bicentennial, the buffalo trail and Indian path came no closer to Boone than Meat Camp, the correct site of Boone’s winter camp and supply base. From Meat Camp, the buffalo trail crossed the mountains through Rich Mountain Gap at Zionville. The buffalo trail became Boone’s Wilderness Trail.
“The small cabin built by Ben Howard on the Appalachian campus in 1759 for herdsmen attending his cattle in this mountain valley, despite Colonel Bryan’s claims otherwise, was not used by Boone or his companions as a supply base or camp.
“Boone’s winter camp and cabin were situated on Meat Camp Creek in a small protected cove, less than a hundred yards or so from the buffalo trail....”
On October 23, 1913, the DAR marker placed at the county courthouse was unveiled amid much fanfare. A large audience, including Appalachian Training School faculty and students, Confederate veterans, and members of the Masonic Lodge filled the courtroom to hear remarks by Capt. Edward Lovill, John Preston Arthur, Professor B. B. Dougherty, and attorney Edgar Stuart Coffey, a great, great, great-grandson of Daniel Boone’s brother Israel. Professor I. G. Greer, a great, great, great-grandson of Daniel Boone’s sister Sarah Boone Wilcoxen, directed the music. The crowd then moved outside and sang Auld Lang Syne, which was followed by the Walnut Grove Band playing Dixie. The DAR performed their rituals, and Margaret Linney, Alice Councill, Lucy Moretz, Nellie Coffey, and Lucy Patterson’s niece, Catherine Miller, pulled the cords to unveil the marker. This was considered one of the grandest days in the Town of Boone’s history, and it was supplemented with a Masonic picnic and a “lot sale,” during which some of the most beautiful building sites in town were offered for purchase.
Margaret Linney later became the mother of Armfield Coffey who, with his late wife, Watauga Democrat publisher Rachel Rivers Coffey, donated the property now known as Rivers Park on the corner of Rivers Street and Moretz Drive. Rivers Park is now home to the Daniel Boone cabin monument. Alice Councill was a descendant of Benjamin Howard for whom Howard’s Knob and Howard’s Creek are named, and in whose hunting cabin Daniel Boone supposedly stayed during his trips to present-day Watauga County. The Howard cabin later became known as the Daniel Boone cabin. Nellie Coffey was a descendant of Daniel Boone’s grandniece, Anna Boone Coffey.
In a November 11, 1913 letter to the editor in the Watauga Democrat, Bryan wrote, “On last Thursday morning I went to Zionville to put up the last marker on the Daniel Boone trail from North Carolina to Kentucky in 1769, the other four having been previously placed. The boulder was at the head of Cove Creek, and…with Will Profit’s cattle and [Cicero] Greer’s horses, it was hauled to this place before dark…. Early Friday morning we went to work on the marker, which we finished before noon having cemented and painted it…. Mr. Willett Adams [a relative of both Bryan and Daniel Boone’s wife, Rebecca Bryan Boone] painted the tablet and cemented the same to the stone, without charge. The marker stands in front of his work shop and in…view of the road. The people at Zionville were kind to us, and seemed to be very proud of the marker, which they say they will keep in good condition. ….we went to Mr. Thomas Bingham’s and painted the marker we had placed in Straddle gap a few days before…. His sons and Mr. Moody helped us greatly in painting that marker. Passing the newly painted Brushy Fork Baptist church we painted the marker in Hodges gap and cemented it to the boulder.”
The Watauga Democrat noted on November 18, 1913, “The last marker for the Daniel Boone trail through Watauga has been shipped to Lenoir by Mrs. Lindsay Patterson, and will be attached to a suitable boulder at Cook’s Gap as soon as it can be gotten from the depot. This will make six on the historic trail through the county.”
On this basis, it can be determined that, of the six DAR markers placed in Watauga County, the one at Zionville was the fifth to be installed, and the one at Cook’s Gap was the sixth. The exact order of marker placements at Three Forks, Boone, Hodges Gap, and Graveyard/Straddle Gap are yet to be determined, although all are believed to have been placed in rapid succession.
According to Blue Ridge Parkway officials, the DAR plaque at Cook’s Gap was stolen from its stone mount around 2002 or 2003. The large rock slab with four drilled holes bears testament to the plaque’s former presence. According to Terry Brown, a resident of the Three Forks Community, this particular base and its missing marker were the ones originally installed at the old Three Forks Baptist Church site (on present-day New River Hills Road, formerly Charlie Hollar Road) and later moved to Cook’s Gap. This move seems to be substantiated by a National Park Service representative who stated that, although the park curator shows no reference to DAR markers on old maps, officials believe that the plaque stolen from Cook’s Gap was not the original. Although each site was given its own marker in 1913, it is certain that no DAR marker remains today at either Cook’s Gap or Three Forks. A wooden sign at Cook’s Gap, adjacent to the bare stone base, commemorates Boone’s crossing there as “Boone’s Trace.”
Like the Cook’s Gap and Three Forks markers, the Hodges Gap marker is also no longer in existence. Long-time residents of the Oak Grove Community on Hodges Gap Road west of Boone have no specific recollections of the marker, and its fate is a mystery. Its disappearance, like that of other markers, is generally attributed to vandalism. Shortly before her death in 1990, Kathryn Wilson of the local Daniel Boone Chapter of the DAR arranged for the placement of a large rock at the intersection of Old Bristol Road and Hub Brown Road. This location is behind and above the Hilltop Drive-In and Appalachian Furniture, parallel to U. S. Highway 421 and very near Hodges Gap Road. According to Kathleen Ward, on whose property the rock was placed, Wilson believed this location to be the approximate site of the old Hodges Gap marker and intended to have something engraved on the rock to commemorate it. Unfortunately, Wilson’s vision was not realized, and the rock has sat untouched for almost two decades.
The marker at Graveyard/Straddle Gap was originally located on present-day Linville Creek Road in Vilas, not far from Brooks Plumbing and Heating. Although some residents of this community believed that the marker was buried decades ago when the road there was widened and surfaced, local resident Hiram “June” Brooks stated that he personally used a bulldozer to move the marker aside and then returned it to its original spot after the roadwork was completed. Brooks, whose wife Reba is a descendant of Daniel Boone’s brother Israel, said that a corner of the iron plaque was cracked about six inches, and that a now-deceased neighbor offered to take it and have it repaired. Unfortunately, this was the last time the marker was seen, although, according to Brooks, the stone base remains obscured on a steep bank across from the home of his son Larry.
Between 1987 and 1988, when Nan Spainhour was regent of the Daniel Boone Chapter of the DAR, one of the original DAR markers was found in a ditch at Appalachian State University. Although it was damaged with a large crack down the right side, Spainhour had it retrieved and placed in storage at the Appalachian Cultural Museum. Subsequently, restoration was begun on the Daniel Boone trail marker at Cumberland Gap. This pyramid-shaped marker had a plaque on each of its four sides representing the states of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky. According to Anne Millsaps, current regent of the local Daniel Boone Chapter, the North Carolina plaque was damaged by a bulldozer when the marker was relocated, so upon learning that an original marker was in storage in Watauga County, the North Carolina State DAR requested to use it on the Cumberland Gap marker. The local DAR chapter consented, and the marker can now be found at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park on the Tri-State Trail. The presumption has been that the marker found in the ditch was the original Three Forks marker; however, if that marker was moved to replace the original Cook’s Gap marker and later stolen, then the one now at Cumberland Gap could be any of the four markers now missing from Watauga County—Cook’s Gap, Three Forks, Hodges Gap, or Graveyard/Straddle Gap.
Only two of the DAR markers remain intact within county lines. The one at the Watauga County Courthouse in Boone is no longer attached to its original boulder, but to a rock wall in the eastern, adjacent courtyard, placed there by the North Carolina DAR. When the current courthouse was built in the late 1960s, the marker had been taken down and was dormant for more than a decade until it was rededicated by the Daniel Boone Chapter of the DAR at a ceremony conducted on June 1, 1982. In attendance were Margaret Linney Coffey and Nell Coffey Linney, two of the five young girls who had unveiled the original marker in 1913.
The Zionville marker is located on the property of Betty Greer Adams (another descendant of Sarah Boone Wilcoxen) on Emory Greer Road off of Old U.S. Highway 421 near the Tennessee state line. Next to the marker is a leaning and faded sign posted by the Watauga Historical Association to designate the site as part of “The Old Buffalo Trail.” Adams’s son Wayne stated that, at one point, relocation of the marker was suggested by the DAR, but the idea was met with opposition. Today, the Zionville marker is the only DAR marker in Watauga County that remains in its original location and attached to its original base, and this year marks its 95th anniversary.
Many residents have expressed regret over the loss of the DAR markers in their communities. At the time of the 1982 rededication of the marker at Watauga County Courthouse, the National Parks Commission was studying the feasibility of having the Daniel Boone Trail declared a national historic trail, and the North Carolina DAR was awaiting the outcome of the study before trying to replace the markers. The replacements never came to fruition, but Millsaps is currently re-exploring the possibility of the National DAR granting the needed permission.
Unfortunately, many similar historic markers across the United States have been stolen over the years due to the high prices paid for metals. As recently as late June 2008, thieves stole the bronze plaque erected by the DAR in 1915 to mark the original burial site of Daniel and Rebecca Boone in Marthasville, Missouri. By the time a suspect was arrested in July, the plaque had already been destroyed, and the cost of its replacement estimated at $10,000.
Anyone who has additional information concerning the DAR markers or is interested in helping pursue replacement of the missing markers can contact Terry Harmon at 828-297-7435 or tlharmon@charter.net. Harmon is a descendant of Daniel Boone’s sister, Sarah Boone Wilcoxen.
Additional Recommended Reading
The following books provide additional information about the Boone trail markers.
Rich Man: Daniel Boone – An Historical Report on the Boone Trail Highway and Memorial Association, by Everett Gary Marshall, 2003
In the Footsteps of Daniel Boone, by Randell Jones, 2005