An Introduction To Boone Trace
We are 3 months away from our departure at Long Island of the Holston!
This Smithsonian Channel video offers us a good overview of the cutting of our path. It also mentions the battle that was fought 3 years later that Joshua Penix helped to win. I do want to point out an item in the video that is a common mistake made by many publications and productions. The names of Wilderness Road and Boone Trace are used interchangeably when they are actually two separate roads. Boone Trace was cut in 1775 by Boone and his men and it led to Boonesborough. The Wilderness Road was created years later and went to Louisville. The builders of the Wilderness Road used the same path from Cumberland Gap but diverged north of Flat Lick.
We are following the original Boone Trace which was the very first road created for the purpose of bringing pioneers west of the Allegheny Mountains. Various resources quote different numbers of how many pioneers traveled this route. I’ve seen numbers from 80,000 to 300,000. In any case, Boone Trace and Boonesborough were the keys to building Kentucky and opening the western portion of America.
Enjoy the video.