Posted: Sunday, March 22, 2015 12:22 am
Richmond Register
When settlers made their way to Kentucky overland from North Carolina and what is now eastern Tennessee, they followed a “trace” that Daniel Boone and a party of men in 1775 marked by blazing trees with axes.
Today, modern paved highways, including US 25 and US 25W, generally follow this route in Kentucky, as do portions of Interstate 75. But after 240 years, Boone’s Trace is mostly a historical reference and is physically in danger of disappearing without a trace.
Dr. John Fox, a retired Lexington physician has made it his mission, not just to keep that from happening, but to see Boone’s Trace become a resource that preserves history and promotes trail hiking and tourism. He is president of Friends of Boone’s Trace.
Earlier this month, Fox’s son Given and Curtis Penix of Michigan, whose fifth great-grandfather followed Boone to Kentucky in 1779 along the trace, are walking Boone Trace’s, camping under the stars each night.
Tonight, they will camp at Wilde in Rockcastle County and arrive in Berea sometime Monday, John Fox said Saturday.
At 5 p.m. Monday, the hikers will meet with a Berea College class that is studying entrepreneurship for the public good taught by Dr. Peter Hackbert. The class is designed to teach the students how to turn locations such as Berea into “trail towns.” Anyone interested in preserving Boone’s Trace is welcome to attend the meeting at Boone Tavern, Fox said.
After camping Monday night on Berea College property along Brushy Fork Creek, Penix and Givan Fox will set off for Tweety’s Fort, the next to last stop on their trek.
At Tweety’s Fort off Duncannon Lane in the Golden Leaf subdivision, the hikers will be met by members of the Boonesborough Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. The chapter owns the site where 80 years ago it erected a monument, said Betsy Burch, regent of the local group.
The “fort” was an overnight shelter where Boone’s trail-blazing party was set upon by Indians. The site was named for a man killed in the attack, and he was buried there.
On Wednesday, the hikers will pass through Richmond and head out Red House Road toward Boonesborough. They will spend Wednesday night on the farm of Harold Bucher in the Red House community that was named for a stagecoach stop on the road to Boonesborough.
Bucher plans to serve grilled buffalo burgers and wild boar to the hikers, Fox said, meats the frontiersmen may have eaten.
The hikers are scheduled to arrive at Fort Boonesborough State Park on Thursday, just one week before the 240th anniversary of the Boone party’s arrival where Otter Creek flows into the Kentucky River.
The hike began March 10 at Kingsport, Tenn., a modern city that grew up near the Watauga Settlement from which Boone’s trail-blazing party set out. Similar to Boonesborough, Watauga was supplanted by cities in the surrounding area. In the 20th century, its site was flooded by a Tennessee Valley Authority lake.
Early in their trek, the hikers traversed as many as 20 miles a day, Fox said. As they near their destination, however, they can walk fewer miles daily and still arrive on schedule.
Some sites and trail portions have been erased by development, Fox said, but others remain pristine.
A former overlook building with US 25 still wound through Boone’s Gap at the Rockcastle-Madison county line has remained little noticed for more than 50 years, Fox said, and it is a location that his group would like to see preserved.
Reach Bill Robinson at editor@richmondregister.com or at 624-6690.
Seeking to preserve Boone’s Trace
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