Near the middle of the eighteenth century, or about 1750, a party of
Virginia hunters, growing weary of the monotony of home life and desiring
to find better hunting grounds, penetrated the Appalachian Mountains by
way of Powell’s Valley and through Cumberland Gap, into the eastern
portion of what is now Kentucky, and hence were the first white men to
approach the land from the eastern side. In 1767, John Finley and Daniel
Boone, hearing of the fine hunting in this section, came to Kentucky from
North Carolina and built a cabin on Red River, near where Estill, Powell,
and Clark counties are now joined. Two years later, about forty hunters
and adventurers came to the territory and made their camp at what they
then called Price’s Meadows, about six miles from the present site of
Monticello in Wayne County. This camp, by virtue of its location near the
Cumberland River, developed into a distributing point for the country
lying along the Cumberland, now included in Wayne, Green, Barren and
Warren counties. Another station was built near Greensburg. These stations
or camps seem to have served only the immediate needs of the hunters while
they were in the territory.
[Illustration: Daniel Boone]
Daniel Boone seems to have been the only one of these hunters to whom the
wilderness especially appealed. Consequently, for many years he made
frequent trips into the territory, staying as long as two years on one
occasion, and winning the title of The Long Hunter. Boone was alone on
many of these trips, never seeing the face of a white man, but frequently
meeting roving bands of Indians. From a cave in the side of Pilot Knob in
Powell County, he could catch glimpses of the joyous sports of the Shawnee
boys at Indian Fields; and from the projecting rocks he feasted his eyes
on the herds of buffalo winding across the prairie.
No permanent Indian villages were found in Kentucky. It seems to have been
a choice bit of hunting ground strongly contested by the tribes of the
North and the tribes of the South. The Shawnees had a village at Indian
Fields, in the eastern portion of Clark County, near the beautiful stream
called Lulbegrud Creek.
Boone seems to have been endowed with the faculty that enabled him to
pass, in his first years of wandering, from tribe to tribe; and from these
Indians he learned that the common name of the country, known to all, was
Kan-tuckee (kane-tooch-ee), so called by the Indians because of the
abundance of a peculiar reed growing along the river, now known as
pipe-stem cane.
Boone remained in the wilderness so long that his brother and a searching
party came to find him. They found him in good health and spirits,
enjoying life, and living in peace with the Indian tribes. The party, with
Boone, returned to the valley of the Yadkin, and told such stories of the
enchanted land as caused the settlers of the region to listen eagerly, and
to feel the stirring of the pioneer spirit. Not caring for the growing
crops and with no relish for the monotonous labor, Boone easily persuaded
a company of men to come with him to the wilderness and to bring their
families.
[Illustration: Boone’s Trail]
The journey was tedious. Those on foot went ahead and blazed a trail for
the few wagons, pack horses and domestic animals, and killed game to
furnish meat when the next camp should be struck at nightfall. It was a
courageous, jolly party that thus marched through Cumberland Gap, and
blazed a way which has since been known as Boone’s Trail. Hostile Indians
had to be fought along the way, and several of the party were slain, among
them being Boone’s son. An Englishman, also, was killed, and his young son
was adopted by Boone and thereafter known as his own son.