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144-679: The Tygart Valley River rises in the Allegheny Mountains in Pocahontas County and flows generally north-northwestwardly through Randolph , Barbour , Taylor and Marion counties, past the towns of Huttonsville , Mill Creek , Beverly , Elkins , Junior , Belington , Philippi , Arden , and Grafton , to Fairmont , where it joins the West Fork River to form the Monongahela River . (The Tygart

288-631: A North Carolina militia company as a teamster and blacksmith. In 1755, his unit accompanied General Edward Braddock's attempt to drive the French out of the Ohio Country , which ended in disaster at the Battle of the Monongahela . Boone, in the rear with the wagons, took no part in the battle, and fled with the retreating soldiers. He returned home after the defeat, and married Rebecca Bryan ,

432-410: A panther scattered all but Boone. He calmly cocked his rifle and shot the panther through the heart just as it leaped at him. The story may be a folktale , one of many that became part of Boone's popular image. In Boone's youth, his family became a source of controversy in the local Quaker community. In 1742, Boone's parents were compelled to publicly apologize after their eldest child Sarah married

576-529: A "worldling" , or non-Quaker, while she was visibly pregnant. When Boone's oldest brother Israel also married a "worldling" in 1747, Squire Boone stood by his son and was therefore expelled from the Quakers, although his wife continued to attend monthly meetings with her children. Perhaps as a result of this controversy, in 1750 Squire sold his land and moved the family to North Carolina . Daniel Boone did not attend church again, although he always considered himself

720-513: A Christian and had all of his children baptized . The Boones eventually settled on the Yadkin River , in what is now Davie County , North Carolina, about two miles (3 km) west of Mocksville . Boone received little formal education, since he preferred to spend his time hunting, apparently with his parents' blessing. According to a family tradition, when a schoolteacher expressed concern over Boone's education, Boone's father said, "Let

864-416: A bear, escaped from Indians by swinging on vines (as Tarzan would later do), and so on. Although Boone's family thought the book was absurd, Flint greatly influenced the popular conception of Boone, since these tall tales were recycled in countless dime novels and books aimed at young boys. Thanks to Filson's book, Boone became a symbol of the "natural man" who lives a virtuous, uncomplicated existence in

1008-420: A booming Ohio River port. He kept a tavern and worked as a surveyor, horse trader, and land speculator. In 1784, on Boone's 50th birthday, frontier historian John Filson published The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke . The popular book included a chronicle of Boone's adventures, which made Boone a celebrity. As settlers poured into Kentucky, the border war with American Indians north of

1152-502: A cave bat . Bobcat , snowshoe hare , wild boar and black bear and coyote are also found in the forests and parks of the Alleghenies. Mink and beaver are much less often seen. These mountains and plateau have over 20 species of reptiles represented as lizard, skink, turtle and snake. Some of the icterid birds visit the mountains as well as the hermit thrush and wood thrush . North American migrant birds live throughout

1296-473: A chance to drive out the colonists. Isolated settlers and hunters became the frequent target of attacks, convincing many to abandon Kentucky. By late spring of 1776, Boone and his family were among the fewer than 200 colonists who remained, primarily at the fortified settlements of Boonesborough, Harrodsburg, and Logan's Station . On July 14, 1776, Boone's daughter Jemima and two other girls were captured outside Boonesborough by an Indian war party, who carried

1440-481: A council. After an impassioned speech by Boone, the warriors voted to spare the prisoners. Although Boone had saved his men, Blackfish pointed out that Boone had not included himself in the agreement, so Boone was forced to run the gauntlet through the warriors, which he survived with minor injuries. Boone and his men were taken to Blackfish's town of Chillicothe . As was their custom, the Shawnee adopted some of

1584-569: A dispute over the extent of lands belonging to either Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron or to the English Privy Council . An expedition of 1736 by John Savage established the location of the source of the North Branch Potomac River . In March 1742, a frontiersman named John Howard—along with his son and others—had been commissioned by Governor Gooch to explore the southwest of Virginia as far as

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1728-568: A family of Quakers . His father, Squire Boone (1696–1765), immigrated to colonial Pennsylvania from the small town of Bradninch in the county of Devon , England, sometime around 1712. Squire, a weaver and blacksmith, married Sarah Morgan (1700–1777), whose family were Quakers from Wales . In 1731, the Boones built a one-room log cabin in the Oley Valley in what is now Berks County, Pennsylvania , near present-day Reading , where Daniel

1872-612: A family story, he purchased land in Pensacola , but Rebecca refused to move so far away from friends and family. The Boones instead moved to a more remote area of the Yadkin Valley, and he began to hunt westward into the Blue Ridge Mountains . It was the first of May, in the year 1769, that I resigned my domestic happiness for a time, and left my family ... to wander through the wilderness of America, in quest of

2016-522: A legendary frontiersman in his own right. While Boone recovered, the Shawnee kept up their attacks outside Boonesborough, killing cattle and destroying crops. With food running low, the settlers needed salt to preserve what meat they had, so in January 1778, Boone led a party of 30 men to the salt springs on the Licking River . On February 7, when Boone was hunting for meat for the expedition, he

2160-674: A lesser extent, British stock. The Braddock Road was superseded by the Cumberland Road —also called the National Road—one of the first major improved highways in the United States to be built by the federal government . Construction began in 1811 at Cumberland and the road reached Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia) on the Ohio River in 1818. Just to the south, the state-funded Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike

2304-617: A little over seven dozen cave invertebrates. The indigenous people inhabiting the Allegheny Mountains emerged from the greater region's archaic and mound building cultures , particularly the Adena and Eastern Woodland peoples with a later Hopewellian influence. These Late Middle Woodland culture people have been called the Montaine (c. A.D. 500 to 1000) culture. Their neighbors, the woodland Buck Garden culture, lived in

2448-566: A lower Greenbrier Valley map during the earlier decades of the 18th century. As early as 1719, new arrivals from Europe began to cross the lower Susquehanna River and settle illegally in defiance of the Board of Property in Pennsylvania, on un-warranted land of the northeastern drainage rivers of the Allegheny Mountains. Several Indian Nations requested the removal of "Maryland Intruders". Some of these moved onward as territory opened up beyond

2592-535: A major disaster relief effort. Support for victims came from all over the United States and 18 foreign countries. After the flood, survivors suffered a series of legal defeats in their attempts to recover damages from the dam's owners. Public indignation at that failure prompted the development in American law changing a fault -based regime to strict liability . In the 1920s and '30s, Allegheny highways were extensively paved to provide access for automobiles. From

2736-528: A member of the North Carolina militia during this "Cherokee Uprising" , periodically serving under Captain Hugh Waddell on the North Carolina frontier until 1760. Boone supported his growing family in these years as a market hunter and trapper, collecting pelts for the fur trade . Almost every autumn, despite the unrest on the frontier, he would go on "long hunts" , extended expeditions into

2880-687: A military trail— Braddock Road —was blazed and opened by the Ohio Company in 1751. (It followed an earlier Indian and pioneer trail known as Nemacolin's Path .) Braddock Road connected Cumberland, Maryland (the upper limit of navigation on the Potomac River) and the forks of the Ohio River (the future Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ). It received its name from the British leader of the French and Indian War (1754–63), General Edward Braddock , who led

3024-537: A neighbor in the Yadkin Valley, on August 14, 1756. The couple initially lived in a cabin on his father's farm, and eventually had ten children, in addition to raising eight children of deceased relatives. In 1758, conflict erupted between British colonists and the Cherokees , their former allies in the French and Indian War. After the Yadkin Valley was raided by Cherokees, the Boones and many other families fled north to Culpeper County, Virginia . Boone saw action as

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3168-603: A party of Indians traveling the Shawnee Trail discovered the Files cabin and killed seven members of the family. One son escaped and alerted the Tygart family, allowing all to escape. No other white settlement was attempted in present Randolph County until 1772. (It has been thought that Tygart was again among those settling then, but this is not certain). The brothers John and Samuel Pringle, who had taken up residence along

3312-734: A portion of the Eastern Continental Divide in this area. A number of impressive gorges and valleys drain the Alleghenies: to the east, Smoke Hole Canyon ( South Branch Potomac River ), and to the west the New River Gorge and the Blackwater and Cheat Canyons . Thus, about half the precipitation falling on the Alleghenies makes its way west to the Mississippi and half goes east to Chesapeake Bay and

3456-578: A possible Fort Ancient (c. AD 850 to 1680) presence during the 15th century. Washington Boro ceramics have been found on the Barton (18AG3) and Llewellyn (18AG26) sites in Maryland on the northeastern slopes of the late Susquehannock sequence. The early Monongahela (c. AD 900 to 1630) are called the Drew Tradition in Pennsylvania. According to archeologist Richard L. George: "I believe that some of

3600-499: A significant barrier to land travel in less developed eras. The Allegheny Mountains have a northeast–southwest orientation, running for about 300 miles (480 km) from north-central Pennsylvania southward, through western Maryland and eastern West Virginia . The Alleghenies comprise the rugged western-central portion of the Appalachians . They rise to approximately 4,862 feet (1,482 m) in northeastern West Virginia. In

3744-497: A two-year hunting and trapping expedition. His first sighting of the Bluegrass region from atop Pilot Knob became "an icon of American history", and was the frequent subject of paintings. On December 22, 1769, Boone and fellow hunter John Stuart were captured by a party of Shawnee , who confiscated all of their skins and told them to leave and never return. The Shawnee had not signed the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix , in which

3888-465: A visit from Col. Boone... He has taken part in all the wars of America, from Braddock's war to the present hour," but "he prefers the woods, where you see him in the dress of the roughest, poorest hunter." Boone died on September 26, 1820, at his son Nathan Boone's home on Femme Osage Creek, Missouri. He died while hunting and was found the following day. He was buried next to Rebecca, who had died on March 18, 1813. The graves, which were unmarked until

4032-617: Is at the Mason–Dixon line and the southern is at the West Virginia-Virginia border on Peters Mountain . The bedrock of the Alleghenies is mostly sandstone and metamorphosed sandstone, quartzite , which is extremely resistant to weathering. Prominent beds of resistant conglomerate can be found in some areas, such as the Dolly Sods . When it weathers, it leaves behind a pure white quartzite gravel. The rock layers of

4176-647: Is managed by the U.S. Forest Service .) The Alleghenies also include a number of federally designated wilderness areas , such as the Dolly Sods Wilderness , Laurel Fork Wilderness , and Cranberry Wilderness in West Virginia. The mostly completed Allegheny Trail , a project of the West Virginia Scenic Trails Association since 1975, runs the length of the range within West Virginia. The northern terminus

4320-517: Is now West Virginia and Kentucky. In the summer of 1774, Boone traveled with a companion to Kentucky to notify surveyors there of the outbreak of war. They journeyed more than 800 miles (1,300 km) in two months to warn those who had not already fled the region. Upon his return to Virginia, Boone helped defend colonial settlements along the Clinch River , earning a promotion to captain in the militia, as well as acclaim from fellow citizens. After

4464-669: Is some context from the Jesuit Relations showing that Alligeh was one of several accepted renderings of the name of the Erie people among the early 17th century missionaries among the Native peoples throughout the eastern Great Lakes region, along with Rique, Yenresh and Erichronon. The suffix -ni means "of the," in Lenape, despite the irony that geh is also Iroquoian for "of the." So, most likely, Alligehni, or Oligini, would probably be

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4608-546: Is still served by a rather sparse secondary highway system and remains considerably lower in population density than surrounding regions. In the telecommunications field, a unique impediment to development in the central Allegheny region is the United States National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ), a large rectangle of land—about 13,000 square miles (34,000 km )—that straddles the border area of Virginia and West Virginia. Created in 1958 by

4752-871: Is thus the "East Fork" of the Monongahela.) Downstream of Elkins, the Tygart passes through a gap between Rich Mountain and Laurel Mountain , which are considered to be part of the westernmost ridge of the Allegheny Mountains and the boundary between the Alleghenies and the Allegheny Plateau. Along its course the river collects Leading Creek at Elkins; the Middle Fork River and the Buckhannon River (its largest tributary) in Barbour County; and Sandy Creek and Three Fork Creek in Taylor County. Just upstream of Grafton,

4896-670: The Buckhannon tributary of the Tygart (in present Upshur County ) in 1761, acted as their contemporary Daniel Boone was doing in Kentucky and guided numerous immigrant settlers into the main valley of the Tygart which at that time abounded in game and fertile bottomlands. Settlers of the 1770s and '80s included the Connelly, Hadden, Jackson, Nelson, Riffle, Stalnaker, Warwick, Westfall, Whiteman and Wilson families. (One settler, John Jackson [1715–1801] from County Londonderry, Ireland ,

5040-636: The Federal Communications Commission , the NRQZ severely restricts all omnidirectional and high-power radio transmissions, although cell phone service is allowed throughout much of the area. Much of the Monongahela (West Virginia), George Washington (West Virginia, Virginia) and Jefferson (Virginia) National Forests lie within the Allegheny Mountains. (No part of the wooded Alleghenies in Maryland or Pennsylvania, however,

5184-746: The Geographic Names Information System , the Tygart Valley River has also been known historically as: Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range ( / ˌ æ l ɪ ˈ ɡ eɪ n i / AL -ig- AY -nee ; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany ), informally the Alleghenies , is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed

5328-638: The Interstate Highway System was extended into the northern portion of the Alleghenies, and the region is now served by a network of federal expressways— Interstates 80 , 70 / 76 and 68 . Interstate 64 traverses the southern extremity of the range, but the Central Alleghenies (the "High Alleghenies" of eastern West Virginia) have posed special problems for highway planners owing to the region's very rugged terrain and environmental sensitivities (see Corridor H ). This region

5472-528: The Iroquois had ceded their claim to Kentucky to the British. The Shawnee regarded Kentucky as their hunting ground; they considered American hunters there to be poachers . Boone, undeterred, continued hunting and exploring in Kentucky. On one occasion, he shot a man to avoid capture, which historian John Mack Faragher says "was one of the few Indians that Boone acknowledged killing." Boone returned to North Carolina in 1771, but came back to hunt in Kentucky in

5616-567: The Iroquois , Shawnee , Delaware , Catawba and others, for purposes of trade , hunting and, especially, warfare . Western Virginia " Cherokee " were reported at Cherokee Falls , today's Valley Falls of the Tygart Valley . Indian trader Charles Poke's trading post dates from 1731 with the Calicuas of Cherokee Falls still in the region from the previous century. The "London Scribes" (The Crown's taxation records) vaguely mentions

5760-851: The Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad , the Allegheny Portage Railroad and the Pennsylvania Canal system. Lying astride the border separating the Union and Confederacy , the Alleghenies were among the areas most directly affected by the American Civil War (1861–1865). One of the earliest campaigns of the War was fought for control of the Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike and for the access it provided to

5904-583: The Riviere de la Ronceverte . The " Kanawha Madonna " may date from this period or earlier. Where the New River breaks through Peters' Mountain, near Pearisburg Virginia the 1671 journal mentions the "Moketans had formerly lived". According to a number of early 17th century maps, the Messawomeake or "Mincquas" (Dutch) occupied the northern Allegheny Mountains. The "Shatteras" (an ancient Tutelo) occupied

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6048-505: The court-martial that followed, Boone was found "not guilty" and was even promoted after the court heard his testimony. Despite this vindication, Boone was humiliated by the court-martial, and he rarely spoke of it. After the trial, Boone returned to North Carolina to take his family back to Kentucky. In the autumn of 1779, a large party of emigrants came with him, including the family of Captain Abraham Lincoln , grandfather of

6192-482: The ecosystems within the Alleghenies are remarkably varied. In recent decades, the many stages of ecologic succession throughout the area have made the region one of enduring interest to botanists. The larger megafauna which once inhabited the High Alleghenies— elk , bison , mountain lion —were all exterminated during the 19th century. They survived longer in this area, however, than in other parts of

6336-408: The siege of Boonesborough . Armed enslaved men fought alongside their owners at the fort's walls. After going beyond the fort walls to engage the attackers, London, one of the enslaved, was killed. Boone was shot in the ankle while outside the fort. Amid a flurry of bullets, he was carried back inside by Simon Kenton , a recent arrival at Boonesborough. Kenton became Boone's close friend, as well as

6480-688: The "Salt Village" below the Kanawha Falls , but, that simply the "Mehetan" were associated with these. He explained, below the "Salt Villages", a mass of hostile Indians had, implied, arrived and some believe these to be "Shanwans" of Vielles Expedition of 1692~94, ancient Shawnee. In 1669, John Lederer of Maryland for the Virginia Colony and the Tennessee Cherokee had visited the mouth of the Kanawha and reported no hostilities on

6624-444: The 1950s to 1992, the United States government maintained a top secret continuity program known as Project Greek Island at The Greenbrier hotel in the Alleghenies of southern West Virginia. In August 1963, at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom , Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. referenced the Alleghenies—among several in an evocative list of mountains—in his famous " I Have a Dream " speech, when he said "Let freedom ring from

6768-415: The A.D. 1300 Luray phase ( Algonquian ) peoples' "invasion". It is thought that these ancient Alleghenians were pushed from the classic Huffman Phase of the eastern slopes of the Alleghenies to the Blue Ridge Mountains in western Virginia , which was eastern Siouan territory. In 1669, John Lederer and members of his party became the first Europeans to crest the Blue Ridge Mountains and the first to see

6912-505: The Alleghenies for the first time. In the following decades, pioneer settlers arrived in the Alleghenies, especially during Colonial Virginia's Robert Dinwiddie era (1751–58). These included squatters by the Quit-rent Law. Some had preceded the official surveyors using a "hack on the tree and field of corn" marking land ownership approved by the Virginia Colonial Governor who had to be replaced with Governor John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore . Trans-Allegheny travel had been facilitated when

7056-432: The Alleghenies were formed during the Appalachian orogeny . Because of intense freeze-thaw cycles in the higher Alleghenies, there is little native bedrock exposed in most areas. The ground surface usually rests on a massive jumble of sandstone rocks, with air space between them, that are gradually moving down-slope. The crest of the Allegheny Front is an exception, where high bluffs are often exposed. Mineral springs in

7200-465: The Alleghenies. The first permanent European settlers west of the Alleghenies have traditionally been considered to have been two New Englanders: Jacob Marlin and Stephen Sewell, who arrived in the Greenbrier Valley in 1749. They built a cabin together at what would become Marlinton, West Virginia , but after disputing over religion, Sewell moved into a nearby hollowed-out sycamore tree. In 1751, surveyor John Lewis (father of Andrew Lewis ) discovered

7344-459: The Allegheny Mountain range is part of the Appalachian Plateau province of the Appalachian Highlands physiographic division. The name is derived from the Allegheny River , which drains only a small portion of the Alleghenies in west-central Pennsylvania. The meaning of the word, which comes from the Lenape (Delaware) Native Americans, is not definitively known but is usually translated as "fine river". The closest approximation which makes sense

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7488-816: The Atlantic seaboard. The highest ridges of the Alleghenies are just west of the Front, which has an east/west elevational change of up to 3,000 feet (910 m). Absolute elevations of the Allegheny Highlands reach nearly 5,000 feet (1,500 m), with the highest elevations in the southern part of the range. The highest point in the Allegheny Mountains is Spruce Knob (4,863 ft; 1,482 m), on Spruce Mountain in West Virginia . Other notable Allegheny highpoints include Thorny Flat on Cheat Mountain (4,848 ft; 1,478 m), Bald Knob on Back Allegheny Mountain (4,842 ft; 1,476 m), and Mount Porte Crayon (4,770 ft; 1,450 m), all in West Virginia; Dans Mountain (2,898 ft; 883 m) in Maryland, Backbone Mountain (3,360 ft; 1,020 m),

7632-409: The B&O Railroad. The Battle of Rich Mountain (July 11, 1861) gave the Federals control of the turnpike, of Tygart's Valley, and of all of the territory of western Virginia to the north and west, including the railroad. (Union General George McClellan 's victory in this theater would ultimately bring him promotion to commander the Army of the Potomac .) The Federals fortified at Cheat Summit , and

7776-517: The B&O traversed the Alleghenies, changing the economy and society of the Mountains forever. The B&O had reached Martinsburg, (West) Virginia by May 1842, Hancock, (West) Virginia , by June, Cumberland, Maryland, on November 5, 1842, Piedmont, (West) Virginia on July 21, 1851, and Fairmont, (West) Virginia on June 22, 1852. (It finally reached its Ohio River terminus at Wheeling, (West) Virginia on January 1, 1853.) The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal — also begun in 1828, but at Georgetown —

7920-406: The Cherokee claim to Kentucky. Boone then blazed "Boone's Trace", later known as the Wilderness Road , through the Cumberland Gap and into central Kentucky. Sam, an enslaved Black "body servant", and other enslaved laborers were among this group of settlers. When this group camped near the location of present-day Richmond, Kentucky , Indians attacked, killing Sam and his owner. After driving off

8064-407: The Confederates established strongholds at Camp Bartow and Camp Allegheny . Here they faced each other warily through the fall of 1861 and the following winter. General Robert E. Lee 's attempt to attack Cheat Summit Fort (September 12–15, 1861) and Federal attempts to attack Bartow and Allegheny, all failed to change the strategic stalemate. Finally, the harsh, high elevation winter achieved what

8208-744: The High Alleghenies attracted Native Americans and 18th century white settlers and provided a modest incentive to the local economy. The spas developing around these geological features include celebrated resorts that continue to cater to an exclusive clientele, such as The Greenbrier ( White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia ; hotel built 1858) and The Homestead ( Hot Springs, Virginia ; original lodge built 1766). The High Alleghenies are noted for their forests of red spruce , balsam fir , and mountain ash , trees typically found much farther north. Hardwood forests also include yellow birch , sugar and red maple , eastern hemlock , and black cherry . American beech , pine and hickory can also be found. The forests of

8352-448: The Lenape name for the original homeland of the Erie people. The word "Allegheny" was once commonly used to refer to the whole of what are now called the Appalachian Mountains . John Norton used it (spelled variously) around 1810 to refer to the mountains in Tennessee and Georgia . Around the same time, Washington Irving proposed renaming the United States either "Appalachia" or "Alleghania". In 1861, Arnold Henry Guyot published

8496-443: The Mississippi River. Following Cedar Creek through the Natural Bridge , they floated in buffalo-skin boats down the New , Coal , Kanawha , and Ohio Rivers to the Mississippi. Although captured by the French before he reached Natchez , Howard was eventually released and (in 1745) was interviewed by Fairfax. Howard's description of the South Branch Potomac River resulted in the definite decision by Fairfax to secure his lands in

8640-413: The Mohicans (1826). In 1777, Henry Hamilton , British Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, began to recruit American Indian war parties to raid the Kentucky settlements. That same year in March, the newly formed militia of Kentucky County, Virginia , mustered in Boonesborough, whose population included ten to 15 enslaved people. On April 24, 1778, the British-allied Shawnee led by Chief Blackfish mounted

8784-440: The Monongahela were of Algonquin origin.... Other scholars have suggested that Iroquoian speakers were interacting with Late Monongahela people, and additional evidence is presented to confirm this. I conclude that the archaeologically conceived term, Monongahela, likely encompasses speakers of several languages, including Siouan." According to Dr Maslowski of West Virginia in 2009: "The New River Drainage and upper Potomac represents

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8928-419: The Montaine sites in the Tygart Valley . Small groups of Montaine people appear to have lingered much beyond their classically defined period in parts of the most mountainous valleys. The watershed of the Monongahela River is within the northwestern Alleghenies, and it is from it that the Monongahela culture takes its name. The Godwin-Portman site (36AL39) located in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania , had

9072-408: The Ohio River resumed. In September 1786, Boone took part in a military expedition into the Ohio Country led by Benjamin Logan . Returning to Limestone, Boone housed and fed Shawnee who had been captured during the raid, and helped to negotiate a truce and prisoner exchange. Although the war would not end until the American victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers eight years later, the 1786 expedition

9216-410: The Ouasioto Mountains and the earliest term Canaraguy (Kanawhans otherwise Canawest ) on the 1671 French map occupied the southerly Alleghenies. They were associated with the Allegheny "Cherokee" and Eastern Siouan as trade-movers and canoe transporters. The Calicuas, an ancient most northern Cherokee, migrated or was pushed from the Central Ohio Valley onto the north eastern slopes of the Alleghenies of

9360-420: The Railroad had already arrived eight years before. Debt-ridden, the Canal company dropped its plan to continue construction of the next 180 miles (290 km) of the Canal into the Ohio Valley. The company had long realized—especially with the difficult experience of digging the Paw Paw Tunnel —that the original plan of construction over the mountains and all the way down the Youghiogheny River to Pittsburgh

9504-451: The Shawnee for months. Boone responded by leading a preemptive raid against the Shawnee across the Ohio River , and then by helping to successfully defend Boonesborough against a 10-day siege led by Blackfish, which began on September 7, 1778. After the siege, Captain Benjamin Logan and Colonel Richard Callaway —both of whom had nephews who were still captives surrendered by Boone—brought charges against Boone for his recent activities. In

9648-616: The Shawnee on August 7. On the way home from the campaign, Boone was hunting with his brother Ned when Shawnee shot and killed Ned, who resembled Daniel. The Shawnee beheaded Ned, believing him to be Daniel, and took the head as evidence that Daniel Boone had finally been slain. In 1781, Boone traveled to Richmond to take his seat in the legislature, but British dragoons under Banastre Tarleton captured Boone and several other legislators near Charlottesville . The British released Boone on parole several days later. During Boone's term, Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown in October 1781, but

9792-491: The Shenandoah Valley and the Allegheny Mountains beyond. The proto-historic Alleghenies can be exampled by the earliest journals of the colonists. According to Batts and Fallows' September, 1671 Expedition, they found Mehetan Indians of Mountain "Cherokee-Iroquois" mix on the New River tributaries. This journal does not identify the "Salt Village", but, that the "Mehetan" were associated with these and today thought to be " Monetons ", Siouans. However, this journal does not identify

9936-516: The United States following the Louisiana Purchase . He was appointed captain of the local militia. Because Boone's land grants from the Spanish government had been largely based on oral agreements, he again lost his land claims. In 1809, he petitioned Congress to restore his Spanish land claims, which was finally done in 1814. Boone sold most of this land to repay old Kentucky debts. When the War of 1812 came to Missouri, Boone's sons Daniel Morgan Boone and Nathan Boone took part, but by that time Boone

10080-481: The ancient Messawomeake, Iroquois tradesmen to 1630s Kent Island, by 1710 maps. Sometime before 1712, the Canawest ("Kanawhans"-"Canallaway"-"Canaragay") had moved to the upper Potomac and made a Treaty with the newly established trading post of Fort Conolloway which would become a part of western Maryland during the 1740s. Prior to European exploration and settlement, trails through the Alleghenies had been transited for many generations by American Indian tribes such as

10224-442: The attackers, the party buried the two men side by side. Boone founded Boonesborough along the Kentucky River ; other settlements, notably Harrodsburg , were also established at this time. Despite occasional Indian attacks, Boone brought his family and other settlers to Boonesborough on September 8, 1775. American Indians who were unhappy about the loss of Kentucky by treaties saw the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) as

10368-406: The autumn 1772. In 1773, Boone packed up his family and, with his brother Squire and a group of about 50 others, began the first attempt by British colonists to establish a settlement. Boone was still an obscure figure at the time; the most prominent member of the expedition was William Russell , a well-known Virginian and future brother-in-law of Patrick Henry . Another member of this expedition

10512-562: The brief war, which ended soon after Virginia's victory in the Battle of Point Pleasant in October 1774, the Shawnee relinquished their claims to Kentucky. Following Dunmore's War, Richard Henderson , a prominent judge from North Carolina, hired Boone to help establish a colony to be called Transylvania . Boone traveled to several Cherokee towns and invited them to a meeting, held at Sycamore Shoals in March 1775, where Henderson purchased

10656-424: The chaotic nature of land speculation in frontier Kentucky and Boone's poor business instincts. Frustrated with the legal hassles that went with land speculation, in 1789 Boone moved upriver to Point Pleasant , Virginia (now West Virginia ). There he operated a trading post and occasionally worked as a surveyor's assistant. That same year, when Virginia created Kanawha County , Boone became the lieutenant colonel of

10800-405: The circumstances of their deaths. Charles's body was found by the pioneers 40 miles from the abduction site, dead from a blow to the head. The brutality of the killings sent shockwaves along the frontier, and Boone's party abandoned their expedition. The attack was one of the first events in what became known as Dunmore's War , a struggle between Virginia and American Indians for control of what

10944-538: The colonial Alleghenian location of only a few other early colonial trading locations. A general knowledge of these few outposts are more of traditional telling of some local people. However, an example is the "Van Metre" trading house mentioned in an earlier edition of the "Wonderful West Virginia Magazine" being on the South Branches of the upper reaches of the Potomac. Another very early trading house appears on

11088-469: The country of Kentucky. Years before entering Kentucky , Boone had heard about the region's fertile land and abundant game. In 1767, Boone and his brother Squire first crossed into what became the state of Kentucky, but they failed to reach the rich hunting grounds. In May 1769, Boone set out again with a party of five others—including John Findley, who first told Boone of the Cumberland Gap —on

11232-565: The county militia. In 1791, he was elected to the Virginia legislature for the third time. He contracted to provide supplies for the Kanawha militia, but his debts prevented him from buying goods on credit, so he closed his store and returned to hunting and trapping, though he was often hampered by rheumatism . In 1795, Boone and his wife moved back to Kentucky, living on land owned by their son Daniel Morgan Boone in what became Nicholas County . The next year, Boone applied to Isaac Shelby ,

11376-533: The east, they are dominated by a high, steep escarpment known as the Allegheny Front . In the west, they slope down into the closely associated Allegheny Plateau , which extends into Ohio and Kentucky . The principal settlements of the Alleghenies are Altoona , State College , and Johnstown, Pennsylvania ; and Cumberland, Maryland . Using the USGS classification of physical geography ( physiography ),

11520-635: The eastern United States. Naturalist John James Audubon reported that by 1851 a few eastern elk ( Cervus canadensis canadiensis ) could still be found in the Alleghany Mountains but that by then they were virtually gone from the remainder of their range. Mammals in the Allegheny region today include whitetail deer , chipmunk , raccoon , skunk , groundhog , opossum , weasel , field mouse , flying squirrel , cottontail rabbit , gray foxes , red foxes , gray squirrels , red squirrels and

11664-651: The entire region are now almost all second- or third-growth forests , the original trees having been removed in the late 19th and (in West Virginia) early 20th centuries. The wild onion known as the ramp ( Allium tricoccum ) is also present in the deeper forests. Certain isolated areas in the High Alleghenies are well known for their open expanses of sphagnum bogs and heath shrubs (e.g., Dolly Sods , Cranberry Glades ). Many plant communities are indeed similar to those of sea-level eastern Canada. But

11808-662: The fighting continued in Kentucky. Boone returned to Kentucky and in August 1782 fought in the Battle of Blue Licks , a disastrous defeat for the Kentuckians in which Boone's son Israel was killed. In November 1782, Boone took part in another Clark-led expedition into Ohio, the last major campaign of the war. After the Revolutionary War ended, Boone resettled in Limestone (later renamed Maysville, Kentucky ), then

11952-561: The first English-speaking settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains . By the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 people had entered Kentucky by following the route marked by Boone. He served as a militia officer during the Revolutionary War (1775–1783), which in Kentucky was fought primarily between American settlers and British-allied Indians. Boone was taken in by Shawnees in 1778 and adopted into

12096-472: The first governor of the new state of Kentucky, for a contract to widen the Wilderness Road into a wagon route, but the contract was awarded to someone else. Meanwhile, lawsuits over conflicting land claims continued to make their way through the Kentucky courts. Boone's remaining land claims were sold off to pay legal fees and taxes, but he no longer paid attention to the process. In 1798, a warrant

12240-545: The first systematic geologic study of the whole mountain range. His map labeled the range as the "Alleghanies", but his book was titled On the Appalachian Mountain System . As late as 1867, John Muir —in his book A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf —used the word "Alleghanies" in referring to the southern Appalachians. There was no general agreement about the "Appalachians" versus the "Alleghanies" until

12384-499: The following spring. Boone did not have an opportunity to tell his men that he was bluffing to prevent an immediate attack on Boonesborough. Boone pursued this strategy so convincingly some of his men concluded he had switched sides, an impression that led to his court-martial (see below). Many of the Shawnee wanted to execute the prisoners in retaliation for the recent murder of Shawnee Chief Cornstalk by Virginia militiamen. Because Shawnee chiefs led by seeking consensus, Blackfish held

12528-570: The future president. Rather than remain in Boonesborough, Boone founded the nearby settlement of Boone's Station . He began earning money by locating good land for other settlers. Transylvania land claims had been invalidated after Virginia created Kentucky County, so settlers needed to file new land claims with Virginia. In 1780, Boone collected about $ 20,000 in cash (equivalent to $ 330,000 in 2023 ) from various settlers and traveled to Williamsburg to purchase their land warrants. While he

12672-514: The girls do the spelling and Dan will do the shooting." Boone was tutored by family members, though his spelling remained unorthodox. Historian John Mack Faragher cautions that the folk image of Boone as semiliterate is misleading, arguing that Boone "acquired a level of literacy that was the equal of most men of his times." Boone regularly took reading material with him on his hunting expeditions—the Bible and Gulliver's Travels were favorites. He

12816-523: The girls north toward the Shawnee towns in the Ohio country. Boone and a group of men from Boonesborough set out in pursuit, finally catching up with them two days later. Boone and his men ambushed the Indians, rescuing the girls and driving off their captors. The incident became the most celebrated event of Boone's life. James Fenimore Cooper created a version of this episode in his classic novel The Last of

12960-677: The heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!" The Flight 93 National Memorial is located at the site of the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 —which was hijacked in the September 11 attacks —in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania , about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Shanksville . The memorial honors the passengers and crew of Flight 93, who stopped Al-Qaeda terrorists from reaching their intended target. Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (November 2 [ O.S. October 22], 1734 – September 26, 1820)

13104-521: The highest point in Maryland; Mount Davis (3,213 ft; 979 m), the highest point in Pennsylvania, and the second highest, Blue Knob (3,146 ft; 959 m). There are very few sizable cities in the Alleghenies. The four largest are (in descending order of population): Altoona , State College , Johnstown (all in Pennsylvania) and Cumberland (in Maryland). In the 1970s and '80s,

13248-488: The ill-fated Braddock expedition four years later. In addition to the war, hunting and trading with Indians were primary motivations for white movement across the mountains. Permanent white settlement of the northern Alleghenies was facilitated by the explorations and stories of such noted Marylanders as the Indian fighter and trader Thomas Cresap (1702–90) and the backwoodsman and hunter Meshach Browning (1781–1859). In

13392-685: The larger Appalachian Plateau province. It may be generally defined to the south by the Allegheny Front , and to the east by the Susquehanna River valley. To the west, the Alleghenies grade down into the dissected Allegheny Plateau. The westernmost ridges are considered to be the Laurel Highlands and Chestnut Ridge in Pennsylvania , and Laurel Mountain and Rich Mountain in West Virginia . Big Stone Ridge marks

13536-706: The late 18th century, a massive migration to the Monongahela River basin took place over three main routes: along the old Braddock Road via Winchester, Virginia ; through the Shenandoah Valley to the head of the Cheat River and from there to the Monongahela; and along the Lincoln Highway to Ligonier, Pennsylvania , and thence along Jacob's Creek to the Monongahela. These immigrants were predominantly Scotch-Irish , German , and, to

13680-546: The late 19th century. From northeast to southwest, the Allegheny Mountains run about 300 miles (480 km). From west to east, at their widest, they are about 100 miles (160 km). When combining the Allegheny Province with the Kanawa Province, they run 400 miles (640 km). The USGS physiographic classification of all land in the United States lists the Allegheny Mountains as a section within

13824-537: The lower streams of the Alleghenies. The Mohetan representative through a Siouan translator explained to Mr Batts and Mr Fallon, Colonel Abraham Woods explorers 1671–2, that he (Moheton Native American ) could not say much about the people below the "Salt Village" because they (Mountain Cherokee) were not associated with them. The Mohetan was armed by this time of 1671 for the Mohetan Representative

13968-581: The mid-1830s, were near Jemima (Boone) Callaway's home on Tuque Creek , about two miles (3 km) from present-day Marthasville, Missouri . In 1845, the Boones' remains were disinterred and reburied in a new cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky . Resentment in Missouri about the disinterment grew over the years, and a legend arose that Boone's remains never left Missouri. According to this story, Boone's tombstone in Missouri had been inadvertently placed over

14112-573: The mountains during the warmer seasons. Occasionally, osprey and eagles can be found nesting along the streams. The hawks and owls are the most common birds of prey . The water habitats of the Alleghenies hold 24 families of fish. Amphibian species number about 21, among them hellbenders , lungless salamanders , and various toads and frogs . The Alleghenies provide habitat for about 54 species of common invertebrate . These include Gastropoda , slugs , leech , earthworms and grub worm . Cave crayfish ( Cambarus nerterius ) live alongside

14256-478: The pair. Sewell eventually settled on the eastern side of Sewell Mountain, near present-day Rainelle, West Virginia . They may well have been the first to settle what was then called the "western waters"— i.e. , in the regions where streams flowed westward to the Gulf of Mexico rather than eastward to the Atlantic. Among the first whites to penetrate into the Allegheny Mountains were surveyors attempting to settle

14400-511: The period was 19,900 ft/s (564 m/s) on May 17, 1996. Readings of zero were recorded for several months during autumn of the years 1930 and 1953. The Tygart Valley was first settled by Europeans in 1753 when David Tygart (for whom the valley and river are named) and Robert Files (or Foyle) located (separately) with their families in the vicinity of present-day Beverly . Although there had been no recent history of conflicts between whites and Indians in that immediate area, that summer

14544-647: The prisoners to replace fallen warriors. Boone was adopted into a Shawnee family at Chillicothe, perhaps into Blackfish's family, and given the name Sheltowee (Big Turtle). In March 1778, the Shawnee took the unadopted prisoners to Governor Hamilton in Detroit . Blackfish brought Boone along, though he refused Hamilton's offers to release Boone to the British. Hamilton gave Boone gifts, attempting to win his loyalty, while Boone continued to pretend that he intended to surrender Boonesborough. Boone returned with Blackfish to Chillicothe. On June 16, 1778, when he learned Blackfish

14688-499: The range of the Huffman Phase (Page) hunting and gathering area or when it is found in small amounts on village sites, trade ware or Page women being assimilated into another village (tribe)." Finally, according to Prof Potter of Virginia, they [the people represented by the Huffman Phase of Page pottery] had occupied the eastern slopes of the Alleghenies on the upper Potomac to the northern, lower Shenandoah Valley region before

14832-416: The region had been debating what to do about the influx of settlers. This group had decided, in the words of Faragher, "to send a message of their opposition to settlement". James Boone and William Russell's son, Henry, were tortured and killed. Charles was captured. Adam witnessed the horror concealed in riverbank driftwood. After wandering in the woods for 11 days, Adam located the group and informed Boone of

14976-405: The region, but most of the revenues flowed out of the mountains to the cities of the eastern seaboard where the captains of industry were headquartered. This inequity created a bitter legacy that would last for generations and form the foundation of the mountaineers' poverty and the area's immense environmental degradation . The most momentous disaster to afflict the people of the Alleghenies

15120-614: The region. An expedition under Peter Jefferson and Thomas Lewis in the following year emplaced the " Fairfax Stone " at the source of the North Branch and established a line of demarcation (the " Fairfax Line ") extending from the stone south-east to the headwaters of the Rappahannock River . Lewis' journal of that expedition provides a valuable view of the Allegheny country before its settlement. Jefferson and Joshua Fry 's "Fry-Jefferson Map" of 1751 accurately depicted

15264-532: The reservoir known as Lake Conemaugh . (This body of water had been built as part of the Main Line of Public Works , then abandoned.) With a flow rate that temporarily equalled that of the Mississippi River , the flood killed 2,209 people and caused US$ 17 million of damage (about $ 425 million in 2012 dollars). The American Red Cross , led by Clara Barton and with 50 volunteers, undertook

15408-555: The river was impounded by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam in 1938 to form Tygart Lake . Valley Falls State Park is along the river between Grafton and Fairmont. At its mouth, the river has an estimated mean annual flow volume of 2,855 cubic feet per second (80.8 m/s). At the United States Geological Survey 's stream gauge in Philippi, the annual mean flow of the river between 1940 and 2005

15552-407: The similarity of his painting to the well-known portraits by Chester Harding . Some historians believe Boone visited his brother Squire near Kentucky in 1810 and have accepted the veracity of Audubon's account. Boone spent his final years in Missouri, often in the company of children and grandchildren. He continued to hunt and trap as much as his health and energy levels permitted, intruding upon

15696-539: The skull of an African American. Black slaves were also buried at Tuque Creek, so it is possible that the wrong remains were mistakenly removed from the crowded graveyard. Both the Frankfort Cemetery in Kentucky and the Old Bryan Farm graveyard in Missouri claim to have Boone's remains. Many heroic actions and chivalrous adventures are related of me which exist only in the regions of fancy. With me

15840-619: The southern extent of the Alleghenies and is an outlier of Flat Top Mountain , with the Tug Fork river running along its western flank. The land to the south and to the west of the Alleghenies is the Valley and Ridge physiographic province. The eastern edge of the Alleghenies is marked by the Allegheny Front , which is also sometimes considered the eastern terminus of the Allegheny Plateau . This great escarpment roughly follows

15984-511: The sparsely populated region, did not enforce the official requirement that all immigrants be Catholic . The Spanish governor appointed Boone " syndic " (judge and jury) and commandant (military leader) of the Femme Osage district. Anecdotes of Boone's tenure as syndic suggest he sought to render fair judgments rather than strictly observe the letter of the law. Boone served as syndic and commandant until 1804, when Missouri became part of

16128-424: The subject of many heroic tall tales and works of fiction. His adventures—real and legendary—helped create the archetypal frontier hero of American folklore. In American popular culture, Boone is remembered as one of the foremost early frontiersmen, even though mythology often overshadows the historical details of his life. Boone was born on October 22, 1734 ( "New Style" November 2), the sixth of eleven children in

16272-690: The territory of the Osage tribe , who once captured him and confiscated his furs. In 1810, at the age of 76, he went with a group on a six-month hunt up the Missouri River , reportedly as far as the Yellowstone River , a round trip of more than 2,000 miles. He began one of his final trapping expeditions in 1815, in the company of a Shawnee and Derry Coburn, a slave who was frequently with Boone in his final years. They reached Fort Osage in 1816, where an officer wrote, "We have been honored by

16416-619: The tribe, but he resigned and continued to help protect the Kentucky settlements. He also left due to the Shawnee Indians torturing and killing one of his sons. He was elected to the first of his three terms in the Virginia General Assembly during the war and fought in the Battle of Blue Licks in 1782, one of the last battles of the American Revolution. He worked as a surveyor and merchant after

16560-407: The troops had failed to accomplish, and in the spring of 1862 both armies moved on down the pike to the Battle of McDowell (May 8, 1862), and then on to fight what became General Stonewall Jackson 's Shenandoah Valley Campaign (spring 1862). Two years later, much of this contested area (along with much else) became part of the new state of West Virginia . The very rugged terrain of the Alleghenies

16704-587: The war, but went deep into debt as a Kentucky land speculator. He resettled in Missouri in 1799, where he spent most of the last two decades of his life, frustrated with legal problems resulting from his land claims. Boone remains an iconic, if imperfectly remembered, figure in American history. He was a legend in his own lifetime, especially after an account of his adventures was published in 1784, making him famous in America and Europe. After his death, he became

16848-574: The western valleys of the central Allegheny range. The Montaine sites extend from the tributaries of the upper Potomac River region south to the New River tributaries. These also were influenced by the earlier Armstrong culture of the more southwestern portions northern sub-range of the Ouasioto (Cumberland) Mountains and by the more easterly Virginia Woodland people. The Late Woodland Montaine were less influenced by Hopewellian trade from Ohio, although similarly polished stone tools have been found among

16992-587: The wilderness lasting weeks or months. Boone went alone or with a small group of men, accumulating hundreds of deer skins in the autumn, and trapping beaver and otter over the winter. When the long hunters returned in the spring, they sold their take to commercial fur traders. On their journeys, frontiersmen often carved messages on trees or wrote their names on cave walls, and Boone's name or initials have been found in many places. A tree in Washington County, Tennessee reads "D. Boon Cilled a. Bar on tree in

17136-495: The world has taken great liberties, and yet I have been but a common man. Daniel Boone remains an iconic figure in American history, although his status as an early American folk hero and later as a subject of fiction has tended to obscure the actual details of his life. He emerged as a legend in large part because of John Filson 's "The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boon", part of his book The Discovery, Settlement and present State of Kentucke . First published in 1784, Filson's book

17280-439: The wrong grave, but no one had corrected the error—and that Boone's Missouri relatives, displeased with the Kentuckians who came to exhume Boone, kept quiet about the mistake and allowed the Kentuckians to dig up the wrong remains. No contemporary evidence indicates this actually happened, but in 1983, a forensic anthropologist examined a crude plaster cast of Boone's skull made before the Kentucky reburial and announced it might be

17424-560: The year 1760". A similar carving is preserved in the museum of the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Kentucky which reads "D. Boon Kilt a Bar, 1803." The inscriptions may be genuine, or part of a long tradition of phony Boone relics. According to a popular story, Boone returned home after a long absence to find that Rebecca had given birth to a daughter. Rebecca confessed that she had thought that Daniel

17568-628: Was "wildly unrealistic". Public works financed at the state level were not lacking during this period. The Main Line of Public Works was a transportation network project built between 1826 and 1834 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania . It created a railroad and canal system across southern Pennsylvania between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh , intended to transport freight (notably including anthracite coal ) and people with greater reliability, speed and capacity. The Main Line of Public Works included

17712-497: Was 1,922 ft³/s (54 m³/s ). The river's highest flow during the period was estimated at 61,000 ft/s (1,727 m/s) on November 5, 1985. The lowest recorded flow was 4.9 ft/s (0.1 m/s) on several days in October 1953. At an upstream gauge near the community of Dailey in Randolph County, the annual mean flow of the river between 1915 and 2005 was 358 ft/s (10 m/s). The highest recorded flow during

17856-480: Was Boone's friend and fellow long-hunter, Michael Stoner. Included in this group were an unknown number of enslaved Blacks, including Charles and Adam. On October 9, Boone's oldest son, James, several Whites and Charles and Adam left the main party to seek provisions in a nearby settlement. They were attacked by a band of Delawares , Shawnee, and Cherokees. Following the Fort Stanwix treaty, American Indians in

18000-478: Was about to return to Boonesborough with a large force, Boone eluded his captors and raced home, covering the 160 miles (260 km) to Boonesborough in five days on horseback and, after his horse gave out, the majority on foot. Biographer Robert Morgan calls Boone's escape and return "one of the great legends of frontier history." Upon Boone's return to Boonesborough, some of the men expressed doubts about Boone's loyalty, since he had apparently lived happily among

18144-564: Was also a public work of enormous economic and social significance for the Alleghenies. It approached Hancock, Maryland , by 1839. From the beginning, the B&;O Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal operated in bitter legal and commercial competition with one another as they vied for rights to the narrow strips of land along the Potomac. When the Canal finally reached Cumberland in 1850,

18288-502: Was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky , which was then beyond the western borders of the Thirteen Colonies . In 1775, Boone founded the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky, in the face of resistance from Native Americans . He founded Boonesborough , one of

18432-514: Was authentic. Often reprinted, Filson's book established Boone as one of the first popular heroes of the United States. Timothy Flint also interviewed Boone, and his Biographical Memoir of Daniel Boone, the First Settler of Kentucky (1833) became one of the best-selling biographies of the 19th century. Flint embellished Boone's adventures, doing for Boone what Parson Weems did for George Washington . In Flint's book, Boone fought with

18576-399: Was born. Boone spent his early years on the Pennsylvania frontier, often interacting with American Indians . Boone learned to hunt from local settlers and Indians; by the age of fifteen, he had a reputation as one of the region's best hunters. Many stories about Boone emphasize his hunting skills. In one tale, the young Boone was hunting in the woods with some other boys when the howl of

18720-448: Was captured by Blackfish's warriors. Because Boone's party was greatly outnumbered, Boone returned to camp the next day with Blackfish and persuaded his men to surrender rather than put up a fight. Blackfish intended to move on to Boonesborough and capture it, but Boone argued the women and children would not survive a winter trek as prisoners back to the Shawnee villages. Instead, Boone promised that Boonesborough would surrender willingly

18864-537: Was constructed to provide a direct route for the settlements of the Shenandoah Valley to the Ohio River by way of the Tygart Valley and Little Kanawha Rivers. Planned and approved in 1826 and completed in 1848, the Staunton and Parkersburg was maintained by fees (tolls) collected at toll houses placed at regular intervals. Construction on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began at Baltimore in 1828;

19008-420: Was dead, and that his brother had fathered the child. Boone did not blame Rebecca, and raised the girl as his own child. Boone's early biographers knew the story but did not publish it. Modern biographers regard the tale as possibly folklore, since the identity of the brother and the daughter vary in different versions of the tale. In the mid-1760s, Boone began to look for a new place to settle. The population

19152-568: Was given several pouches of ammunition for his and the other's weapons as a token of friendship. Somebody had already been trading within the central Alleghenies before the Virginians historical record begins in the Allegheny Mountains. Some earlier scholars found evidence these Proto-historics were either Cistercians of Spanish Ajacan Occuquan outpost on the Potomac River or Jesuits and their Kahnawake Praying Indians ( Mohawk ) on

19296-467: Was great-grandfather to Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson .) Several minor actions occurred in the Valley during the American Civil War , including the Battle of Philippi , the Battle of Laurel Hill and the Battle of Cheat Mountain , all in 1861. The United States Board on Geographic Names settled on "Tygart River" as the stream's name in 1902, and changed it to "Tygart Valley River" in 1950. According to

19440-431: Was growing in the Yadkin Valley, which reduced the amount of game available for hunting. He had difficulty making ends meet, and was often taken to court for nonpayment of debts. He sold what land he owned to pay off creditors. After his father's death in 1765, Boone traveled with a group of men to Florida, which had become British territory after the end of the war, to look into the possibility of settling there. According to

19584-474: Was issued for Boone's arrest after he ignored a summons to testify in a court case, although the sheriff never found him. That same year, the Kentucky assembly named Boone County in his honor. Having endured legal and financial setbacks, Boone sought to make a fresh start by leaving the United States. In 1799, he moved his extended family to what is now St. Charles County , Missouri, then part of Spanish Louisiana . The Spanish, eager to promote settlement in

19728-433: Was much too old for militia duty. Although Boone reportedly vowed never to return to Kentucky after moving to Missouri, stories (possibly folk tales) were told of him making one last visit to Kentucky to pay off his creditors. American painter John James Audubon claimed to have gone hunting with Boone in Kentucky around 1810. Years later, Audubon painted a portrait of Boone, supposedly from memory, although skeptics noted

19872-416: Was not at all amenable to a large-scale maneuver war and so the actions that the area witnessed for the remainder of the conflict were generally guerrilla in nature. With the further spread of the railroad networks in the 1890s and early 1900s, many new towns developed and thrived in the Alleghenies. The lumbering and coal industries that boomed in the wake of the railroads brought a measure of prosperity to

20016-401: Was often the only literate person in groups of frontiersmen, and would sometimes entertain his hunting companions by reading to them around the campfire. I can't say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days. —Daniel Boone The French and Indian War (1754–1763) broke out between the French and the British, along with their respective Indian allies, and Boone joined

20160-402: Was primarily intended to popularize Kentucky to immigrants. It was translated into French and German, and made Boone famous in America and Europe. Based on interviews with Boone, Filson's book contained a mostly factual account of Boone's adventures from the exploration of Kentucky through the American Revolution, although many have doubted if the florid, philosophical dialogue attributed to Boone

20304-612: Was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Fayette County militia. In April 1781, he was elected as a representative to the Virginia General Assembly , which was held in Richmond. In 1782, he was elected sheriff of Fayette County. Meanwhile, the American Revolutionary War continued. Boone joined General George Rogers Clark 's invasion of the Ohio country in 1780, fighting in the Battle of Piqua against

20448-505: Was sleeping in a tavern during the trip, the cash was stolen from his room. Some of the settlers forgave Boone the loss; others insisted he repay the stolen money, which took him several years to do. In contrast to the later folk image of Boone as a backwoodsman who had little affinity for "civilized" society, Boone was a leading citizen of Kentucky at this time. When Kentucky was divided into three Virginia counties in November 1780, Boone

20592-608: Was the Johnstown Flood —locally known as the "Great Flood of 1889"—which occurred on May 31 of that year after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam on the Little Conemaugh River 14 miles (23 km) upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania . The dam broke after several days of extremely heavy rainfall, unleashing 20 million tons of water (18 million cubic meters) from

20736-629: Was the last time Boone saw military action. Boone was initially prosperous in Limestone, owning seven slaves , a relatively large number for Kentucky at the time. In 1786, he purchased a Pennsylvania enslaved woman, age of about 20, for "Ninety poundes Current Lawfull (sic) money." A leader, he served as militia colonel, sheriff, and county coroner. In 1787, he was again elected to the Virginia state assembly, this time from Bourbon County . He began to have financial troubles after engaging in land speculation, buying and selling claims to tens of thousands of acres. These ventures ultimately failed because of

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