Boonesborough is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Madison County,

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Founded by famed frontiersman

Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (September 26, 1820) 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 we ...

in 1778 as one of the first English-speaking settlements west of the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

, Boonesborough lies in the central part of the state along the

Kentucky River The Kentucky River is a tributary of the Ohio River, long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 13, 2011 in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. The river and its tri ...

and is the site of

Fort Boonesborough State Park Fort Boonesborough was a frontier fort in Kentucky, founded by Daniel Boone and his men following their crossing of the Kentucky River on April 1, 1775. The settlement they founded, known as Boonesborough, Kentucky, is Kentucky's second oldest Eu ...

, which includes the Kentucky River Museum. The park site has been rebuilt to look like a working fort of the time that Boone resided there. Boonesborough is part of the Richmond-Berea micropolitan area. It is located at the junction of

Kentucky Route 388 Kentucky Route 388 (KY 388) is a state highway in Madison County, Kentucky, that runs from U.S. Route 25 Business, Kentucky Route 52, and South Second Street in downtown Richmond to Kentucky Route 627 just to the west of Boonesbor ...

and

Kentucky Route 627 Kentucky Route 627 (KY 627) is a north–south state highway in east-central Kentucky. It traverses portions of northern Madison, Clark, and southern Bourbon counties. Route description KY 627 begins in northern Madison County at the concurr ...

History

Boonesborough was founded as Boone's Station by the frontiersman

while working for Richard Henderson and Nathanial Hart of the

Transylvania Company The Transylvania Colony, also referred to as the Transylvania Purchase, was a short-lived, extra-legal colony founded in early 1775 by North Carolina land speculator Richard Henderson, who formed and controlled the Transylvania Company. Henders ...

. Boone led a group of settlers (which included a number of African Americans) through the mountains from

Fort Watauga Fort Watauga, more properly Fort Caswell, was an American Revolutionary War fort that once stood at the Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga River in what is now Elizabethton, Tennessee. The fort was originally built in 1775–1776 by the area's front ...

(present-day Elizabethton in

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

), carving the Wilderness Road through the

Cumberland Gap The Cumberland Gap is a pass through the long ridge of the Cumberland Mountains, within the Appalachian Mountains, near the junction of the U.S. states of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. It is famous in American colonial history for its r ...

, and established

Fort Boonesborough Fort Boonesborough was a frontier fort in Kentucky, founded by Daniel Boone and his men following their crossing of the Kentucky River on April 1, 1775. The settlement they founded, known as Boonesborough, Kentucky, is Kentucky's second oldest Eu ...

. Boone lived there from 1775 to 1779. The region was at that time part of the Commonwealth of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, which officially chartered Boonesborough in October 1779. It was one of the first English-speaking communities west of the

. Boone successfully led his fellow settlers during the

Siege of Boonesborough } The siege of Boonesborough was a military engagement which took place in September 1778 during the American Revolutionary War. On September 7, Shawnee chief Blackfish, who was allied to the British, led an attack on the Kentucky settlement of ...

in 1778. He then moved to his son Israel's settlement at Boone's New Station near present-day

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, Kentucky. Although the town served as a way-station for pioneers venturing further into Kentucky during the 1780s and 1790s, it never attracted a significant long-term population, and thus slowly declined. By 1877, Boonesborough had "almost disappeared as a village".

References

External links

Fort Boonesborough State Park
official web site.
Fort Boonesborough Foundation
Unincorporated communities in Madison County, Kentucky Unincorporated communities in Kentucky Daniel Boone Richmond–Berea micropolitan area Colonial settlements in North America {{MadisonCountyKY-geo-stub

History

Further reading

See also

References

External links