TOUR I 7 A 42I
H Winding past some rock outcroppings crowding the highway (L),
5. US 22-7 meets, at 25 m., the limestone STATUE or DANIEL BooNE (L)
>, facing the Kentucky River at the east end of the Boonesboro Memorial
Bridge (toll 30¢). The short, thick-bodied figure on a spreading base,
7- with a face resembling that of George Washington, wears a coonskin
6 cap and carries a gun. The statue is the work of A. D. Fisher of
6 Winchester.
( From the bridge, which rides high above the Kentucky River, opens
·- (R) one of that river’s many beautiful gorges. The steep walls of
d carved limestone that rise perpendicularly above the water are spotted
¤ with the brown of sandstone, which indicates that the hills are not far
d away. Trees grope along the top of the gorge, and at the bottom, the
·f shimmering river reflects the images of the grave masonry overhead
0 and the tangle of beech, maple, sycamore, grapevine, thunderwood,
and ironwood by its sides. The gorge ends near the bridge as the river
l· curves through a narrow bottom land (L) past Boonesboro.
H BOONESBORO, 25.3 m. (600 alt., 167 pop.), is a small resort of
·· stilted red and green frame cottages, a hotel, and a bathing beach
l- on the Kentucky River. The granite Daniel Boone monument is on
J, the SITE OF Four BOONESBORO, laid out in 1775 by Daniel Boone and
i, his backwoodsmen under the sponsorship of Col. Richard Henderson, a
·— man prominent in the political life of North Carolina. F ascinated by
o Boone’s glowing stories of hunting forays in the Kentucky country,
y- Henderson had induced Nathaniel, David, and Thomas Hart to join
gr him in founding a great proprietary colony beyond the mountains. At
;, first the association bore Henderson’s name, but it was later called the
g, Transylvania Company, and the proposed region was referred to as
;_ Transylvania. V
At a great council, held in March 1775, the Cherokee, in return for
ty a substantial cash payment, had ceded to Henderson for the company a
3, vast tract in what is now Kentucky. News of the transaction aroused
5 the Governors of Virginia and North Carolina; they denounced the
is proceedings by proclamation. Nothing daunted, Henderson went ahead
n with his plans. A party of 30 under Daniel Boone was sent over the
- mountains to blaze a trail and lay out the town that was to be the
.e capital of Transylvania. Here, on a plain south of the Kentucky River,
rl near a salt lick frequented by herds of buffalo, Boone went to work,
April 5, 1775, and Fort Boonesboro began to take shape. Hender-
L1; son reached the scene April 20, and at once called a convention of the
‘ people at the four stations, St. Asaph, Harrodsburg, Boiling Springs, .
and Boonesboro, to agree on some form of government. They met
under a magnificent elm, about four feet thick, later to be known as
58 the "divine elm." Under its spreading branches was held the first re-
ii ligious service in Kentucky, and the first wedding ceremony at Fort
at, Boonesboro, that of Samuel Henderson, younger brother of the pioneer,
2T and Elizabeth Callaway. The wedding was solemnized by Squire
Boone, brother of Daniel Boone, on August 7, 1776.