Boone, Daniel (1734-1820)

US pioneer. He cleared a forest path called the Wilderness Road (East Virginia-Kentucky) in 1775 and for the first westward migration of settlers.

Boone was born in Pennsylvania, of English descent, and spent most of his youth in North Carolina. During the American Revolution, he led militias against Indians allied with the British. He was captured by a Shawnee war party and so impressed the chief that he was adopted by the tribe. He left the American Indians and continued to explore westwards. In 1775 he led a party of settlers who founded the town of Boonesborough, Kentucky. For a short time he sat in the Virginia legislature as the representative of Kentucky, but lost all his land there because he had no formal titles. He then retired to Missouri but in 1804, when the USA took over this territory, he once again lost his land. In 1814 he was granted some property in recognition of his services.