Daniel Boone leads settlers into Kentucky

Every first full week in October the city of Barbourville celebrations the Daniel Boone festival. It was created, its website says, to combat the negative stereotypes of Kentucky by shifting focus to its famous founder, the frontiersman Daniel Boone. And there is a lot to admire about Boone: although usually pictured in a presidential pose, with an intense gaze and hair neatly parted back, in the years when he wasn’t fighting the British he was living on the Western frontier, beyond the bounds of the 13 Colonies.

On this day, March 10, in 1775, Boone led the first large-scale expedition into the Kentucky territories: about 200 people, mostly from Long Island.

Boone had explored parts of the new territories before – in 1767 he first reached the state with his brother. Two years later he returned with a fellow hunter, and was captured by Indians, who warned him not to return. Boone not only returned, but brought reinforcements.