Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone was chosen as a prominent feature of the Kentucky National Guard Memorial from the outset. He is uniquely linked to Kentucky and our military history. His presence pays tribute to the roots of today’s Kentucky National Guard in the militia that hacked a state from “Dark and Bloody Ground” for an opportunity to make a better life. Boone is also a tribute to the location, Boone National Guard Center, the headquarters for the Kentucky Army and Air National Guard.

A legend in his own lifetime, Daniel Boone was an explorer and hunter whose exploits made him one of the most famous frontiersmen in American history. One of 11 children raised in a Quaker household, he was born on November 2, 1734, in Berks County Pennsylvania. Little is known of his formative years, other than he aspired to be a woodsman rather than a farmer.

Family “scandals” resulted in his father's expulsion from the Society of Friends and the family moved to the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina, arriving in 1751 or 1752. From there Boone explored west into Kentucky in the 1760s and 1770s. In 1775 he established the frontier outpost of Boonesborough, one of the first white settlements in Kentucky. When the Kentucky territory became part of Virginia, Boone was named an officer in the Virginia militia and spent the next several years trail blazing and fighting Indians. His “autobiography,” written by John Filson and published in 1784, depicted Boone as wily and adventurous and made him a folk hero.

Boone tried to establish extensive land claims in Kentucky, but was unable to retain them and many were invalidated after 1780. After living in western Virginia, where he served three times in the state legislature, Boone moved in 1799 to what is now Missouri. He settled there with his son, Daniel Morgan Boone, and was later granted land by the U. S. Congress. He died near St. Louis in 1820 at the age of 85 and is now buried in the Frankfort Cemetery.

Commencing in the 1820s, several actors have portrayed Boone in various buckskin costumes, all of which included a coonskin cap. The most popular of these portrayals was by the actor Fess Parker in the TV series Daniel Boone from 1964-70. The real Boone thought coonskin caps were silly and impractical unlike these actors he always wore a beaver or felt hat instead, which had a wide brim for keeping out the sun and rain.

Daniel Boone was chosen as the center piece of the memorial because he is uniquely linked to the establishment of Kentucky and his presence pays tribute to the roots of today's Kentucky National Guard. New KYNG officer candidate school graduates are sworn in at Daniel Boone's grave site in homage to his place in Kentucky Military History. Boone National Guard Center, the state’s National Guard headquarters was named in his honor in 1962.