LaTanya Butler, age 13, of Meridian, Miss., for her question:
WAS THERE REALLY A DANIEL BOONE?
Daniel Boone was not a fictional character. He was really an American pioneer and Indian fighter who played a major part in the exploration and settlement of Kentucky.
Boone was born near Reading, Pa., in 1734 but he moved with his family in 1753 to a settlement on the Yadkin River in what is now North Carolina. In this primitive location, Boone received some schooling and became a skillful hunter and trapper.
During the French and Indian War, Boone served with the forces led by the British general Edward Braddock in the campaign of 1755 against Fort Duquesne.
Subsequently Boone set out to explore and settle the wilderness around the Kentucky River, making the first of many trips into the region in 1767.
Between 1769 and 1771, on his most important expedition, Boone explored eastern Kentucky, following a trail through the Cumberland Gap with five companions.
In 1775, having been engaged as the agent of a Carolina trading company to establish a road by which colonists could reach Kentucky and settle there, he built a stockade and fort on the site of Boonesboro. The first group of settlers crossed the Cumberland Gap to Boonesboro by the road established by Boone, later called the Wilderness Road.
During the American Revolution the community suffered repeated Indian attacks and in 1778 Boone was taken captive by Indian raiders. The settlement, however, was eventually established as a permanent village. Boone soon escaped from his Indian captors.
When the Revolutionary War ended, Boone was famous throughout the new American nation. The territory he had surveyed and claimed made him rich. More settlers came to Kentucky wanting land and Boone was willing to sell. But lawyers said Boone had failed to get legal right to the land and he lost it all. He left Kentucky in 1788 and then lived in Virginia until 1798.
In 1799 Boone settled near Saint Louis in present day Missouri and died there in 1820.
When Boone moved to Missouri, the territory at that time was controlled by Spain. Because of his background and knowledge, the Spanish officials appointed him magistrate. This meant he had to keep law and order in the district. He even had to judge law cases. Boone was not lawyer,' but the settlers trusted his wisdom and fairness.
When the territory came under the control of the United States, Boone again found himself without any land, because he had registered his holdings with the Spanish officials. Finally, in 1814, the United States returned a part of his land, as a reward to Boone, who had opened the way for millions of his fellow men.
Boone died at the age of 86. Twenty five years later, in 1845, his remains and those of his wife were moved to Frankfort, Ky. A monument was placed there in his memory.
In 1915 the marking of the Boone Trail through North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky was completed to show the affection of Americans for one of their greatest pioneers.