Daniel Boone National Forest
The Daniel Boone National Forest is a national forest in Kentucky. Established in 1937, it includes 708,000 acres (287,000 ha) of federally owned land within a 2,100,000-acre (850,000 ha) proclamation boundary. The name of the forest was changed in 1966 in honor of the explorer Daniel Boone.
View from Tater Knob in the Daniel Boone National Forest
Aerial view of the dam at Laurel River Lake
Daniel Boone was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of the Thirteen Colonies. In 1775, Boone blazed the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky, in the face of resistance from American Indians, for whom the area was a traditional hunting ground. He founded Boonesborough, one of the first English-speaking settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains. By the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 people had entered Kentucky by following the route marked by Boone.
Boone depicted in an 1820 portrait by Chester Harding, the only known portrait of him made during his lifetime
Boone's First View of Kentucky, William Tylee Ranney (1849)
George Caleb Bingham's Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers through the Cumberland Gap (1851–52) is a famous depiction of Boone.
Abduction of Boone's Daughter, painting by Karl Ferdinand Wimar, 1855, Amon Carter Museum of American Art