Boonesborough, Kentucky

Boonesborough in 1778 (from Boonesborough... by George Washington Ranck, 1901).

Boonesborough is an unincorporated community in Madison County, Kentucky, USA. It lies in the central part of the state along the Kentucky River and is the site of Fort Boonesborough State Park, which includes the Kentucky River Museum. The park site has been rebuilt to look like a working fort of the days when Boone resided there.

Boonesborough is part of the Richmond-Berea micropolitan area.

History

The Transylvania Purchase at Sycamore Shoals in Elizabethton, Tennessee and the Wilderness Road into Kentucky.

Boonesborough was founded as Boone's Station by the frontiersman Daniel Boone while working for Richard Henderson of the Transylvania Company. Boone led a group of settlers through the mountains from Fort Watauga (present-day Elizabethton in Tennessee), carving the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap, and established Fort Boonesborough. Boone lived there from 1775 to 1779. Boonesborough was the town in the area of present-day Kentucky formally chartered by the Commonwealth of Virginia which then claimed it. It was also one of the first English-speaking communities west of the Appalachian Mountains. Boone successfully led his fellow settlers during the Siege of Boonesborough in 1778. He then moved to his son Israel's settlement at Boone's New Station near present-day Athens, Kentucky.

By 1877, Boonesborough had "almost disappeared as a village".

Further reading

• Ranck, George W. Boonesborough: Its Founding, Pioneer Struggles, Indian Experiences, Transylvania Days, and Revolutionary Annals. 1901.

See also

• Boone's New Station, now Boone Station State Historic Site
• Booneville, originally known as Boone's Station
• Squire Boone's Station, established by Daniel's brother

External links

• Fort Boonesborough State Park official web site.
• Fort Boonesborough Foundation
• Fort Boonesborough Living History
• Boonesborough Map
• Boonesborough Historical Society
• List of Boonesborough Pioneers