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Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina
Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina
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Source:  Daniel Boone’s Trail, Zionville. Photo courtesy of Randell Jones.

  • Monument Name

    Daniel Boone’s Trail, Zionville

  • Type

    Marker

  • Subjects

    Historic Civic Figures

    Geography

    Colonial History

    Revolutionary War, 1775-1783

  • City

    Zionville

  • County

    Watauga

  • Description

    The memorial consists of a rectangular cast iron plaque attached to a larger stone slab several feet high embedded in the ground.

  • Inscription

    DANIEL BOONE’S TRAIL / FROM / NORTH CAROLINA TO KENTUCKY / 1769 / MARKED BY THE N.C. DAUGHTERS OF THE / AMERICAN REVOLUTION

  • Dedication Date

    November 7, 1913

  • Decade

    1910s

  • Geographic Coordinates

    36.334430 , -81.744680 View in Geobrowsemap pin

  • Series

    DAR Daniel Boone's Highway Marker

  • Supporting Sources

      Bryan, William L., “My Trip To Zionville,” Watauga Democrat, (Boone, NC), November 13, 1913, 2

      Jones, Randell. Trailing Daniel Boone, Daughters of the American Revolution Marking Daniel Boone’s Trail, 1912-1915, (Winston-Salem, NC: Daniel Boone Footsteps, 2012)

      “North Carolina Daniel Boone Heritage Trail,” North Carolina Daniel Boone Heritage Trail, Inc., (accessed January 11, 2016) Link

      “North Carolina Joins In Boone Trail Movement,” Asheville-Gazette News, (Asheville, NC), November 10, 1914, 3

      “The Trail Taken by Boone Through State Now Marked,” News and Observer, (Raleigh, NC), July 11, 1915, 17

  • Public Site

    No

  • Materials & Techniques

    Cast Iron, stone

  • Monument Dedication and Unveiling

    The marker was placed on the morning of November 7, 1913 by Mr. William L. Bryan with the assistance of Mr. Willett Adams.

  • Subject Notes

    Daniel Boone’s marked trail begins at Boone Cave Park in Davidson County, NC, crosses the Yadkin River at the Shallow Ford near Huntsville, and ends at Fort Boonesborough, Kentucky where Boone served during the American Revolution. In 1913 Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Chapters placed 13 markers along the North Carolina portion of the trail which mostly follows Old US Highway 421. Mrs. Lindsay Patterson of Winston-Salem chaired the project that eventually erected 45 tablets in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky. At the Cumberland Gap (Tennessee) the four states combined to erect a single commemorative monument.

    Daniel Boone is famous for exploring the American frontier beyond the Appalachian Mountains. He blazed one of the trails that opened up areas west of the Appalachian’s to increased European settlement. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1734, lived in the Yadkin Valley, North Carolina from 1752-1769, where he married Rebecca Bryan, raised a large family, and traded animal furs. He died in Missouri in 1820 and is buried in Kentucky.

  • Location

    The marker is in the yard of a private home on Emory Greer Road at John’s Lane between Boone and the Tennessee state line. The memorial is visible from the public right of way.

  • Landscape

    The marker is surrounded by trees and seasonal greenery.

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