Daniel Boone’s Trail, Watauga County Courthouse, Boone
A rectangular cast iron plaque is attached to a stone wall at a landing along stairs leading to the current Watauga County courthouse.
DANIEL BOONE’S TRAIL / FROM / NORTH CAROLINA TO KENTUCKY / 1769 / MARKED BY THE N.C. DAUGHTERS OF THE / AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Watauga County
October 23, 1913. Rededication: October 11, 2013
36.220150 , -81.686630
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Jones, Randell. Trailing Daniel Boone, Daughters of the American Revolution Marking Daniel Boone’s Trail, 1912-1915, (Winston-Salem, NC: Daniel Boone Footsteps, 2012)
“Boone Court House, Altitude 3242 Ft., Boone, N. C,” in Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina Postcards (PO77), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Link
“DAR Rededicates Daniel Boone Trail Marker,” Watauga Democrat, (Wilkesboro, NC), October 14, 2013, (accessed January 12, 2016) Link
“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
Yes
Cast iron
Edward Buncombe Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution
The ceremony began at 9 o’clock as not to interfere with a Masonic picnic scheduled for the
same day. There was speaking and music along with the D.A.R ritual. Five young girls with
Revolutionary War ancestors participated in the unveiling. Mrs. Lindsay Patterson, the chair of
the Daniel Boone’s Trail committee, spoke as did Mrs. William Neal Reynolds the state regent,
B.B. Dougherty, President of the Appalachian Training School and John Preston Arthur before a
crowd that “packed the courthouse to the dome.”
Seventy-eight members of the DAR from across the country on a bus tour to visit schools were in attendance at the 2013 rededication. Lynn Young, president general of the
NSDAR helped lay a wreath at the marker. Historian Randell Jones spoke and during his
comments praised the vision of those early DAR members who embarked on the trail project
and the current members who continue to honor that heritage.
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.
The Watauga County Courthouse is located at 842 W King Street in Boone, NC.
The iron plaque is attached to a stone wall.
The maker was originally placed on a large boulder on the grounds of the 1904 Watauga County courthouse at the same address. The new courthouse replaced the old one in 1968. The marker was placed and rededicated at its current location in 1982 and then rededicated again in 2013.
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