Documenting the American South

Monument Name

Daniel Boone’s Trail, Straddle Gap, Vilas

Type

Marker

Subjects

Historic Civic Figures

Geography

Removed Monuments

Colonial History

Revolutionary War, 1775-1783

City

Vilas

County

Watauga

Description

The memorial consists of a rectangular bronze plaque attached to a large boulder. The marker was damaged during road construction, removed for repair and never returned.

Inscription

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

Dedication Date

November 1913

Decade

1910s

Geographic Coordinates

36.241520 , -81.734830 View in Geobrowse

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

Yes

Materials & Techniques

Cast iron, stone

Sponsors

Daughters of the American Revolution

Monument Dedication and Unveiling

Mr. William L. Bryan had placed the marker “a few days before” the one at Zionville (November 7, 1913).

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 was located near Vilas on Linville Creek Road, several hundred yards north of the intersection with Incline Drive. It is located a couple miles west of Hodges Gap marker.

Removed

Yes