Boonesborough, Kentucky facts for kids
Boonesborough is an unincorporated community in Madison County, Kentucky, United States. Founded by famed frontiersman Daniel Boone in 1778 as one of the first English-speaking settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains, Boonesborough 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 time that Boone resided there.
Boonesborough is part of the Richmond-Berea micropolitan area. It is located at the junction of Kentucky Route 388 and Kentucky Route 627.
History
Boonesborough was founded as Boone's Station by the frontiersman Daniel Boone while working for Richard Henderson and Nathanial Hart 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".
- Ranck, George W. Boonesborough: Its Founding, Pioneer Struggles, Indian Experiences, Transylvania Days, and Revolutionary Annals. 1901.
