many trails into one continuous route by clearing underbrush and overhanging foliage. For some stretches however, it meant using axes and tomahawks to clear trees for a new section of trail. It was very expeditiously but roughly done. For decades afterwards, the Wilderness Trail was generally conceded to be the roughest, most disagreeable road on the continent, but was one of the major factors in the opening of the Middle West to colonization. A determined Boone and his loyal followers forged ahead until they reached the settlement site “about 60 yards from the river, and a little over 200 yards from a salt lick.” On the first of April, 1775, Boone and his woodsmen began the construction of several temporary log huts that were immediately dubbed “Fort Boone”.

The modern-day re-constructed Fort opened in 1974.