Practically every elementary or middle school social studies or history teacher touches on the life of early American frontiersman Daniel Boone. Dozens of books have been written about him and a 1964–1970 television series starring actor Fess Parker celebrated the wilderness explorer. The hyperbolic theme song for the television series included similes like “tall as a mountain” and “eye like an eagle.” Even so, it conveyed factual aspects of his legacy: Boone “blazed a big wide liberty trail through history’s hall of fame.”
Most adventurous boys and history lovers connect Boone with what became Kentucky, due to his exploration in the 1700s of territory west of the original Thirteen Colonies. He is also famous for establishing the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky as well as for fighting in the Revolutionary War.
