Daniel Boone, huh. Do you know the truth about DB? Well he lived in NC, in Yadkin River Valley, and had two sons (other children?) and a wife who was happy here.
Because he was a wanderer, he left his wife here and went to explore Kentucky (county of VA at time, and not yet a state). He was a friend, and his uncle married a relative of Tom Lincoln (Abe’s father), who lived in PA. Tom Lincoln’s father takes him to Kentucky, from VA etc...
This comes out of DBs own memoir.
Boone has audacity to come back to NC, and get his wife and sons, and move them to Kentucky. In a fight with Indians the oldest son is killed, and Daniel Boone is captured, and months go by....his wife moves back to NC to Yadkin River Valley. Boone escapes, and comes back and takes his wife and son back to KY, and gets other son killed. What a jerk!
Kentucky would have been settled with or without Boone’s help, as many were already flooding the area, which was a hunting ground for the Cherokee; and not really used for much else during the Indian years.
For over 100 yrs there were zero beavers in the area, in which I grew up, and although they may have been in other places 50-100 miles away. But they have been hauled in here now and let into the creeks and streams, so they are here now being as destructive as possible....so that blanket statement is untrue, and don’t put too much faith in Daniel Boone’s words. Yes, he helped blaze a path into Kentucky near area where TN, VA and KY are closest, but a lot of other men helped.
One thing I forgot, Kentucky was being populated from Louisville area by boat, from a fort in PA, as they used the river to access the area by flatboats, even before history notes it.
Some were coming up the Mississippi from New Orleans by boat to Louisville, and bringing livestock, before any of it was part of our country. In fact, horses were known to exist in midwest long before pioneers actually came, and it was probably by large boats up Mississippi.