Portal:Virginia/Selected biography/20

Daniel Boone (1734 – 1820) was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now Kentucky, which at the time was part of Virginia yet across the mountains from the settled areas. Despite some resistance from American Indian tribes such as the Shawnee, in 1775 Boone blazed his Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap in the Appalachian Mountains from North Carolina and Tennessee into Kentucky. Before the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 European people migrated westward by following the route marked by Boone.

Boone was a militia officer during the Revolutionary War (1775–83), during which he was elected to the first of his three terms in the Virginia General Assembly. Following the war, Boone worked as a surveyor and merchant, but fell deeply into debt through failed Kentucky land speculation. In 1799 Boone emigrated to eastern Missouri, where he spent most of the last two decades of his life. Boone remains an iconic figure in American history; his adventures — real and legendary — were influential in creating the archetypal Western hero of American folklore.