Later the narrow trail was widened into a
highway for wagons, and it was along this way, rightly called a
"wilderness road," that in later years so many thousand settlers led their
pack-trains over the mountains into Kentucky and Tennessee.
But that is taking a long look ahead! Just now we are thinking about the
very first of these settlers, Daniel Boone and his company.
THE KENTUCKY SETTLERS AT BOONESBOROUGH
When they reached the Kentucky River, Boone and his followers built a fort
on the left bank of the stream and called it Boonesborough. Its four walls
consisted in part of the outer sides of log cabins, and in part of a
stockade, some twelve feet high, made by setting deep into the ground
stout posts with pointed tops. In all the cabins there were loopholes
through which to shoot, and at each corner of the fort stood a loophole
blockhouse. There were also two strong wooden gates on opposite sides of
the fort.
[Illustration: Boonesborough.]
After the fort was built, Boone went back to the Clinch River and brought
on his wife and children. When they settled, it was springtime, and
Kentucky was at its best. Trees were in leaf, the beautiful dogwood was in
flower, and the woods were fragrant with the blossoms of May.
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