Boone's Station
Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
Boone's Station. Daniel Boone surveyed this site in 1774 for a 4,000-acre land grant to James Hickman. In Dec.1779, Boone and other families lived here in crude shelters; in 1780, built cabins & stockade. By 1783, the station included 15-20 families. Among these, Boone’s brother Edward, son Israel, and nephew Thomas were killed in final stages of Rev. War. Over. (Reverse) Boone occupied the station until 1784 and his sister’s family was there until 1814. Robert Frank bought it in 1795 and built a stone mansion which survived into the 1800s. In 1991, Robert C. Strader willed some 47 acres, including the site of the station, to the state. Boone’s Station State Park opened in 1992. Over.
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
Daniel Boone surveyed this site in 1774 and by December 1779 was living here with other families in crude shelters, building cabins and a stockade the next year. By 1783 the fortified station sheltered fifteen to twenty families on the Kentucky frontier—but at a cost: Boone's brother Edward, his son Israel, and his nephew Thomas were all killed in the closing violence of the Revolutionary War. Boone remained until 1784, and in the 20th century the land was willed to the state, opening as Boone's Station State Park in 1992.
Why it matters
Boone's Station is ground where the Revolution and the westward frontier were the same struggle, and where the personal cost of settling Kentucky is written into the losses of its most famous pioneer family.
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Related people
- · Daniel Boone
- · Israel Boone
- · Edward Boone
Related events
- · American Revolutionary War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Samuel Boone
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Here lies Samuel Boone (1728–1816), eldest brother of the famed pioneer Daniel Boone. Born in Pennsylvania, he came to Kentucky from South Carolina in 1779 and settled at Boone's Station, joining the 1782 defense of Bryan's Station during a period of intense frontier warfare. That same year his son Thomas was killed at the Battle of Blue Licks, one of the last engagements of the Revolution in the West.
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In the summer of 1775, long hunters ranging through the Kentucky wilderness made camp at a spring on this ground and, hearing that the first shots of the Revolution had been fired at Lexington, Massachusetts, borrowed that name for their bivouac. The camp they christened would grow into the city of Lexington, one of the earliest permanent settlements west of the Appalachians. This tablet was placed by the city's citizens in 1925, on the 150th anniversary of that naming, to mark where the story began.
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