05/02/2026
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On May 1, 1769, 257 years ago today, from Wilkes Co. near Ferguson, a group of men decided to go hunting for Kentucky. It was the beginning of Daniel Boone's historic long exploration into Kentucky.
Along with Boone were Boone's brother-in-law, John Stuart, married to Boone's little sister, Hannah; Boone's friend from the French and Indian War, John Findley, and three camp tenders, Joseph Holden, James Mooney (some say Monay), also a veteran of the French and Indian War, and William Cooley (some say Cool).
Boone and Findley were both teamsters during the French and Indian War. Boone was with Gen. Braddock at his defeat, barely escaping with his life. Boone had heard Findley's stories of the paradise that was Kentucky.
When they left the Upper Yadkin in North Carolina on May 1, 1769, their equipment was packed on ten or fifteen horses. Each man carried his own rifle, powder horns, bullet pouch and hunting knife. They also had extra stores of flint, steel, tinder, powder and lead, as well as tools for casting bullets, traps, blankets, camp kettles, salt and other provisions.
On June 7, Boone climbed to a spot locally known as Pilot View and, in the words of Filson's Boone, "..climbed to an eminence and first beheld the beautiful level of Kentucke".
It was May, 1771, by the time Boone returned to his home on the Upper Yadkin.
Years later Boone told historian John Filson, that after his long trip to Kentucky he "returned home to my family with a determination to bring them as soon as possible to live in Kentucke, which I esteemed a second paradise, at the risk of my life and fortune."
Boone acted on this determination.....risking his own life and the lives of his family, in fact, burying two sons in Kentucky. And ultimately, making and losing a fortune in Kentucky, but in so doing blazing the way for the Great Westward Movement.
