Long Island on the Holston, or Hogohegee River was the sacred treaty ground to the Cherokee. It is the western terminus of the Reedy Creek Road, which carried the Great Warriors’ Path from Bristol to Kingsport, and is first mentioned in 1749 when Dr. Thomas Walker met Samuel Stalnaker on this trail. The first real […]

You are traveling on the ancient Great Warriors Path, the most significant Indian and pioneer trail in the Eastern United States. The Eastern end began in a fanned out pattern in numerous places in the Northeastern United States in the land of the Iroquois and Delaware. It came down the Great Valley of Virginia and […]

On the knoll to the northeast of this intersection John Anderson built his blockhouse sometime before 1775. A blockhouse was a specialized log cabin built of squared logs, and with an upper story that extended out overhanging the walls of the lower structure. The squaring of the timbers made them fit tightly together so as […]

Moccasin Gap in Clinch Mountain is one of two ground level water gaps leading from the western reaches of the Great Valley of Virginia into the interior of the Alleghenies, the other being the Narrows of the New River. The two main trails of the central Appalachians joined for a short distance to make the […]

Truly the gateway into the interior of the Alleghenies and to the Transalleghenay country, this site was a trail hub in Indian and in pioneer days. The Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail went west along the road you are using and to the head of Little Moccasin Creek. A less significant trail ran to the northwest […]

This railroad yard and the community that has sprung up around it is the only place in Virginia named after Daniel Boone. The road that you are traveling on is the paved Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail. Traditionally he drank out of a spring here. Boone was born in 1734 near Reading, Pennsylvania. As a youth […]

You are at the mouth of Troublesome Creek, whose passage was so troublesome to the pioneers that the Boone Wilderness Trail could not come down it. Originally the gorge behind you afforded passage only for the creek itself. The passage for the current road and railroad is the result of considerable blasting. Back up the […]

Clinchport was the head waters of flat boat navigation on the Clinch River, just as Kingsport was on the Holston. Not only did pioneer loggers build massive log rafts here in the winter to catch the Spring Tide to float their logs to mills at Chattanooga; but settlers farther up the Clinch would bring produce […]

In the oldest pioneer journals Natural Tunnel was called Natural Bridge. This was confusing because not only is there a more famous Natural Bridge in Rockbridge County east of Roanoke, Va., but the Wilderness Trail actually crosses a Natural Bridge west of here in Lee County. Despite persisting legends to the contrary, the pioneers on […]

At the intersection of State #871 and US 23 you pick up the major short cut of the Boone Wilderness Trail, the “Devil’s Race Path”. It left the main trail on the other side of the ridge at the point where you left US 23 to go to Natural Tunnel. As the wagons labored up […]

The Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Interpretive Center brings the story of America’s westward expansion to life in the landscape where much of it happened. Located near the historic route of the Wilderness Road in Duffield, Virginia, the center explores the people, places and events that shaped the trail—from Daniel Boone and the early pioneers to […]

To the north of here, you can see the beautiful Valley of Wallen’s Creek, which forms in a basin at the juncture of Wallens Ridge, which lies ahead of you, and of Powell Mountain, which is where you are. The northern end of Kane Gap is at its head, and the Boone Wilderness Trail winds […]

The killing of the son of Daniel Boone, James, occurred in this Wallen’s Creek Valley in 1773. Daniel and his family were migrating to Kentucky, and had persuaded William Russell of Castlewood to do so also. On September 25, 1773 they set out, and upon reaching Wolf Hills at present Abingdon, Daniel dispatched his seventeen […]

At the intersection of State Route #638 two miles to the west, was located the western-most outpost of the Holston Militia to remain garrisoned during the Revolutionary War. Manned by a company of Rangers who patrolled Powell Valley, this outpost was built in 1775 or 1776. It was referred to by an assortment of names; […]

Downstream from here are the two fords crossing the main Powell River. One can still clearly see the two trails coming down the hill to your left on the eastern bank of the river. The most obvious one, which sweeps in a gentle descent across the face of the hill from north to south, is […]

Mump’s Fort stood at the top of the hill where the court house now is. It was built by William Mumps in 1775 in a community then known as ‘Glade Spring’, or as ‘Sinking Springs’. George Rogers Clark, who later conquered the Old Northwest Territory during the Revolutionary War, spent the night here on his […]

The typical emigrant making his way to Kentucky along this Trail in the time of Boone usually was of a specific background. Like Boone, himself, he was part of the greatest mass migration to have occurred in Colonial North America and in the years following the Revolution. Their forbears had come from the Border Country […]

An entry in the journal of Henry Hamilton identifies this segment of the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail with its description of this natural formation. The Trail and the current road you are traveling on pass over the creek making use of a natural limestone bridge. With the outbreak of the American Revolution, Britain opened up […]

The Indian tribes that were most concerned with the passage of settlers down the Boone Wilderness Trail and their settlement of Powell Valley and of Kentucky were the Cherokee and the Shawnee. The Cherokee were the most powerful and numerous of the tribes in the Southeast. Their domain at its greatest spread over southwest Virginia, […]

Little is known about Priest’s Fort, which was built somewhere on this section of the Trail. Built is 1775, it was abandoned the next year along with all the other forts in Lee County west of Rocky Station. Forts were of different types. First was the stockaded fort, familiar to us from cowboy movies. These […]

The community of Silver Leaf is the only site on the Boone Wilderness Trail actually named by Daniel Boone. He camped here and named the area Silver Maple because of the trees that he admired growing here. In the early 1800’s, Eli Davis, a local nurseryman, changed the name to Silver Leaf because he thought […]

The white rock cliffs atop Cumberland Mountain to the right were among the most commonly mentioned geographic features recorded in the journals of the emigrants along the entire length of the Trail. The pioneers seemed to take them as a hallmark of the wonderful new land that they were claiming as their own. The term […]

Here is the eastern end of a bike trail that follows the old rail bed of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad on westward toward Cumberland Gap. In this beautiful setting it is hard to imagine the horrors that occurred in this beautiful valley during the Great Cherokee War of 1776-1794. This terrible war was both […]

A little to the east you have just passed through Gibson’s Station built by George Gibson in 1785. It did not play a significant role in the Indian conflicts. A little to the west, where the Boone Wilderness Trail ducks into Tennessee for a short distance along State #694, the Virginia State Militia built its […]

One of the most significant of the several historic gaps or passes along routes of settlement in the United States, Cumberland Gap stands alone east of the Mississippi. Its location determined the route of travel of people from Georgia to New York; from Arkansas to Illinois. Only the Ohio River can compare with its significance […]