Daniel Boone lived the last 20 years of his life in Missouri.
Interested in the Boone sites of Missouri? Might make an interesting vacation trip:
1. -The site of Daniel Morgan Boone’s log house and War of 1812 Boone Fort: This is where Daniel and Rebecca Boone lived during their first four years in Upper Louisiana (Missouri). Daniel Morgan Boone (1769-1839), a son of Daniel and Rebecca, lived here with his wife Sarah Griffin Lewis (1786-1850) and their family from 1799 to 1819. These sites are located on private property just west of the town of Matson, and require permission prior to visiting.
2. –Daniel Boone’s Spanish Land Grant, the only land he owned in Missouri: His 1000 Arpent (1000 acre) land grant is located along the Missouri River just east of the town of Matson. The part along the river is owned by the Missouri Department of Conservation. It is public accessible, but not identified by a marker.
3. –Daniel Boone’s Original Judgment Tree Park: This small park is located at the town of Matson, and along the 200 mile long Katy Trail State Park, a hiking and biking trail.
4. –The Daniel Boone Home in the Femme Osage valley near Defiance: Now owned by Lindenwood University, and being upgraded to real history. It was the large stone house built in the early 1800’s by the Boone’s youngest son Nathan Boone (1781-1856) and his wife Olive Van Bibber (1783-1856). Open to the public during the summer season for tours.
5. –The Callaway Log House: Recently purchased by Lindenwood University, for re-erecting on the Boone Home property. The log house was built about 1812 along the Missouri River near present day Marthasville, by Jemima Boone (1762-1834), a daughter of Daniel and Rebecca, and her husband Flanders Callaway (1752-1829).
6. –The Boone burial place where Daniel (1734-1820) and Rebecca (1739-1813) and the Callaways were buried. Located just east of Marthasville. Privately owned but the public is welcome to visit.
7. –The stone house built by Daniel’s brother Squire Boone (1744-1815): It was half completed by Squire in about 1802, and is located about a mile west of the Boone Home. This same property has the large stone oxen-driven mill building of Jonathan Bryan, a cousin of Rebecca Boone, and said to have been raised by Daniel and Rebecca. The buildings are on private property and permission is needed to visit site.
8. –The Jonathan Bryan log house and vertical water mill site, and Bryan cemetery. James Bryan (c.1735-1807) , father of Jonathan and uncle to Rebecca Boone is buried here along with Jonathan (1759-1846) and his wife Mary Hughes Coshow (1766-1826). Located Just west of the Squire Boone stone house property. The sites and cemetery are on private property and permission is needed to visit them.
9. –The stone house of James Van Bibber: James Van Bibber was a brother to Nathan’s wife Olive. The house, recently purchased by Lindenwood University, was built in the early 1800’s and is located about one-half mile west of the Boone Home. The house is accessible to look at and to take outside photograph, but access to the inside is not currently allowed.
10. –The Daniel Hays stone house, water mill and oxen-driven mill sites, and cemetery: The house is located in the Femme Osage valley about a mile east of the Boone Home. Captain Daniel Hays (1789-1866) and his wife Mary Bryan (1798-1867) built the large 3-story stone house in 1836. Daniel Hays, his wife, and most of the children are buried in the cemetery on the property. The property is privately owned, and currently not available to visitors.
11. –The Boone Salt Lick State Historic Site: Located about 20 miles northwest of present Boonville, this site, where Nathan and Daniel Morgan Boone and two partners manufactured salt from salt springs, is accessible to the public and has an interpretive display plus a trail with interpretive markers. The Boone’s Lick Salt works produced almost all of the salt for the early American settlements west of the Mississippi River from 1805 until the 1820’s. The Boones dissolved their part of involvement in the salt manufacturing by 1811 due to excessive Indian problems.
12. –The Boone Settlement: Considered the first major settlement of Americans west of the Mississippi River and the farthest west settlement for a number of years. It was noted as the Boone Settlement by some of the men with Lewis and Clark, as the expedition passed the Boone Settlement which had been established some five years previous to the expedition. This main settlement ran from Daniel Boone’s Spanish Land Grant on the east, to the old French village of La Charette, noted by the Lewis and Clark Expedition as the last white settlement they would see on their way west. Within this 17 mile long Boone Settlement area, the Boone family and relatives owned some 10,000 acres in Spanish Land Grants.
13. –The Boone Trace to the Salt Lick: Blazed in 1805 by Nathan and Daniel Morgan Boone and several others to go from the Boone Settlement to the Boone’s Lick Salt Works some 140 miles into the uninhabited interior to the west. This trail was the first and only trail used by the earliest Americans west of the Mississippi River, until after the War of 1812. There are no markers as yet along this trail, however its location was from Daniel Boone’s Spanish Land Grant on the east, through the Femme Osage valley to La Charette near present Marthasville, and then along the north side of the Missouri River to the Salt Lick some 140 miles to the west.
14. –The Nathan Boone-William Clark Trail to Fort Osage (later the Boone’s Lick Trail): This trail was the second trail west, with Nathan Boone marking it for Clark and his men in 1808. The trail was located some 20 miles north of the Boone Trace, up in the prairie, and was seldom used until 1816 (after the War of 1812) due to Indians claiming that area as their hunting grounds. There are no Nathan Boone-William Clark trail markers, however the eastern end of the trail to as far as the Boone Salt Lick region, is marked by some 30 DAR granite markers which were set in place in 1913. After the war of 1812, this trail became the only trail used for westward migration, and became the front end of the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California Trails. A marker to commemorate the start of the Santa Fe Trail in 1822, is located at the end of the Boone’s Lick Trail, just across the Missouri River from the town of Boonville.
15. –Arrow Rock State Historic Site: Located just across the Missouri River from the Boone Salt Lick State Historic Site, Arrow Rock is one of the earliest towns along the Santa Fe Trail. It has a large Missouri Department of Natural Resources Visitor’s Center, with information on the Boone Salt Lick.
16. –The Nathan Boone Log House State Historic Site: In 1837 Nathan Boone and his wife sold their farm and large stone house in the Femme Osage valley. The log house is being restored. The cemetery where Nathan, Olive, Olive’s mother (Majer or Magery Bounds Van Bibber, who lived to be 104), and at least two of the children are buried in the cemetery on the site. The site is located at Ash Grove, near Springfield, and is administered by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. It may not as yet be open to the public.
17. –The Daniel Morgan Boone Burial Site: This is the site within Kansas City where Daniel Morgan Boone and his wife Sarah Griffin Lewis are buried. Some of the children were also buried in this cemetery. The Boone-Hays Cemetery Committee of the Native Sons of Greater Kansas City are working on preserving this site and making it available to the public as a history related park. It is located on 63rd street adjacent to Brooklyn or Holmes streets.
18. –The Daniel Boone and American Frontier Exhibit: This exhibit is located in the old train depot in the town of Washington, where the Washington area Visitor Center, an art gallery, and the Amtrak Station are also located. The location is just across the Missouri River from the Boone Settlement, and about two miles from where Daniel and Rebecca were buried. The exhibit is the first phase of a planned national Daniel Boone History Museum and Research Center, and for now explains the importance of Daniel Boone and his family as well as describes and locates the Boone history (1797-1820) related sites in Missouri.
Ken Kamper
KenBeaKamper@Juno.com