I. History of the Park
II. Overview of historical significance of Daniel Boone in Davidson County
III. In the Matter of Daniel Boone, by Michael Hill
I. History of the Park
In 1909 the Daniel Boone Memorial Association was incorporated by the North Carolina General Assembly. Philip Sowers had donated 5 acres of land to the Association, and they had a grand idea for a park on the Yadkin River. The act of incorporation reads as follows:
Whereas it is a well-known historical fact that the noted pioneer, Daniel Boone, lived for many years in the State of North Carolina, and that his infancy
[sic] and young manhood were spent in what was at the time Rowan County and is at present the county of Davidson; and whereas it is desirous that his memory should be perpetuated among us, the General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:
Section I. That the Daniel Boone Association be and is hereby created and made a corporation, with power to purchase and hold lands and other property, to erect suitable memorials, to solicit and collect funds, together with historical materials, and do all and such things as are necessary to perpetuate the memory of the life of Daniel Boone in North Carolina.
Section II listed Board of Trustees members as Philip Sowers, G F. Cochran, J R. McCrary, John Henderson, A. H. Boyden, and F. A. Olds, with five additional members to be added later. The trustees were indeed distinguished students of local history. ‘F. A. Olds’ is Col. Fred A. Olds, head of the North Carolina Museum for many years. J.R. McCrary was a prominent local attorney whose love of Davidson County and its history led him to devote many years of work to the park. Half of the Association’s members were from Salisbury, the other half from Lexington.
Around the time the park opened, Mr. McCrary wrote "The Daniel Boone Memorial Booklet," in which he gives the history of the site, referring to a map issued by the U.S. Department of Interior showing the travels of the principal explorers with Boone’s route covering the traditional site in Boone Township. Philip Sowers original donation of 5 acres had increased to approximately 110 acres in 1970 when the Association transferred 110 acres of land to the state. The cave, for which the park is named, is an 80-foot long crevice at the base of the river bluff and was formed by the splitting of rock as the cave was flooded and washed by the river. Legend says that as a young man, Daniel Boone hid from Indians in the cave.
At the time it was dedicated April 30, 1909, the park was a true jewel. McCrary wrote that citizens of Davidson County had given funds to construct what was said to be a replica of the Boone home. The Association collected historical relics of the period for display. Rowan County citizens, strongly represented in the Association’s membership, erected a granite monument with its upper half in the shape of an arrowhead. Likewise, the DAR in Salisbury gave a bronze tablet with an inscription honoring the memory of the great hunter. The park opened after a grand ceremony with speeches made by the leading statesmen of the day, with the grounds in "fine shape for the reception of visitors who will always find someone to gladly show them Boone’s Cave, or Devil’s Den on the banks of the Yadkin River, and other points of interest." Through the years the park was a popular destination and many people remember it as an active and vibrant center of activity for area residents.
In 1940 the National Youth Administration through Mrs. Elizabeth Brinkley, County NYA supervisor, completed the restoration of the Boone memorial, including the ‘reconstruction’ of the log house. The improved project was presented to the county by Jack Lang, State Director of NYA on October 25, 1940, and accepted by Henry Lomax for the County commissioners. The Lexington High School band opened the program and Congressman W. O. Burgin and J. R. McCrary, the most dedicated member of the Daniel Boone Memorial Association, made speeches. A barbecue luncheon was held and the spacious ground inspected.
By 1957 a newspaper article by Wade Phillips of Lexington stated that all members of the original Memorial Association had passed away, including Mr. McCrary, and no one had been appointed to succeed them. Phillips describes the state of the park just 17 years after the dedication of the National Youth Administration’s project in these words:
"….and the Boone home-site was entirely neglected. After some years, the restored Boon cabin was burned down, the memorial defaced; the monument erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution at Salisbury was turned over and broken. The place is now in shambles."
In 1963 Rep. Eugene Synder introduced a bill to authorize $15,000 for developing Boone’s Cave Park. At that time there was a Historic Sites Advisory Committee, which approved or rejected requests for State funds to go towards historic projects. This committee rejected the request for funds. Davidson County appealed to Superior court and hired Raleigh attorney Charles Blanchard to argue for them. The state had George Woodwind of the Attorney Generals office representing the Historic Sites committee.
For two days history was argued in the courtroom. The point of the argument was that the now cabin that has been revered in Davidson county just might be the wrong one. The state presented evidence that Daniel Boone did not sleep on the Davidson Side of the Yadkin at all, and perhaps it should have been the other side of the river that should be marked historic. The state argued that there was not conclusive evidence that the $15,000 should be spent on the other side. There was not real settlement on the question of which riverbank should be honored, as the judge remanded the case to the Advisory committee where it was expected to go through more hearings. (Source: News and Observer, October 15, 1965).
Today, the park is in the process of being turned back over to Davidson County. Heretofore, the 110-acre park has been the smallest one in the state system. For this reason there has been no full-time ranger or attendant, and over the years the park has experienced problems with vandalism, poor maintenance and declining attendance. However, it remains a jewel in the rough, as evidenced by its designation as a North Carolina Natural Heritage Area in 1987. Various studies have been done of the plant and wildlife in the area. Copies of these studies are available from Tourism Development Partnership for Davidson County. There is more information on Boone and the group who founded the park in various libraries and archives in the state. Papers relating to the Daniel Boone Memorial Association are said to be in the North Carolina Southern Historical Collection at UNC, but are not available yet in any on-line database. Much hands-on research remains to be done before we will completely understand Daniel Boone’s years living and hunting on the banks of the Yadkin River.
II: Overview of historical significance of Daniel Boone in Davidson County
Just what are the facts from which the legends grew? The story of Daniel Boone in this area is often qualified by such terms as "local tradition says" and "some sources maintain." However, it is proven historical fact that Daniel’s father, Squire Boone, was a Quaker who came to America from England in 1713. Squire and Sarah Morgan married in 1720, and Daniel was born October 22, 1734, in Berks County, Pennsylvania. In 1750, at the age of fifteen, Daniel led his family to the banks of the Yadkin River. Deed books in Rowan County contain various records for the Boone family title deeds, although none have been found that indicate that the Boone’s owned the property now known as the park. Daniel’s father, Squire, filed a warrant in 1753 claiming 640 acres in an area called the Forks of the Yadkin River, now in Davie County. Historians refer to local traditions that say the family lived in a cave on the east side of the Yadkin for their first few months until they built a cabin in 1751. In any case, by the time the family moved to the Yadkin, Daniel was already a professional hunter, and had probably located this area during his first long hunt the year before. Already a good hunter, he could outshoot just about anybody and had already experienced more cultural and racial diversity than most of us can imagine today.
Records at Boone’s Ford Baptist church show the Boone family were members, and Daniel’s signature appears as a witness on a marriage certificate. He married Rebecca Bryan, whose family lived in Davie County and his parents are buried in Joppa Cemetery in Mocksville, Davie County. Still, the definitive proof that he actually lived in a house on the banks of the Yadkin where the park is now located in Davidson County is elusive. However, Boone’s Cave Park is the only place in the general area that can preserve the natural paradise that drew Boone to the area, and kept him here through his formative adolescent years.
Mr. McCrary refers to the Boone family as having settled in a part of Rowan County that was later known as Davidson County after its creation in 1822, saying that the Boone family lived on a high hill overlooking the Yadkin River. The booklet states that portions of the Boone family’s log home were standing until about 25 years before the park opened, although the authenticity of any cabin being original to the Boone’s is not supported by any other research into the life Daniel Boone. It is interesting to note that the booklet mentions a stone with the inscription "D. Boone" discovered in the ruins of a cabin’s cellar. The stone was sent to the Chicago Exposition and was never returned, its whereabouts unknown. This information is similar to writings about Boone in other areas where he lived, and it is helpful to note that the many great figures in American history are associated with objects purported to be their personal property. In 1926 the Missouri Historical Society, preparing to mount an exhibit on the life of Boone, was warned by an archivist that, "if all the so called relicts [sic] of Boone were collected together it would take several rooms to hold them. Whereas, bear in mind, that Boone lived in a one room cabin." Conversations with researchers at the North Carolina Museum of History and the Kentucky State Museum confirm the large number of artifacts with a Boone connection. Although all the folklore and artifacts may not be strictly authentic to Boone, they illustrate the power of the legend of Daniel Boone as one of the greatest American characters in our country’s history.
During the years Boone lived in this area the personality that would lead him to become one of the greatest American explorers continued to form as he grew from an adventurous boy to confident frontiersman. He roamed and hunted all over the area and won shooting contests in Salisbury, where the prize was sometimes beef, but might also have been whiskey or simply the privilege of collecting all of the lead shot in and about the target. In 1756, at the age of twenty-one, he married Rebecca Bryan, from what is now Davie County. Between 1750 and 1766, he fought with General Braddock in Pennsylvania in the French and Indian War, took his family to Virginia during the Cherokee Wars, in which he also fought, but always returned to this area. In 1766 he left with Rebecca and their children to settle further up the Yadkin in the Wilkes County area of North Carolina. Boone left North Carolina in 1769 for a territory he called Kante-ke—Kentucky.
When the park was established in 1909, Daniel Boone had been dead for almost 90 years, and it had been 160 years since he first came to the area. As with each place Boone lived, there was a lot of interest in Boone’s cabin on the Yadkin. Nearly every area with a Boone claim has photographs of a ‘Boone cabin,’ It is said that the ruins of the ‘original’ cabin disappeared by 1900, and replicas were erected in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Sources say the present cabin was actually moved to the site years ago. Members of the Daniel Boone Memorial Association wanted the state to recognize the park as a historic site, but the state refused, saying there was not enough solid evidence of inhabitation by the Boone Family, said state officials. North Carolina accepted the site into the state’s park system in 1970, but has thus far refused to recognize its historical significance, considering it a recreational area. The park languished for many years, and never received full state staffing due its small size.
NOTE: Ownership of the park was returned to Davidson County at the county’s request in 2003. It is administered by the Davidson County Parks and Recreation Department, and many physical improvements have been made in the past 5 years. In 2006 a park ranger was hired and lives on site. Please contact the recreation department for information on programs and activities available at the park by using the link in "Related Links" on the upper right hand side of page.
Catherine M. Hoffmann
Curator, Davidson County Historical Museum
2004
III. In the Matter of Daniel Boone
[The following article was written in 2002 by Michael Hill, Research Supervisor of the North Carolina Division of Archives & History, and is part of a series of observations on notable events in the history of the Division of Archives and History.]
The scene was extraordinary. On April 25, 1966, in the old Education Building, then home to Archives and History, attorneys took center stage in a public hearing "In the Matter of the Daniel Boone Association, Inc., Petitioners, vs. the Historic Sites Advisory Committee, Respondents." At issue was the authenticity of the purported "Daniel Boone home place" in Davidson County.
It was not the first time that Boone had been the focus of public attention. In 1919 the Historical Commission cosponsored a plaque indicating that young Boone had settled alongside the Yadkin River with his father Squire Boone. J. Hampton Rich (1874-1949) devoted his life to promoting the Boone name and legend. At sites across the nation, including sixty-six in North Carolina from Bryson City to Clinton, the flamboyant Rich erected monuments, many featuring a large arrowhead.
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Most displayed a likeness of the frontiersman, sitting on a boulder with his dog, rifle, and powder horn at his side. One made its way briefly onto the State Capitol grounds in 1943 before being removed. "Fact is if Dan had gone to all the places where Hamp has put monuments to mark his passing, he would have been the travelingest pioneer known to history, sacred or profane," editorialized the Raleigh Times.
The effort to authenticate the Davidson County site was led by Wade Sowers, a dentist who placed family tradition at the center of his case. The site, on which a cabin had been reconstructed, was near Boone’s Cave and Boone’s Ford. In 1963 the legislature appropriated $15,000 for purchase of the property subject to review by Archives and History. Staff, after extensive study, concluded that the site could not be authenticated. They pointed out that claims had arisen associating Boone with numerous sites in the Piedmont, all without basis.
The persistence of the plaintiffs was remarkable. In November 1965, a Wake County Superior Court judge reviewed their appeal and remanded the case to Archives and History. The April 1966 hearing was the consequence. Attorneys for the petitioners cited the 1919 plaque as precedent but Crittenden pointed out that its text did not specify a site. Secondary studies as well as manuscripts collected by Lyman Draper were cited as evidence supporting the contention of the plaintiffs. Much discussion revolved around a stone (since lost) inscribed with Boone’s name. Newspapers had a field day with the ruckus.
In each case, staff countered that contemporary primary source evidence was insufficient to fix a site. It was pointed out the Boone was a squatter and left scarcely any record of his life in North Carolina. In April 1967, another Superior Court judge reviewed the case and tossed it back to Archives and History. The petitioners elected not to appeal to the state Supreme Court. The agency erected in Davie County a marker upon the 640-acre "Boone Tract" acquired in 1752 by Squire Boone. The marker does not specify a home site. Today ownership of Boone’s Cave is in the process of being transferred from the state parks system back to Davidson County government. It will be developed as a local park.