Daniel Boone (September 26, 1820) was an
American pioneer, explorer,
woodsman, and frontiersman, whose
frontier exploits made him one of the first
folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now
Kentucky, which was then part of Virginia, but on the other side of the mountains from the settled areas. As a young adult, Boone supplemented his farm income by hunting and trapping game, and selling their pelts in the
fur market. Through this occupational interest, Boone first learned the easy routes to the area. Despite some resistance from American Indian tribes such as the
Shawnee, in 1775, Boone blazed his
Wilderness Road through the
Cumberland Gap in the
Appalachian Mountains from
North Carolina and
Tennessee into Kentucky. There, he founded the village of
Boonesborough, Kentucky, one of the first American settlements west of the Appalachians. Before the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 Americans migrated to Kentucky/Virginia by following the route marked by Boone.