Daniel Boone Was A Man

Years ago while attending Appalachian State University, my roommates & I attended the first annual Boone Days. One of the things we took away from this experience- the Daniel Boone theme song and the catchphrase "Daniel Boone was a man, yes a BIG man".

So in my move from Boone, North Carolina to Kentucky it was almost a requirement to go straight to Daniel Boone's gravesite which is located in Frankfort, KY. The Frankfort Cemetery is not the original site of burial for Daniel and his wife Rebecca. Originally they were buried in Missouri. According to wikipedia they may even still be buried there (more info on his death & burial can be found here), but here is the gist: 

"In 1845, the Boones' remains were supposedly disinterred and reburied in a new cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky. Resentment in Missouri about the disinterment grew over the years, and a legend arose that Boone's remains never left Missouri. According to this story, Boone's tombstone in Missouri had been inadvertently placed over the wrong grave, but no one had ever corrected the error. Boone's relatives in Missouri, displeased with the Kentuckians who came to exhume Boone, kept quiet about the mistake, and they allowed the Kentuckians to dig up the wrong remains. There is no contemporary evidence that this actually happened, but in 1983, a forensic anthropologist examined a crude plaster cast of Boone's skull made before the Kentucky reburial and announced it might be the skull of an African American. Negro slaves had also been buried at Tuque Creek, so it is possible the wrong remains were mistakenly removed from the crowded graveyard. Both the Frankfort Cemetery in Kentucky and the Old Bryan Farm graveyard in Missouri claim to have Boone's remains."

As a anthropologist in training I have to say that I learned race is very hard to find via skeletal characteristics.

Just like with Col. Sanders we had to follow the yellow dotted line to find the famous Daniel Boone. Here are some pictures from the gravesite:

Daniel Boone this way! Photo by K. Stevens 2012.

Boone has a really great overlook of the capitol of Kentucky, Frankfort. This is a panorama. 
Photo by K. Stevens 2012.   

 Pictures of each side of the monument. Some are not politically correct to say the least (see bottom right picture). 

Photo by K. Stevens 2012.

Photo by K. Stevens 2012.

Photo by K. Stevens 2012.

Photo by K. Stevens 2012.

Daniel Boone Monument.  Photo by K. Stevens 2012.