April 23, 2025 through June 7th, 2025, the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association along with several other sponsors will be coordinating a commemorative trek along the original Daniel Boone Trace, from the Netherland Inn in Kingsport, TN to Fort Boonesborough in Kentucky. Volunteers will walk the trek in a relay fashion, advancing a special axe (similar to the olympic torch) along the trail to a final celebration at Fort Boonesborough. The legs of the trek are about 10 miles per day in length from specified start and end points. Most of the Trek will follow secondary roads through Virginia. The hours of the treks will be from mid morning to mid afternoon to keep the volunteers walking during daylight hours. The segments are carefully planned and must advance on schedule to meet the desired arrival date.
Please contact Rhys Wilkins if you would like to participate on April 23rd, for the first 8.5 mile segment from the Netherland Inn to E. Carters Valley Road. Rhys is coordinating volunteers for Troop 48.
Below is an excerpt from Keith Wilson, president of the association. Please consider this opportunity and contact Keith if you would like to volunteer to walk segments beyond April 23rd. Through the Sequoyah Council area, the segments will run from the Netherland Inn in Kingsport to Jonesvilles, VA.
Celebrating Daniel Boone and the Great Migration
America will be celebrating the 250th year of its Declaration of Independence in July 2026. Leading up to that milestone of our shared history, were a myriad of events that culminated in that historic moment. “America250” is an organization established by Congress to plan and execute commemorative celebrations across the country in recognition of our country’s vibrant history.
One of the pivotal events in forming our nation was Daniel Boone’s trek from Long Island in Kingsport to Fort Boonesborough in Kentucky, blazing a trail westward. Boone’s trail/trace became the first and most significant overland migration path from the colonies into Kentucky and the interior of the country over the next thirty years. An estimated 250,000 people migrated into the Midwest over his trail. Boone and his thirty “axemen” blazed the trail in the spring of 1775. In April this year a coalition of partners and volunteer organizations are planning to reenact the event with a relay of a commemorative axe over the 200 hundred miles of the trail.
The trek will begin with a kickoff event at Netherland Inn in Kingsport on April 23rd and conclude at Fort Boonesborough on Saturday June 7th. The relay has been divided into approximately 10 mile segments with the axe passed from one team to another at designated intervals. In addition to the kickoff event hosted by the Netherland Inn Association, other events in celebration are being planned and sponsored along the route. The Daniel Boone Trail Association will commemorate the “settlers “ by bringing them back to life as historic reenactors at the Anderson Blockhouse at Natural Tunnel State Park on April 25th and 26th. Other historic re-enactments are planned on May 3rd and 4th at Wilderness Road State Park and on May 10th and 11th at Cumberland Gap National Park. And on June 7th the culmination of the event is planned with the arrival of the axe at Fort Boonesborough.
Participating partners in planning and executing this undertaking include the City of Kingsport, Kingsport’s Visitors Bureau, the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association, Virginia’s State Parks, the Cumberland Gap Trail Alliance, Cumberland Gap National Park, Scott County 250, and the Friends of Boone Trace. We are currently recruiting volunteers and teams who would like to participate by hiking a segment of the trail. If you or your group would like to participate by hiking in this celebration of our National history, you may email me at kwilson5941@gmail.com.
Keith Wilson
President
Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association,inc.
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