WEBVTT - Ep. 14: Daniel Boone - Foundations of an American Archetype (Part 1) 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:07.880 M so as a storyteller, as a marketer, as a brander. 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:11.080 I like to say, they're kind of, you know, twelve 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:15.200 ish characters, and there are a handful, maybe nine types 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:19.560 of stories, and the best stories combine like these universal 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:24.040 storylines with these universal character types. When I was a 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:27.920 little kid, people would say of people that like to 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:31.240 hunt and fish run around the woods, people would say, 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:34.720 he's a modern day Daniel Boom. He wants to be 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:39.280 just like Daniel Boom. On this episode of the Bargarase podcast, 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:43.239 will be exploring a story as American as cornbread and 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:47.600 black eyed Peas. We're talking about one of America's first heroes, 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:52.040 Daniel Boone. Will sift through the myth and truth and 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:55.160 discuss why the heck we're still talking about him two 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:58.680 hundred years after his death. We'll learn about the mechanism 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:03.800 of archetypes, and I'll interview two New York Times bestselling authors, 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:09.160 Stephen Ranella and Robert Morgan about their fascination with Boone. 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:13.279 The truth is wilder than the myth. This is part 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:17.679 one of our series on Old Daniel Boone, and in 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:20.760 it will walk through the first thirty five years of 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:25.480 his life. You're not gonna wanna miss this one, but 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:29.880 first let me request of you two things. This series 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:33.920 is different than previous Burgers podcasts. It's a big bike 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:37.280 to tell the life story of someone like Boone and 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.760 try to understand their impact on American culture. And honestly, 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.200 it was more challenging than I thought it would be. 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:46.360 But if you'll stick around with me through this, you'll 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:51.200 be glad you did. Lastly, take a quick inventory of 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:55.600 everything you know about Daniel Boone to give you a 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.360 jump start. I'll help you fit Dan into a timeline. 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:03.040 He would was born in seventeen thirty four and died 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:07.760 in eighteen twenty, But what did he do in between? 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:20.680 My name is Clay Nukelem and this is the Bear 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:25.720 Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:29.360 for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:33.600 story of Americans who lived their lives close to the land. 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:39.840 Presented by f HF Gear, American made purpose built hunting 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:43.440 and fishing gear as designed to be as rugged as 0:02:43.440 --> 0:03:07.840 the places we explore. That Okay, this is Josh Lambridge Spillmaker. 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:10.960 Tell me everything you know about Daniel. I know he 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.200 was a big man, I know he fought for America 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:15.839 to keep all Americans free. That's what I know. You're 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:19.600 watching the old Disney Daniel Boone was a man. It's 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:24.240 a big man because he fought for America to capel American. 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:33.480 I'm shocked. You know that song. Okay, a couple of things. 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.040 Daniel Boone was five ft eight and way a hundred 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:40.400 and seventy five pounds. That literally just destroyed my my. 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:43.920 I thought Daniel Boon was like Paul Bunyon. Okay, and 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:45.840 the other thing in the song, it talks about him 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.520 wearing a coonskin cap, which he didn't he did. I 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.480 don't know where you're getting their information, but I've seen 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:56.200 the movies. He wore a coonskin cap. This is my 0:03:56.320 --> 0:04:00.600 other buddy, Jonathan, tell me, uh, every thing you know 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:04.720 about Daniel Boone. How much time do you got tell 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:08.240 me everything. I literally don't know much other than his 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.560 name and that he was an American, that he was 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:15.000 a pioneer. He worked with the He worked with the 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:19.400 Native Americans to discover things and discover the woods. He 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:23.239 was an outdoorsman. Discover the woods, discover the woods, discover 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:26.960 things inside of the woods. I feel like I want 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.800 to say he was at the Alamo. I really, like 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:33.480 naturally want to say he was a part of the Alamo. 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:36.720 But then I feel like it was a guy the 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.000 the Jim Booe was that, that's the Jim Boos at 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:42.200 the Alamo. Like then I kept saying, and then I 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:45.560 kept saying David Bowie. I kept getting Daniel Boone and 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:48.800 David Bowie mixed up in my head. That's really all 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:57.800 I know about Daniel Boone. The action adventure series Daniel 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:01.240 Boone ran on television from nineteens sixty four to nineteen 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:04.720 seventy on NBC. But that wasn't the beginning of our 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:10.520 interest with Boone. America in the world has been fascinated 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:15.200 with him since seventy four, when a former school teacher 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:19.920 named John Philson published a single chapter in his book 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:22.920 which the book was about the American Frontier in Kentucky, 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:27.520 and the chapter was called the Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone. 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:31.839 Boone was fifty years old at the time, and this 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:35.640 catalyzed his fame not just in America but in Europe. 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:41.159 Not long after Boone's death in eighteen twenty, his first 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:45.600 biography was written, and authors have feverishly written about him 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:48.880 for the last two hundred years. Just in one a 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:52.919 new Boone biography came out. What did this man do? 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:56.240 And why are we infatuated with the life of this 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:02.560 back woodsman? This is Steve and Ella. I think the 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:05.400 people know that he was a woodsman and they know 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:07.520 he was a frontiersman. The reason I know that is 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:09.800 the guy became famous. He became famous in his own life. 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:13.520 He was you know, he could almost argue he's one 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:15.560 of those first He was one of those people that 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:18.560 kind of became famous for being famous. Like the fame 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:24.480 self perpetu The fame was self perpetuating because there were 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:27.320 a lot of people, A lot of people were engaged 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:29.599 in the things that Boone was engaged here. So you 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:31.720 have this guy, like why do we know so much 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:34.400 about him? But there were other long hunters. They can't 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:36.960 figure out what their names were. Do you really expect 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:40.320 me to run Mr Boone the way I see it running, 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:49.520 Beach Dyan. The myth and lore around Boone is thick, 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:52.480 and I'd like to whittle this down to the truth. 0:06:53.400 --> 0:07:02.719 But is that even possible. Time is like a carousel ride. 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:05.200 There's a point when you get on and another. When 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:07.760 you get off, you don't get to choose who you 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:11.600 ride with. History allows us to look back at people 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:14.960 who got off the ride before us, but it often 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:23.320 leaves me feeling cheated. There's something intimate about an in 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:28.320 person conversation, eye contact, human voice to human ear, and 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:32.360 physical proximity. One man who I would have ridden a 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:35.200 mule across the country to meet, just to look in 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:39.400 his eyes, to see his hands, and to exchange a 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:44.520 few words with would have been Daniel Boone. Carousel has 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:48.200 cheated me out of getting a firsthand sense of who 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:52.880 he was. Boone is shrouded in deep mystery. He's an 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:57.240 American legend icon and archetype. To sum up Boone's life, 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:01.160 he was a backwoodsman that taught us to chair fish, solitude, 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:04.160 and wilderness, which was a foreign concept to the world. 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:08.240 Raised the Quaker, he was influenced heavily by Native Americans 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:11.920 and was even adopted as a Shawnee. He was a frontiersman, 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:15.000 known for making the Cumberland Gap famous and settling the 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:19.920 Kentucky Frontier. He embodied the westward expansion of America, which 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:24.200 led this country to what it is today. He was uneducated, 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:28.840 but influenced America's literary giants. He fought in the Revolutionary 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:32.720 War for America, but was tried for treason by the Americans. 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:37.040 He attained global fame in his lifetime, owned over thirty 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.640 thousand acres in Kentucky, but he died a common and 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:46.000 poor man. He was a contemporary of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:50.400 and Benjamin Franklin, and only their stories have been told 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:59.240 more in American history than Daniel Boone. It's common for 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:02.560 people to say that Boone is an American archetype. I 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.040 want to get a better understanding of what that means 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:09.080 and how they work. Seth Haines is a published author 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.840 and the founder of through Line Strategy and brand. A 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:15.360 couple of years ago, he introduced me to the idea 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:20.000 of archetypes as they're used in modern branding. Meet my 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:25.040 buddy Seth Paynes. So, in my work as a writer 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:28.760 and in my work doing branding and marketing, we use 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:32.920 archetypes a lot as sort of shortcuts for characters. And 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.120 there's you know, some some old work that's been done 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:40.360 on this by Carl Eung. There's about twelvish archetypes twelvish 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.200 universal characters. So as the storyteller, as a marketer, as 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:46.200 a brander, I like to say, they're kind of, you know, 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:50.559 twelve ish characters. And there are a handful, maybe nine 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:54.600 types of stories, and the best stories combine like these 0:09:54.760 --> 0:10:00.040 universal storylines with these universal character types. Um so and 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:01.920 so this is almost like something that's going on in 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.800 the background that we don't even realize, but we'll totally 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:07.720 identify with yeah, and and everyone in the world. I mean, 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:09.640 I think if you were to break down your life 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:11.360 and say, here are the people in my life, you 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:14.160 could almost break them down to oh, yeah, this guy 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.559 represents the character of an outlaw. You know, he's always 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:20.000 a rebel, he's always on the run, he's always something. 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:24.839 This person represents the character of an explorer, someone who's 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:27.120 always out in the wilderness looking for something to get into, 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.520 some expression of freedom. And these character types, or what 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:34.520 we call archetypes. So an archetypal expression is just simply like, 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:38.640 this is the character that I play in the universal 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.640 story of life. Can you give me an example of 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:46.559 a national American figure that we've used as an archetype, 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:51.880 like like Johnny Cash. It's like an outlaw archetype. Yeah, 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:55.320 I love Johnny Cash as an archetype because I actually 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:59.280 think he's terribly complex. The Man in Black is I 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:02.120 mean a thousand present the rebel right. I mean, if 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:04.760 you picture Johnny Cash day, you'd see him, you know, 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:07.760 on a Harley with his guitar slung over his shoulder 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:11.120 or something, and always pushing the boundaries, always pushing it 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:14.680 back against societal norms and so and he's always trying 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.480 to to bring even in his music, you know, Wood 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:19.720 he Got Through is another example of this, always trying 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:23.240 to push against the norms of society to find what's 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.360 true and what's real. Johnny Cash, though, I love because 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:28.400 when you really look at his life, like he was 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:31.040 also extremely generous. I mean the stories I've heard about 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:35.480 Johnny Cash's generosity for everything from kids, to sick people 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:38.840 to the elderly. Um, he truly cared for his community 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:41.319 of people. So he had this public persona that was 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:44.559 very much rebel, but he also had this private life 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:47.520 that was very much caregiver. And so sometimes I think 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:51.600 we even find that we embody different archetypes depending on 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:54.360 where we are. That's a good that's a good example 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.679 because what I see inside these archetypes and even inside 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:00.960 of Boon is that they repres sent to people that 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:05.559 really don't know them. This one dominant feature. Like Johnny 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:09.080 Cash is an outlaw, outlaw music outlaw. He's complex, you 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:11.199 realize he's a human and he has this bigger space. 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:17.960 Like Boone is this courageous explorer, you know, frontiersman, conquering wilderness. 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:20.760 That's something that we like. But that was actually a 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:23.160 pretty not I'm not gonna say a small part, but 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:26.120 there was much more to Boone's life than that. But 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:30.199 the point being, we we are embracing something. It's kind 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:34.840 of like a shroud of marketing around a person. It's branding. Yeah, 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.640 it's a hun and so you know, one of the 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:39.280 things that we like to say when we talk about 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:42.600 branding is that branding is biological. And so what we 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:45.959 do is humans, is we take a character or take 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:49.640 a person, and we impute to them or give to them. 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:53.200 Like the character type of the story that that you 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:56.400 know best sort of resonates with us internally. And I'll 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:00.920 tell you, man, the biggest characters in American history understand that, 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:04.240 know that and embrace it, and it becomes part of 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:06.120 their mystique and part of their branding, and that's what 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:09.120 gives them lasting influence. And that's what's wild about Boon 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:13.360 is it was clear that he, even even in the 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.760 seventeen hundreds, when there was not social media, I mean 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:20.240 like high level technology, was someone writing with a quill 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:24.079 and ink you know, it's your story. He played the 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.640 part and it wasn't inauthentic. It wasn't it was It 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:31.240 wasn't like he was trying to drum up publicity around 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:33.360 his life. He was who he was. But at the 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:38.720 same time he was pretty masterful at doing things, saying things, 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:42.160 and being things at the right time for people to 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:47.800 remember him. These archetypes basically are our human shortcuts to 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:55.760 understand the world around us. Understanding the mechanisms of culture 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:59.640 building is important. I also think it's interesting that most 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:03.360 of what we know about Boone didn't come directly from him, 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:08.520 and there in Liza's mystery, wildly two different drafts of 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:14.040 firsthand interviews with him were defunct. One manuscript was completed 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:18.559 but lost. The other manuscript was incomplete but lost to 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:24.680 what the heck? Who's in charge here? However, in eighteen 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:29.120 fifty one, thirty one years after Boone's death, a young 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:34.080 nerdy librarian and historian from New York named Lyman Draper 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:40.320 traveled to Missouri to interview Daniel's youngest and only living son, 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:44.320 Nathan Boone, who at the time was seventy years old. 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:49.520 It was said that Draper was quote nearly obsessed by 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:53.040 the passing of the old frontiersman, and he determined to 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:58.560 collect as much material and interview as many survivors as possible. 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:03.400 Draper and Nathan give us the most intimate and accurate 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:07.640 look into Boone's life. You can actually buy them compiled 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:12.800 as a book titled My Father Daniel Boone. Here's an 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:20.320 excerpt from the manuscripts. My grandfather's squire Boone was a 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:24.040 weaver and a farmer. His residence was probably an only 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:26.840 He kept at least five or six looms going at 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:29.640 one time. He had his homestead and in the grass 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:33.400 season moved his stock back several miles distance to a 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:37.080 fine range where cow pens were made for hurting cattle 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:40.200 at nights, and a cabin was built in which Miss 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:43.720 Boone spent the dairy season in attending to her milk. 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.280 During the mild weather, Her son Daniel went with her 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:49.760 to act as a herdsman. He went with the cattle 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:52.280 during the daily roaming through the woods and brought them 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:55.640 back each evening. This was his chief occupation from the 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:59.920 age of ten to seventeen. This move was an annual affair, 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:03.600 and Ms Boone always went personally to attend the dairy, 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:07.120 and her son Daniel was always attendant to watch her 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:10.440 and take care of the cattle. My father soon became 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.160 fond of the woods, even at the age of ten. 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:16.360 He would carry a club a grub dug up by 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:20.200 the roots, nicely shaven down, leaving a rudy knob at 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:23.640 the end, which he called his herdsman's club. He became 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:26.760 an expert in using it to kill birds in small game. 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:30.960 This life enabled him to study their habits. When he 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:33.280 was twelve or thirteen, his father bought him a gun 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:36.600 and he became a good marksman. The only problem was 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:39.720 that he often neglected his hurting duties to hunt, but 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:43.480 this experience gave him his love of woods and hunting. 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.520 Daniel's brother, Samuel, was born in seventeen twenty eight. According 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:50.640 to the records of Squire Boone Jr. Samuel had a 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:54.200 very intelligent wife who taught my father to read, spell 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:57.600 and write a little. This was all the education Daniel 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:01.160 ever had, as he never attended school, but he acquired 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:05.560 more education by his own efforts, particularly in writing, as 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:09.600 he could do little more than rudely write his own name. 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:19.840 In all my research on Boone, I was moved by 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:23.600 Nathan's account of his father. I envisioned me talking about 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:27.200 my own father or my son, recounting my life long 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:31.520 after my passing. We're gonna camp around Boone for a 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:36.040 few episodes. He influenced the American Hedgemont the way that 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.400 we think and to understand who we are. I think 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:42.880 we need to acknowledge and be aware of the boon influence. 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:48.280 I'm interested in how Boone has influenced my life unknowingly. 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:54.840 Stephen Runnella is the founder of a company called meat Eater, 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:58.560 the company that this Here Bear Grease podcast is produced by. 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:02.600 He's in New York's best selling author, an American Hunter, 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:07.040 but he's also known as a national Boone expert. Runella 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:09.439 began his young life in the outdoors with dreams of 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:13.000 being a full time trapper like Boone was during periods 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:15.800 of his life. It was a real treat to get 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:21.240 to sit with Steve and talk Boone. There's been like 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:25.840 countless boon biography has written since the time of just 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:35.240 after he died. Has recently sent me up still So okay, 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:39.800 so people have this I can, and that is exactly 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:42.640 what I want to talk to you about. Why are 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:44.560 we so well? I want to I want to dive 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:48.439 into your personal interest in Boone? Why were you so 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:51.119 interested in boon Man when I was When I was 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:54.840 just a little kid, people would say, of people that 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:58.040 like to hunt and fish, okay, run around the woods. 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:02.919 People would say, he's a modern day Daniel Boone. He 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.160 wants to be just like Daniel Boone. He's a real 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:11.440 Daniel Boone. It means like the consummate woodsman, right, It's 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:15.760 like the dedicated woodsman. I didn't realize when I first 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:18.879 started to hear that term, you know, growing up with it, 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:21.919 I didn't realize like how correct it was. I think 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:25.320 the people know that he was a woodsman, and they 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:27.879 know he was a frontiersman. The reason I know that 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:29.760 as the guy became famous, he became famous in his 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:35.080 own life. He was you know, he could almost argue 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:37.120 he's one of those first he was one of those 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:39.359 people that kind of became famous for being famous, Like 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:49.480 the fame self perpetu. The fame was self perpetuating because Um, 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:52.760 there were a lot of people, a lot of people 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:56.639 were engaged and the things that Boone was engaged in. 0:19:57.520 --> 0:19:59.439 There were a lot of market hunters, there were a 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:01.000 lot of long hunters. There were a lot of people 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:03.080 who got tangled up in the American Revolution, in the 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:06.600 western front of the American Revolution. There were a lot 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:10.320 of people who one and lost a ton of money 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:14.159 speculating in land. There were a lot of people that 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:17.760 started frontier settlements or stations out on the frontier. Tons 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.800 of people did this stuff. Boone wasn't the first one 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:23.080 to go through the Cumberland Gap, and of course he 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:25.440 wasn't the first one. Boone wasn't the first year American 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:28.719 to go through the Cumberland Gap. But he owns that 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:34.720 event because like he got he got a notoriety and 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:38.480 I'm not I'm glad it happened. And people started to 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:40.639 ask questions. They talked to his relatives, they talked to 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.720 the children of his children, and and his body like 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:45.679 built up. So you have this guy, like why do 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:49.439 we know um so much? About him. But there were 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:51.560 all their long hunters. They came figure out what their 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:55.240 names were. Yeah, who were his contemporaries? Because I know 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:59.600 because it never like the seed never got started, the 0:20:59.840 --> 0:21:03.040 idea that like to to to investigate an individual, that 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:05.600 happened with Boone, And the investigation continued and continue to 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:08.240 continue to the point where we put together for like 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:14.760 really remarkable. Um, it's really remarkable biography of dates and 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:17.040 where he went, what he did, what his feelings about 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:20.680 things were. Um. And then people tracked down the people 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:23.520 he hung out with, they tracked down his relatives. There's 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:28.560 a later on a researcher like a historian his time 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:33.679 whever he went to talk to Boone's kid. Yeah, relates 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:37.560 the story where you have insight into Um. The story 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:39.760 I'm gonna tell you is an example of like how 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:44.159 thorough the investigation of Boone was. Right, Boone became a 0:21:44.200 --> 0:21:46.160 little bit famous and was well known. I mean, he 0:21:46.240 --> 0:21:49.280 wasn't like everybody else he was. He was exemplary. People 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:53.640 recognized in his own time that he was an outstanding woodsman. 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:57.720 But as he became famous, it prompted more and more 0:21:57.800 --> 0:22:01.640 people to go and interview him, and the people around him. 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:05.160 So that little bit, like imagine a snowball rolling down 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:07.960 a hill and went snow right. He had a little 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:09.720 bit of fame, which is the initial bit of the 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:14.080 thing going. But it led to investigation, which led to investigation, 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:17.000 which led to an investigation. Were eventually you know, you 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:20.119 have this like this one individual of of dozens of 0:22:20.200 --> 0:22:23.000 long hunters, of his contemporaries, this one individual who we 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:25.440 put together a ton of information about, and there's a 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:27.360 there's an interesting thing that comes from like very late 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:30.320 in his life. Someone was interviewing one of his children 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:33.760 one time, and the kids describing this is that this 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:36.440 is after the after the bulk of the Indian Wars 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:39.600 are over, this is after the American Revolution. His kids 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:44.960 describing being out hunting with his father. I think maybe 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:47.040 it would be best if we hear it in the 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:53.919 words of Nathan Boone himself. In the fall of father 0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:56.680 and I were out hunting. We camped on the northern 0:22:56.720 --> 0:22:59.080 bank of the Ohio River, some two or three miles 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:02.080 above the mouth of Campaign Creek, which was ten or 0:23:02.080 --> 0:23:05.639 twelve miles above Point Pleasant. It was frosty weather and 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:09.639 the leaves were falling. About the second morning, a foggy morning. 0:23:10.000 --> 0:23:13.159 My father went off, leaving me alone at the camp. 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:17.480 A large fine buck came within twenty or twenty five 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:21.359 steps of camp. I seized my small rifle. This was 0:23:21.440 --> 0:23:24.240 not my little bird rifle, which used the ball about 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:26.240 the size of a buckshot, that one I used to 0:23:26.320 --> 0:23:29.960 kill birds and squirrels near Crooked Creek back of Point Pleasant. 0:23:30.440 --> 0:23:34.159 This larger rifle was made by my father and William R. Buckle, 0:23:34.240 --> 0:23:36.960 a gunsmith. I rested his gun against one of the 0:23:37.040 --> 0:23:40.560 camp posts and fired, but the deer ran off. Father 0:23:40.640 --> 0:23:42.960 heard the shot and returned to camp. He asked me 0:23:43.000 --> 0:23:45.600 to point out where the deer stood. There he found 0:23:45.880 --> 0:23:49.119 hair which the ball had cut off. Then he followed 0:23:49.160 --> 0:23:52.359 the trail found blood. Sixty year eighty yards further he 0:23:52.440 --> 0:23:55.320 found the dead deer. This was the first deer I 0:23:55.440 --> 0:23:59.240 ever killed. But my father didn't leave me at camp anymore. 0:23:59.440 --> 0:24:01.800 He took me with him two or three times and 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:04.480 pointed out deer, then showed me how to manage to 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:07.440 get off shots. I was not to move or attempt 0:24:07.480 --> 0:24:09.480 to steal up on the deer when his head was 0:24:09.560 --> 0:24:11.879 up and chewing, and when he was looking around, but 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:14.439 to do so when his head was down feeding and 0:24:14.440 --> 0:24:17.520 could not so well see me. Following this advice, I 0:24:17.600 --> 0:24:20.280 killed one or two other deer during this hunt. While 0:24:20.359 --> 0:24:23.200 we were together. My father shot a bear and one 0:24:23.280 --> 0:24:26.120 or two others when he was alone the first day. 0:24:26.240 --> 0:24:28.880 From these two or three bear we saved all the meat, 0:24:29.040 --> 0:24:31.480 and of the ten or fifteen deer, we saved the 0:24:31.480 --> 0:24:35.199 best hind quarters. On the fifth night, about midnight, I 0:24:35.240 --> 0:24:38.520 had been asleep for some time, but my father, Daniel Boone, 0:24:38.600 --> 0:24:42.120 heard of chopping or hacking some distance above and across 0:24:42.160 --> 0:24:44.560 the river. He awakened me, and he told me he 0:24:44.720 --> 0:24:47.840 thought the noise was made by Indians, as he thought 0:24:47.880 --> 0:24:51.080 it was made by their hatchet. He concluded that Indians 0:24:51.080 --> 0:24:53.680 had probably seen the fire at our camp, and we're 0:24:53.760 --> 0:24:57.640 making a raft to cross. We carried meat and skins 0:24:57.680 --> 0:25:00.880 to our canoe, which was twenty five yards camp, and 0:25:00.920 --> 0:25:04.120 returned to our fire again. The night was clear and 0:25:04.119 --> 0:25:07.560 frosty and a little foggy, so we remained at our 0:25:07.600 --> 0:25:11.240 fire with our blankets for some time. After the chopping ceased. 0:25:11.480 --> 0:25:14.359 We then went to our canoe. There we stayed some 0:25:14.520 --> 0:25:18.080 ten minutes until we heard the Indians paddling in the water. 0:25:18.280 --> 0:25:21.199 At that time, We pushed off, and father ordered me 0:25:21.280 --> 0:25:24.439 to roll his blanket around myself and lie down in 0:25:24.480 --> 0:25:27.200