One Saturday in June, Tom and I joined Ranger Layton in a park vehicle to drive to Boonesboro, Kentucky for the finale of the Boone Trace Commemoration.  2025 marked 250 years since Daniel Boone and his axemen cleared and marked the trail leading into Kentucky.

The Boone Trace Commemoration started on April 23 in Kingsport, Tennessee with a kick-off event.  During the next 45 days, volunteers walked an average of 10 miles a day to make their way along the 240 miles to Fort Boonesborough, Kentucky.  About 20 people walked per day, with the largest group on the last day of the relay.

From Kingsport, the Boone Trace relay passed through Natural Tunnel State Park, then Wilderness Road State Park, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, and finished up at Fort Boonesborough State Park.  Each of the stopping places had a special weekend celebration.  The celebration at Cumberland Gap was the weekend before we arrived in May.

The final Boone Trace weekend celebration was June 7 and 8 in the field just north of the reconstructed Fort Boonesborough.  Many different groups were invited to have booths for sharing information.  Tom and I went to work at the Cumberland Gap booth.  There were also lots of living history demonstrators and a large encampment of settlers.  We were really busy from the moment we arrived at the site until we left around 2 p.m.  We could only go for the events on Saturday because we are too short-staffed at the park on Sunday to spare anyone.

I got the first chance to walk around.  I took my time talking to folks and answering questions.  Several of the living history demonstrators were from Wilderness Road State Park, just around the corner from us.  The woman who had the wool shop had an adorable helper who told me that I needed a hat with yellow stripes.  She was only three and doing a great job as a saleswoman.

I visited a sundries tent that had a neck kerchief that I bought.  The living history closet at Cumberland Gap is light on kerchiefs and stockings, so I decided to supply my own.  One gentleman sold gorgeous carved powder horns.  I ended up talking to him for quite a while.  A lute player serenaded everyone with some lovely period-appropriate songs.

There were six food trucks tucked off to the side of the field.  Two of them sold sandwiches, but the rest had desserts or snacks.  One truck just sold pork rinds.  Ten different flavors of pork rinds!  I didn’t buy any.  The kettle corn smelled great.  I bought a couple of BBQ sandwiches for Tom and I for lunch.  Later I got some ice cream and bought Tom a cookie.  The ice cream wasn’t great, but it was cold and it was a hot, muggy day.

Tom and Layton both took turns walking around.  Ranger Layton attended two of the special programs.  The first was the entrance of the relay walkers with the ax around noon.  There was a special service of commemoration as the ax reached its final destination.  It will be displayed in the museum at Fort Boonesborough.  The second presentation was a discussion of the archaeology study of the original Fort Boonesborough.

After the second presentation, we packed up our booth and left.  We had almost 500 people visit our booth and Tom did most of the talking during the day.  Layton and I did most of the visiting and making contacts with people at other booths.

The Boone Trace Commemoration was a really special event.  I was glad to be able to participate in it and enjoyed the day at Fort Boonesborough.