Editing Daniel Boone (section)

==Legacy==
[[File:Boone by Audubon.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait of Boone, [[John James Audubon]], after 1810]]
{{blockquote|Many heroic actions and chivalrous adventures are related of me which exist only in the regions of fancy. With me the world has taken great liberties, and yet I have been but a common man.|Daniel Boone{{sfn|Faragher|1992|p=302}}}}

Daniel Boone remains an iconic figure in American history, although his status as an early American folk hero and later as a subject of fiction has tended to obscure the actual details of his life. He emerged as a legend in large part because of [[John Filson]]'s "The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boon", part of his book [[The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke|''The Discovery, Settlement and present State of Kentucke'']]. First published in 1784, Filson's book was primarily intended to popularize Kentucky to immigrants.{{sfn|Slotkin|1973|pp=268–312}} It was translated into French and German, and made Boone famous in America and Europe. Based on interviews with Boone, Filson's book contained a mostly factual account of Boone's adventures from the exploration of Kentucky through the American Revolution, although many have doubted if the florid, philosophical dialogue attributed to Boone was authentic.{{#tag:ref|Unlike most biographers, Morgan argues the dialogue in Filson's book may be a fairly accurate representation of how Boone would have spoken to an educated easterner like Filson.{{sfn|Morgan|2007|p=336}}|group=note}} Often reprinted, Filson's book established Boone as one of the first popular heroes of the United States.{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=4–7}}{{sfn|Lofaro|2012|p=180}}

[[Timothy Flint]] also interviewed Boone, and his ''Biographical Memoir of Daniel Boone, the First Settler of Kentucky'' (1833) became one of the best-selling biographies of the 19th century. Flint embellished Boone's adventures, doing for Boone what [[Parson Weems]] did for [[George Washington]]. In Flint's book, Boone fought with a bear, escaped from Indians by swinging on vines (as [[Tarzan]] would later do), and so on. Although Boone's family thought the book was absurd, Flint greatly influenced the popular conception of Boone, since these tall tales were recycled in countless [[dime novel]]s and books aimed at young boys.{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=323–324}}

===Symbol and stereotype===
[[File:Daniel Boone protects his family.jpg|thumb|"Daniel Boone Protects His Family", based on ''[[The Rescue (statue)|The Rescue]]'', a controversial statue that once stood outside the [[United States Capitol]] building]]

Thanks to Filson's book, Boone became a symbol of the "natural man" who lives a virtuous, uncomplicated existence in the wilderness. This was famously expressed in [[Lord Byron]]'s epic poem ''[[Don Juan (poem)|Don Juan]]'' (1822), which devoted a number of stanzas to Boone, including this one:
{{poemquote
|Of the great names which in our faces stare,
:The General Boon, back-woodsman of Kentucky,
Was happiest amongst mortals anywhere;
:For killing nothing but a bear or buck, he
Enjoyed the lonely vigorous, harmless days
Of his old age in wilds of deepest maze.{{sfn|Faragher|1992|p=328}}}}

Byron's poem celebrates Boone as someone who found happiness by turning his back on civilization. In a similar vein, many folk tales depicted Boone as a man who migrated to more remote areas whenever civilization crowded in on him. In a typical anecdote, when asked why he was moving to Missouri, Boone supposedly replied, "I want more elbow room!" Boone rejected this interpretation. "Nothing embitters my old age," he said late in life, like "the circulation of absurd stories that I retire as civilization advances."{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=302, 325–326}}

Existing simultaneously with the image of Boone as a refugee from society was, paradoxically, the popular portrayal of him as civilization's trailblazer. Boone was celebrated as an agent of [[Manifest Destiny]], a pathfinder who tamed the wilderness, paving the way for the extension of American civilization. In 1852, critic [[Henry Tuckerman]] dubbed Boone "the Columbus of the woods", comparing Boone's passage through the Cumberland Gap to [[Christopher Columbus]]'s voyage to the New World. In popular mythology, Boone became the first to explore and settle Kentucky, opening the way for countless others to follow.{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=321–322, 350–352}} In fact, other Americans had explored Kentucky before Boone, as debunkers in the 20th century often pointed out, but Boone came to symbolize them all, making him what historian Michael Lofaro called "the [[Founding Fathers of the United States|founding father]] of westward expansion."{{sfn|Lofaro|2012|pp=181–182}}

In the 19th century, when Native Americans were being [[Indian removal|displaced from their lands]] and confined on [[Indian reservation|reservations]], Boone's image was often reshaped into the stereotype of the belligerent, Indian-hating frontiersman which was then popular. In John A. McClung's ''Sketches of Western Adventure'' (1832), for example, Boone was portrayed as longing for the "thrilling excitement of savage warfare." Boone was transformed in the popular imagination into someone who regarded Indians with contempt and had killed scores of the "savages". The real Boone disliked bloodshed. According to historian John Bakeless, there is no record that Boone ever [[Scalping|scalped]] Indians, unlike other frontiersmen of the era.{{sfn|Bakeless|1939|p=162}} Boone once told his son Nathan that he was certain of having killed only one Indian, during the battle at Blue Licks,{{sfn|Faragher|1992|p=219}} although on another occasion he said, "I never killed but three."{{sfn|Faragher|1992|p=39}} He expressed regret over the killings, saying the Indians "have always been kinder to me than the whites."{{sfn|Morgan|2007|p=2}} Even though Boone had lost two sons and a brother in wars with Indians, he respected Indians and was respected by them. In Missouri, Boone went hunting with the Shawnees who had captured and adopted him decades earlier.{{sfn|Morgan|2007|p=245}}{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=313–314}} Some 19th-century writers regarded Boone's sympathy for Indians as a character flaw and altered his words to conform to contemporary attitudes.{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=320, 333}}

===Commemoration and portrayals===
[[File:Daniel Boone2 1968 Issue-6c.jpg|thumb|1968 Boone commemorative stamp]]
[[File:Daniel boone bicentennial half dollar commemorative obverse.jpg|thumb|Obverse of the United States [[Daniel Boone Bicentennial half dollar]], designed by [[Henry Augustus Lukeman]] and minted from 1934 to 1938]]

Many places in the United States are named for Boone, including the [[Daniel Boone National Forest]] in Kentucky and the [[Sheltowee Trace Trail]] in Tennessee. His name has long been synonymous with the American outdoors. The [[Boone and Crockett Club]] is a conservationist organization founded by [[Theodore Roosevelt]] in 1887, and the [[Sons of Daniel Boone]] was the precursor of the [[Boy Scouts of America]]. A [[Daniel Boone Bicentennial half dollar|half-dollar coin]] was minted in 1934 to mark the bicentennial of Boone's birth; a commemorative stamp was issued in 1968.{{sfn|Draper|1998|pp=xxiv–xxv}} In 1961, the US Navy ordered ten {{sclass|James Madison|submarine|0}} [[ballistic missile submarine]]s to be made at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard. One would be named the [[USS Daniel Boone|USS ''Daniel Boone'']] (SSBN-629), commissioning on April 23, 1964, and remaining in service until decommissioning in 1994. The submarine's motto "New Trails to Blaze" was an homage to Boone's life and his great legacy of exploration on the frontier.

Boone's adventures, real and mythical, formed the basis of the archetypal hero of the American West, popular in 19th-century novels and 20th-century films. The main character of [[James Fenimore Cooper]]'s ''[[Leatherstocking Tales]]'', the first of which was published in 1823, bore striking similarities to Boone; even his name, Nathaniel Bumppo, echoed Daniel Boone's name. As mentioned above, ''[[The Last of the Mohicans]]'' (1826), Cooper's second ''Leatherstocking'' novel, features a fictionalized version of Boone's rescue of his daughter. After Cooper, other writers developed the Western hero, an iconic figure which began as a variation of Daniel Boone.{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=330–333}}

In the 20th century, Boone was featured in numerous comic strips, radio programs, novels, and films, such as the 1936 film ''[[Daniel Boone (1936 film)|Daniel Boone]]''{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=338–340}} as well as the 1956 ''[[Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer]]'' shot in Mexico during the ''[[Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier]]'' [[Fad|craze]] of the time. Boone was the subject of a [[Daniel Boone (1964 TV series)|TV series]] that ran from 1964 to 1970. In the theme song for the series, Boone was described as a "big man" in a "[[coonskin cap]]" and the "rippin'est, roarin'est, fightin'est man the frontier ever knew!"{{#tag:ref|The complete lyrics of the song: {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060620142133/http://danielboonetv.com/themesong.html |date=June 20, 2006 }}.|group=note}} This did not describe the real Boone, who was not a big man and did not wear a coonskin cap, which he thought uncouth and uncomfortable.{{sfn|Morgan|2007|p=xi}} Boone was portrayed this way in the TV series because [[Fess Parker]], the tall actor who played him, was essentially reprising his role as [[Davy Crockett]] from an earlier [[Davy Crockett (miniseries)|TV series]]. That Boone could be portrayed the same way as Crockett, another American frontiersman with a very different personality, was another example of how Boone's image was reshaped to suit popular tastes.{{sfn|Lofaro|2012|p=180}}{{sfn|Faragher|1992|p=339}} He was also the subject matter for the song sung by [[Ed Ames]] called "Daniel Boone". It was released in 1966.

[[Arthur Guiterman]] in a four stanza poem recounts the life of Boone, ending with his ghost happily tracking animals, both ancient and mythical, across the [[Milky Way]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Guiterman |first=Arthur |title=Daniel Boone |url=https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/daniel-boone-1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424091349/https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/daniel-boone-1 |archive-date=April 24, 2023 |website=PoetryNook}}</ref> ''The Taking of Jemima Boone'' by [[Matthew Pearl]], published in 2021, is an account of the abduction of the daughter of Daniel Boone and, after her rescue by Boone, then shifts to the conflicts between Boone, his political rival Richard Callaway, and Shawnee leader Blackfish, with resulting impacts to the [[Western theater of the American Revolutionary War]].<ref>What the Kidnapping of Daniel Boone's Daughter Tells Us About Life on the Frontier, ''[[New York Times]]'', October 5, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2022.</ref>