Editing Maysville, Kentucky (section)

===Early settlement===
[[American bison|Buffalo]] once forded the Ohio here, beating a broad path into the interior of Kentucky in search of [[salt lick]]s. For thousands of years, various cultures of [[indigenous peoples]] inhabited the area, hunting the buffalo and other game. In the 17th century, the powerful [[Iroquois Confederacy]], based in present-day [[New York (state)|New York state]], drove out other tribes to hold the Ohio Valley as a hunting ground.

[[European-American]] settlers traveling down the Ohio in the 18th century and early 19th century found a natural harbor at Limestone Creek. The buffalo trace, also a well-used trail traveled for centuries by [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]], was a natural path into the bluegrass region, extending all the way to [[Lexington, Kentucky]].<ref name="leocha" /><ref>Wilson (1909), p 443.</ref> Frontiersman [[Simon Kenton]] made the first settlement in the area in 1775, but temporarily abandoned that to fight in the [[Western theater of the American Revolutionary War|western battles of the American Revolution]]. Returning in 1784, Kenton built a [[blockhouse]] at the site of Maysville and founded Kenton's Station (frontier fort) at a site {{convert|3|mi|0}} inland.<ref>Wilson, p 443.</ref><ref>Howe, p. 21. The old Maysville High School building (converted to apartments in 1999) occupies the site of Kenton's 1784 blockhouse.</ref> Kenton met new settlers at Limestone, as the landing place was called, and escorted them inland to his station. In 1786 the village which grew up near Kenton's Station was established by act of the [[Virginia General Assembly]] as the town of [[Washington, Kentucky|Washington]].<ref name="best">Best (1936).</ref> By this time, John May had acquired the land at Limestone and [[Daniel Boone]] established a [[trading post]] and tavern there. In 1787 the little settlement was [[municipal incorporation|incorporated]] as Maysville, though the name "Limestone" persisted well into the 19th century.<ref>Rennick</ref>