View full article in PDF format
“Daniel Boone Slept Here” was published in Sierra Magazine, January/February 2000.
“Legend has it that Daniel Boone was asked if he had ever been lost during his decades of exploring uncharted wilderness. ‘No,’ replied America’s quintessential pioneer, ‘but I was plumb bewildered for a few days once.’ It could easily have been in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge. A dendritic maze of red sandstone canyons, the gorge would look like Utah if it weren’t almost swallowed by a lush hardwood forest. Beneath the canopy lies one of the greatest concentrations of natural arches in the world: more than a hundred in 30 square miles. It’s a bittersweet exercise in historical imagination to try to see them as Boone did.”