Daniel Boone Heritage Center

John and I have visited the Daniel Boone home several times in the past, and about 4 years ago I wrote a couple of postings on it.  At that time an historic village was starting to be constructed around that time; one of the first buildings was the old Peace Chapel, which I wrote about.  We read in the newspaper that more buildings had been brought into the village, so we decided to take another trip out there and see what was new.  John and I arrived at just about the time for a tour of the Nathan Boone mansion, where Daniel spent his last years.  Our guide this time gave us quite an extensive review of Boone's life, so in many ways repeating a tour of the house was not a bad idea at all.  It was also interesting that some of the things in the past which were said, for example, about the features of the house, were not mentioned this time at all.  Our guide explained at the beginning of our tour that some things that were thought to be true before had been discovered not to be valid.  Following the tour of the house we then took a guided tour of the village. 

There are now about 15 historic buildings which have been moved into the village.   I should first clarify that some of the buildings have been built for education purposes, as the first two buildings on the left in the picture above.  The cabin on the left was recently built with old logs and constructed in the manner it would have been built back in the late 1700s.  The small structure next to it represents a temporary blacksmith shop.  The tall white building next to that is a land office building dating from the mid-1880s.  When Daniel Boone and his family arrived in the region they were recipients of Spanish land grants.  Of course that changed after the Louisiana Purchase when the land was sold to the general public.  The last building, on the right, is a general mercantile store.  Our guide took us into that building where there is a variety of goods which were probably commonly sold back in Boone's day.

It is amazing to me that, despite having toured many old homes and museums in the past seven years we have been traveling, there are still many artifacts from the past which we have never seen before.  One such item is the spill, which is a twisted piece of paper used to start fires.  Two of them are in the middle of the picture above.  Above them is a twist of tobacco, and next to that is a clay pipe. Below the clay pipe are some horn spoons, there are also a variety of buttons and tools for melting down bullets in the display.

I think this was the first time we have been inside a grist mill, which is on land rather than water.  It was built in 1846, and was powered by four horses which turned the machinery that drove the grinding stones. They are located on the floor above.  The stones could be adjusted to make the grain finer if need be. 

Pictured above is Squire Boone's home.  He was one of Daniel Boone's younger brothers, a great gunsmith.  He acquired 700 acres of land in what is now Missouri.  Squire was almost to the halfway point of building this stone home when his sons urged him to return back home to Indiana.  Other than the log cabin and Boone's home, we did not tour any of the other older residences in the village (they number about seven).  I guess that they are not ready for tours yet.  Lindenwood College recently sold this village which encompasses a 1,000 acres to the county, and I am hoping that the needed improvements for this village can now be made.  We were told by a staff member that there may also be plans to build trails around the village with connections to perhaps another Boone home in the area.   It is not not surprising to find many of Boone's descendants living in Missouri today.  Daniel and his wife Rebecca had 10 children, seven of whom lived to marry and gave them 68 grandchildren.