All Appalachian Regional Library locations will be closed on Thursday, April 16th for staff training.
Wilkes County Blog
Daniel Boone during the American Revolution
Friday, 10 April 2026 16:02Daniel Boone is a revolutionary, and he helped create America.
He is America’s pioneer hero who lived in North Carolina for 21 years. Indeed, our Yadkin River valley in where Daniel Boone learned to be “Daniel Boone.” And when he marked his famous route, Boone Trace, into the Kentucky wilderness in spring 1775, he began America’s First Westward Movement, which continued hand in hand all throughout the American Revolution. Daniel Boone’s story during the American Revolution is part and parcel of the epic tale of America gaining its independence 250 years ago.
That exciting tale is the story shared in the talk, “Between Two Sons—Daniel Boone during the American Revolution” on Saturday, April 18 at 10:30 a.m. at the Wilkes County Public Library, 215 Tenth St., North Wilkesboro. Award-winning history writer and speaker Randell Jones will share this story in an hour of fast-paced storytelling illustrated with images he has captured at historical reenactments during the last 20 years. His award-winning book, In the Footsteps of Daniel Boone (2005), was released as an enhanced second edition in fall 2024, now containing a 180-page narrative of the life of Daniel Boone illustrated with 330 photographs of historical reenactors; it also has a 60-page appendix taking readers to 100 sites they can visit today across Boone’s America which sprawls over what is now 11 states from Pennsylvania to Missouri and from Michigan to Florida, yes, Florida.
Many people are surprised to learn of Daniel Boone’s involvement with the American Revolution. He was in the thick of the action on the western front as the British military leaders collaborated with their native allies to thwart the opening of Kentucky to land-hungry settlers. But during this time, Daniel Boone also travelled back and forth through the Cumberland Gap from the frontier to the settled parts of Virginia and North Carolina, and ventured across the Ohio River, all in a surprising series of adventures and escapades. Indeed, looking at the timeline of the American Revolution through the life and times of Daniel Boone between 1773 and 1782 offers us an exciting and new perspective on our Revolution few have imagined. We learn more about the man and his family, their challenges and tragedies, and find his involvement in consequential moments and historic events we never suspected.
As part of celebrating America’s 250th anniversary, author Randell Jones is donating $10 of the proceeds of each copy of In the Footsteps of Daniel Boone sold at his talks to the nonprofit organizations hosting his presentations. When you purchase this book at this talk, $10 goes to the Friends of Wilkes County Public Library for its work in supporting the services of our community’s library. “Think of this as a donation from Daniel Boone,” says Randell, “in honor of our collective American history and the community where he and his family lived for a time.” (“Donations from Daniel Boone” to other communities hosting this talk this spring have already exceeded $1,000.)
“We are so pleased to have Randell Jones return to speak to us again,” said Taylor Hazan, Adult Services Manager, Wilkes County Public Library. “For over a dozen years, he was an invited member of the Road Scholars Speakers Bureau of the NC Humanities Council, which funded his talks to nonprofit groups across the state. Those who have heard him before are always eager to hear another of his programs.”
North Carolina and Wilkes County, especially, have a long history of commemorating the life and times of Daniel Boone. Our 250th year of Independence is also special because it is the 20th anniversary of the Daniel Boone Family Festival in Mocksville which Randell’s book helped launch in 2006 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the marriage of Daniel Boone and Rebecca Bryan. This year is also the 15th anniversary of establishing the North Carolina Daniel Boone Heritage Trail Association, which was sparked by that same resurging interest, and has grown prominently in recent years under the leadership of Mary Bohlen. Wilkes County has commemorated Daniel Boone through the DAR’s Daniel Boone’s Trail marking in 1913, Hamp Rich’s markers in 1917 and 1928, and the Daniel Boone Wagon Train during the 1960s. If time allows, Randell can touch on that local history as well from his research and books on those events. But the talk on April 18 is about America 250 and what Daniel Boone was doing on the frontier during those years of tumult and tragedy after he left North Carolina in 1773. Join us.
The Wilkes County Public Library invites the public to join in this special presentation on Saturday morning, April 18, and to join in the community’s other programming during 2026 to help us all commemorate and celebrate America’s 250th anniversary of Independence.