Daniel Boone National Forest

The Daniel Boone National Forest includes land across 21 Kentucky counties, namely:

Aerial view of the dam at Laurel River Lake

Major river systems include the Licking River, Kentucky River, and Cumberland River, all of which flow into the Ohio River.[4]^: S-10 Four reservoirs are located within the forest, administered by the US Army Corps of Engineers. These are Cave Run Lake, Buckhorn Lake, Lake Cumberland and Laurel River Lake. Taken together, at normal water levels these reservoirs comprise 63,850 acres (25,840 ha) of water.[4]^: III-2 The forest additionally encompasses thousands of miles of smaller streams, many of which flow only after heavy rain.[4]^: III-1 About 12,500 acres (5,100 ha) are classified as riparian zones, while 7,000 acres (2,800 ha) are classified as floodplains or wetlands.[4]^: S-11

Water is of an overall good quality, but is impacted by activities related to mining, and exploration for oil and gas.[4]^: S-10 The area averages 46 inches (1,200 mm) of rainfall annually, with thunderstorms occurring an average of 46 days per year.[4]^: III-2 Due to shallow soil, heavy rains may result in severe local flooding, and conversely, many tributaries may become completely dry during periods of little rainfall.[4]^: III-5

Air quality in the forest is considered "excellent", due to the comparatively sparse population and lack of industry.[4]^: III-6 The majority of air pollution results from the 128 average annual forest fires,[lower-alpha 1] in addition to controlled burning, the residential burning of coal, and dust from unpaved roads.[4]^{: S-11, S-12}

By the early 16th century both the French and the British had laid claim to the land that would become the Daniel Boone National Forest. Among the first Europeans to enter the area was the French René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1669.[10]^: 1 He was later followed by the party of the English Thomas Walker in 1750, who would go on to make the first European discoveries of the Cumberland Gap, Cumberland River, and the pass through Pine Mountain[lower-alpha 2][10]^: 1–3 Several others made expeditions in the area over the following decades with mixed success.[lower-alpha 3]

Around 1760, Daniel Boone reached an understanding with Richard Henderson for the exploration and preparation of the wilderness beyond the Appalachian Mountains, so that it may be more easily settled by those who sought to move westward.[10]^: 15–6 Boone made an expedition in 1767 into the area of modern-day Prestonsburg, Kentucky,[10]^: 17–8 and then in 1769, he set out with five others on an extended expedition through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky, where he stayed until March 1771.[10]^{: 21–2, 30} Boone set out on a failed attempt at settlement in 1773, and then again in 1774, where he served as an officer in Lord Dunmore's War.[10]^{: 33–4, 37–8}

On March 17, 1775, the Transylvania Colony, founded by Henderson, and for which Boone was employed, reached an agreement (over the objections of the governors of Virginia and North Carolina) with a grand counsel of the Cherokee Nation to purchase all land from the Kentucky River to the Cumberland River, including large part of modern-day Kentucky and Tennessee, an area known as the Transylvania Purchase.[10]^: 47–50[lower-alpha 4] In anticipation of this purchase, Boone and a party were dispatched on March 10, marking and clearing trails in the newly acquired lands, and eventually founding Fort Boone, near the confluence of Station Camp Creek and the Kentucky River.[10]^: 57–66[lower-alpha 5] This became the fledgling Transylvania Colony,[10]^: 73–85 until being eliminated in 1778 by the Virginia House of Delegates, becoming Kentucky County, Virginia, and by 1792, the Commonwealth of Kentucky.[10]^{: 93, 126}

Up to the beginning of the 20th century, the Daniel Boone and surrounding forest were the subject of extensive logging, with logs sent downstream for processing in the sawmills of Louisville, Nashville, Frankfort and Cincinnati, only to be overtaken as rail extended into the area around the turn of the century.[10]^: 178–80 The industry reached its peak in 1907, with almost one billion board feet of lumber production.[10]^: 181 The forest was additionally harvested to provide charcoal for the developing iron industry, and as the railroad advanced, to produce crossties, and lumber for the building of bridges in addition to rail cars.[10]^: 181

Daniel Boone National Forest as of 2016. The black line is the proclamation boundary. Green represents Forest Service land. White areas within the boundary are privately or locally owned. The inset map shows the ranger districts.

In 1900, Congress appropriated $5,000, and again in 1907, $25,000 for the investigation of areas in southern Appalachia, for potential purchase as a national forest.[10]^: 183–4 These efforts were further strengthened in 1911 by passage of the Weeks Act, which allocated millions in additional funding. As part of the Forest Service's examination of the area, E. Murray Bruner published in 1914 an extensive report covering 900,000 acres (360,000 ha) of land in Kentucky, and concluded in part:

Because of the general rugged topography of this section and very great influence it exerts upon navigation of the Kentucky River, it is very essential that its protection from extensive clearing be assured. For these reasons the section is eminently desirable as a purchase area, and therefore, in view of the fact that the prices of land now prevailing are very reasonable, there is a favorable prospect for making large purchases...[10]^: 186–8

Land acquisition began in 1933, based largely on the purchase of 48,000 acres (19,000 ha) from Stearns Coal and Lumber, 27,000 acres (11,000 ha) acres from Castle Craig Coal, and 22,000 acres (8,900 ha) from the Warfork Land Company.[10]^: 210 By the time the area was officially declared the Cumberland National Forest in 1937, the tract spanned 409,567 acres (165,746 ha) of federally owned land across 16 Kentucky counties.[11]

Both Daniel Boone[lower-alpha 6] and Henry Clay were originally put forth in the 1930s as potential namesakes.[10]^: 206 However, it was not until 1966, following, among other things, a resolution to the United States Department of Agriculture by the Kentucky Senate, that the name was officially changed by Lyndon B. Johnson to Daniel Boone National Forest on April 11.[11][10]^: 247–8 The same year, some 300,000 acres (120,000 ha) of the Redbird Unit were added.[11]