The purpose of the business enterprise was to settle thousands of emigrants from the East Coast to the fertile farmlands of Kentucky. Recognizing the value of vast tracts of land in Kentucky, Henderson had formed the Transylvania Company. Though Daniel Boone's name has always been associated with the Wilderness Road, he was actually acting in the employ of a land speculator, Judge Richard Henderson. It was in operation decades before other routes to the frontier, such as the National Road and the Erie Canal. The Wilderness Road passed through the Cumberland Gap, a natural opening in the Appalachian mountain range, and became one of the main routes westward. Over time, it was improved and widened to accommodate the wagons and travelers.
At its beginning, in the early 1770s, it was a road in name only.īoone and the frontiersmen he supervised managed to link together a route comprising old Indigenous peoples' pathways and trails used for centuries by herds of buffalo. The Wilderness Road was a path westward to Kentucky established by Daniel Boone and followed by thousands of settlers in the late 1700s and early 1800s. George Caleb Bingham / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
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