As the old fort at Boonesborough became so celebrated in the Indian wars which followed its erection, our readers may be curious to know what sort of structure it was.  “We have accordingly copied from a print in Collins’ Historical Sketches of Kentucky a view of the fort, from a drawing made by Colonel Henderson himself, and the following description:  ’It was situated adjacent to the river, with one of the angles resting on its bank near the water, and extending from it in the form of a parallelogram.  The length of the fort, allowing twenty feet for each cabin and opening, must have been about two hundred and sixty, and the breadth one hundred and fifty feet.  In a few days after the work was commenced, one of the men was killed by the Indians.’  The houses, being built of hewn logs, were bullet proof.  They were of a square form, and one of them projected from each corner, being connected by stockades.  The remaining space on the four sides, as will be seen by the engraving, was filled up with cabins erected of rough logs, placed close together.  The gates were on opposite sides, made of thick slabs of timber, and hung on wooden hinges.  This was in accordance with the fashion of the day.”

“A fort, in those rude military times,” says Butler,[24] “consisted of pieces of timber sharpened at the end and firmly lodged in the ground:  rows of these pickets enclosed the desired space, which embraced the cabins of the inhabitants.  A block-house or more, of superior care and strength, commanding the sides of the fort, with or without a ditch, completed the fortifications or Stations, as they were called.  Generally the sides of the interior cabins formed the sides of the fort.  Slight as this advance was in the art of war, it was more than sufficient against attacks of small arms in the hands of such desultory warriors, as their irregular supply of provisions necessarily rendered the Indians.  Such was the nature of the military structures of the provision against their enemies.  They were ever more formidable in the canebrakes and in the woods than before even these imperfect fortifications.”

We have seen in Boone’s own account that the fort at Boonesborough was completed on the 14th of June, 1774.  The buildings necessary for the accommodation and safety of the little colony, and of the relatives and friends by whom they expected to be joined during the summer and fall, were completed about this time.  Colonel Henderson, Mr. John Luttrell, and Mr. Nathaniel Hart, three of the proprietors, arrived at the station, which was now named Boonesborough, in compliment to the intrepid pioneer.  These gentlemen brought out with them between thirty and forty new settlers, a goodly number of pack-horses, and some of the necessaries of civilized life; and the Station, upon which various improvements were soon made, at once became quite a bustling, life-like, important military place.  Much pleased with the manner in which he had commenced the settlement of a new commonwealth, and laid the foundations of what he doubted not was soon to become a great city, Boone took a part of his men and returned to the settlement on Clinch River, for the purpose of setting an example to others by moving out his own family.