Summary

The author believes Daniel Boone’s legacy to America has been misunderstood, and the fault lies in the “autobiography” supposedly dictated by Boone to John Filson. Because of Boone’s respect and understanding of the Native Americans and his love for the wilderness, Boone is the first white American to create his sense of home right in the country’s wilderness, rather than looking with longing back to England.

As a young man, Boone -- only three years younger than George Washington -- learns to hunt and to be comfortable in the wilderness. He marries and settles with his wife in a remote area on the Yadkin River in North Carolina. Years later, when Boone is 36 and settlers have moved in near to his family, he leaves again to explore the wild Kentucky land with five other men.

The other men...