In response to John Haynes message: In regards to question 3 in the message: The Wilderness Road did not exist until the dates given below, and even then it was just a trail and presented much difficulty for the passage of wagons. >From a work in progress: “The Transylvania Company immediately hired Daniel Boone to explore the country and open a road from the settlements on the Holston River, over the Blue Ridge Mountains, through the Cumberland Gap, down to the plains of Kentucky to Otter Creek, near a bend in the Kentucky River -- 200 wilderness and mountain miles away. Daniel, his brother Squire Boone and Colonel Richard Callaway were among the thirty odd mounted and armed men who left on March 10, 1775 to blaze the trail. This "Wilderness Road" was properly named. For mile after punishing mile, they felled trees, filled sinkholes, and cut brush and vines as thick as a man's thigh. There were no real difficulties met by the trailblazers until they were about 15 miles from their destination. A surprise attack by Indians under the cover of darkness, resulted in men wounded and killed. Three days after the attack, hunters came upon a young boy, Samuel Tate's son, who told how his camp, at some distant from Boone's, had also been fired into. The little group had foolishly lighted a fire without posting guards and was busy with the usual nightly task of drying moccasins when the Indians shot into them. Two were killed. The rest scattered barefoot through the woods, but the moonlit night and a late fall of April snow made it easy for the Indians to track them down. Samuel Tate himself escaped only by running down an icy stream, still called Tate's Creek in memory of the episode. On the evening of April 1, 1775 the trailblazers reached the site Boone had selected as the capitol for the new colony.” Ed Smith