Mission: To identify, preserve and promote historically significant sites along the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail corridor from Long Island of the Holston to Cumberland Gap by creating historically accurate interpretative, educational and recreational opportunities which will foster regional tourism and economic development.
About The Association
The Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association, Inc., is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1995 in the State of Virginia to identify, preserve and promote the Trail. Officers and members of the board of directors are elected annually, and members include private individuals and organizations as well as representatives of various regional and state government organizations and authorities.
The Association has received various state and federal grants for its projects, including identifying the trail and placing signs along its length from Kingsport, TN to the Cumberland Gap of Virginia. It is proceeding with a historic reconstruction of a blockhouse along the trail, acquisition and preservation of portions of the route and creation of a Web site as well as brochures and other promotional material.
Future projects to promote scenic and recreational tourism opportunities may include development of parks, museums, associated historical sites, and public hiking, bicycle and horseback trails.
The Association meets every other month at noon on the third Friday of the month at The Cove Ridge Center at Natural Tunnel State Park. Visitors and prospective members are always welcome. Supporting memberships by non-local persons and organizations are encouraged. All contributions including membership dues and in-kind are fully tax deductible.
To learn more about the Association, obtain membership information, purchase Association publications, participate in Association events or contribute to Association projects contact the Association via our online contact form or by mail at: Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association, P.O. Box 757, Gate City VA, 24251.
Click here to download a Membership Application.
For additional recreational opportunities and tours contact:
Kingsport Convention and Visitors Bureau at (423) 392-8820 or
The Heart of Appalachia Tourism Authority (276) 762-0011.
About the book: The Blockhouse On The Holston
The Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association has published a history of the Blockhouse that was built in 1775 on the North Fork of the Holston by John Anderson. His fortified home became a landmark along the road west, the Wilderness Road, marked by Daniel Boone that same year. Over the next thirty years, some 300,000 people passed Anderson’s home on their journey through Cumberland Gap and on into what would become the state of Kentucky, and further westward.
William L. Anderson, a direct descendant of John, has written a well-researched book that tells the story, the history of the home that became known to posterity as “The Blockhouse,” and its part in the expansion westward of our new nation. The Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association is proud to offer this book that tells, for the first time in such detail, the very significant part played in our nation’s history by the pioneer settlers of the western frontier during the last quarter of the eighteenth century.
Also included in the book are many brief biographies of significant players in the story, maps, an article on Fort Blackmore, and the diary of early explorer Dr. Thomas Walker.
The book may be purchased for $19.95 at Natural Tunnel State Park at the Visitor’s Center and at the Wilderness Road Blockhouse Interpretive Center (276-940-2674) and at the law offices of Lisa Ann McConnell in Duffield. Or contact Robert E. McConnell at roberte@mounet.com or 276-452-4520