Between 1775 and 1795 an estimated 250,000-300,000 people of varying backgrounds, cultures, and social classes made the dangerous journey along the Wilderness Road in the first steps of westward expansion. The Boone Society will be recreating this journey with a handful of riders on horseback. They will begin at Sycamore Shoals State Park in Elizabethton, […]
The Blockhouse at Natural Tunnel State Park will be open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays from 2-4pm through the month of October. Interested in a group tour or program? Just send us an email.
Bonnie and her two daughters, Haleigh Rose and Sadie, have teamed up with Jean Hood and will be preparing food for the entire camp this weekend at the Frontier Muster and Trade Faire. Come out to the Blockhouse at Natural Tunnel State Park to learn all you ever wanted to know, and maybe even a […]
Charlie Brown will be at the Frontier Muster and Trade Fair this coming weekend demonstrating essential frontier skills such as tanning and leatherwork.
The Frontier Muster and Trade Faire will be held on Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1 at the Wilderness Road Blockhouse at Natural Tunnel State Park. Event times are 10-6 on Saturday and 11-3 on Sunday. Demonstrations will include campfire cooking, flax processing, candle making, soap making, Native camps, 18th Century music and games, […]
Join Ron Short at the Wilderness Road Blockhouse Visitor Center at Natural Tunnel State Park from 10am to 12pm on Saturday, March 12. This is a free program and is open to all ages. The Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association will host a Trail Talk every month through June. Watch the website and facebook page […]
This Saturday, February 27 from 10am-12pm at the Blockhouse Visitor Center at Natural Tunnel State Park Corey Gardner will be presenting a program on the weapons used by both settlers and Native Americans in the 1700s. Several examples of firearms and other weapons with be available as well as a brief discussion and history of […]
The FrontierMuster and Trade Faire is just around the corner! Drop by the Blockhouse on Saturday, March 30and Sunday, April 1 for a glimpse into what life was like on the Frontier in the late 18th Century. This is a free program although parking fees will apply. Stay tuned for updates.
by William Anderson The Wilderness Road Blockhouse in Natural Tunnel State Park is a reproduction of the original blockhouse built by an early pioneer, John Anderson, in 1775. Anderson’s eventful life included not just his role as the Blockhouse proprietor, but also service as a regional militia leader and judge. Born in 1750, Anderson was […]
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