Overview of the bronze sculpture of Daniel Boone's design that will be a feature of the Kentucky National Guard Memorial

1. The Kentucky National Guard Memorial Presents
Daniel Boone’s
Last Adventure
From the pages of history…
Through clay and bronze…
Into the heart of the Bluegrass

2. Daniel Boone Portrait by Chester Harding
• Unfinished painting of
Daniel Boone by Chester
Harding, the only portrait of
Boone painted from life.
• Harding painted Boone in
June 1820 while Boone was
living with his daughter
Jemima Boone Callaway in
Missouri. Boone was 84
years old and died a few
months later.

3. Why Boone
• Daniel Boone was chosen as a
central feature of the memorial
because he is uniquely linked to
the establishment of Kentucky
and his presence pays tribute to
the roots of today's Kentucky
National Guard in the militia that
hacked a state from “Dark and
Bloody Ground.”
• New Kentucky National Guard
officer candidate school
graduates are sworn in at Daniel
Boone's grave site in homage to
tradition and his place in
Kentucky Military History.
• Boone National Guard Center, the
state’s National Guard
headquarters was named in his
honor in 1962.

4. A Legend In His Own Time…
• A legend in his own lifetime, Daniel Boone was an explorer and
hunter whose exploits made him one of the most famous
frontiersmen in American history. One of 11 children raised in a
Quaker household, he was born on November 2, 1734, in Berks
County Pennsylvania. Little is known of his formative years, other
than he aspired to be a woodsman rather than a farmer.
• Family “scandals” resulted in his father's expulsion from the Society
of Friends and the family moved to the Yadkin Valley of North
Carolina, arriving in 1751 or 1752. From there Boone explored west
into Kentucky in the 1760s and 1770s. In 1775 he established the
frontier outpost of Boonesborough, one of the first white
settlements in Kentucky. When the Kentucky territory became part
of Virginia, Boone was named an officer in the Virginia militia and
spent the next several years trail blazing and fighting Indians. His
“autobiography,” written by John Filson and published in
1784, depicted Boone as wily and adventurous and made him a folk
hero.

5. Legend…
• Boone tried to establish
extensive land claims in
Kentucky, but was unable to
retain them and many were
invalidated after 1780. After
living in western
Virginia, where he served
three times in the state
legislature, Boone moved in
1799 to what is now Missouri.
He settled there with his
son, Daniel Morgan
Boone, and was later granted
land by the U.S. Congress.
• He died near St. Louis in 1820
at the age of 85 and is now
buried in the Frankfort
Cemetery.

6. The Hat
• Commencing in the 1820s, several
actors have portrayed Boone in
various buckskin costumes, all of
which included a coonskin cap.
• The most popular of these portrayals
was by the actor Fess Parker in the TV
series Daniel Boone from 1964-70.
• The real Boone thought coonskin
caps were silly and impractical –
unlike these actors he always wore a
beaver or felt hat instead, which had
a wide brim for keeping out the sun
and rain.
• The Board wanted Boone’s portrayal
on the monument to be as accurate
as possible. It was a deliberate
decision by the Board to portray him
without a hat. In the end they felt the
wide brim hat would hide the facial
features t.

7. Sculptor Wyatt Gragg based
the clothing and equipment
on his Boone on period re-
enactors and the rifle on an
actual period fowling piece.

8. Original maquette submitted by sculptor Wyatt Gragg. A maquette is a small model of
an intended sculpture – a first draft of the sculptor’s vision

9. The maquette was cast in bronze for promotional purposes.

10. • The next step in the process
was the creation of a one-
third scale model of the
final Boone statue. The
scale model gives the artist
his first real opportunity to
give detail and exacting
attention to what will
eventually become a larger
than life bronze.

11. • Here sculptor Wyatt
Gragg puts the
finishing touches on
the scale clay of
Daniel Boone. The
type of shoes and
hat Daniel Boone
would have worn
became much
discussed points in
the development of
the scale model.

15. • The scale clay of Boone was cast in
bronze by the Bright Foundry in Louisville.
Boone was one of several items being
cast that day. Below: Workmen pour the
bronze. Left: Detail showing the lower
portion of Boone after the pouring.

16. • At right: Boone peaks out of the mold after the bronze has begun the cooling process
and the molding material is being removed.
• Below: The pieces of Boone removed from the mold and cleaned and ready for the
assembly process.

17. Assembled scale bronze showing details of Boone’s clothing and equipment

18. • Sculptor Wyatt Gragg
poses with his Boone
creation after the bronzing
process is complete.

19. One Last Adventure for Boone
We need your help to complete
Boone’s last adventure through
clay and bronze into the heart
of the Bluegrass.