Daniel Boone & the Kentucky River: Frankfort Historical Attractions
The city history of Frankfort is truly fascinating. Kentucky’s capital city was first called “Frank’s Ford,” before it was shortened to the name we use today: Frankfort. From the very beginning, this early Kentucky River crossing shaped where the city was built and who passed through long before Kentucky existed, including a name most visitors already know: Daniel Boone.
His story along this river is older and stranger than most people realize.
Daniel Boone and the Kentucky River Frontier
Boone reached the Kentucky River in the spring of 1775 and built Fort Boonesborough a short distance upstream from where Frankfort sits today. If you want to see where the story started, Fort Boonesborough State Park sits further up the Kentucky River and includes a full-scale replica of the fort Boone and his men built in 1775.
The river he camped along became the main travel corridor for the settlers who followed him into Kentucky, long before any road existed to connect the Kentucky frontier to the rest of the country. Frankfort grew up along that same river that travelers and Native communities had already been using for generations.
Why Daniel Boone Is Buried Overlooking the Kentucky River
Boone died in Missouri in 1820, and for 25 years his grave stayed there alongside his wife Rebecca’s. In 1845, their descendants agreed to move both sets of remains back to Kentucky, and Frankfort Cemetery became their final resting place. Thousands of visitors and Kentucky’s governor turned out for the reburial, and the site they chose still looks out over the same water Boone once traveled by canoe.
Kentucky Frontier History That's Still Debated Today
Here’s the part most visitors don’t expect: historians still argue about whether the remains buried in Frankfort actually belong to Daniel Boone.
Daniel Boone’s grave and monument are open to the public in Frankfort Cemetery, just a short walk from downtown and within view of the river below. Boone’s Missouri grave had been poorly marked, and some researchers believe the wrong remains may have been dug up and reburied in 1845.
What Visitors Can Still See Today
Stories like these are exactly the sort of one-of-a-kind story we like to tell from the water. Seeing that same stretch of river from a boat instead of the riverbank and learning from our expert guides on a Kentucky History Tour adds a different kind of perspective. You’re looking at the same water and the same bluffs that shaped Boone’s Kentucky, just from a different angle.
And, while you’re in the area, you can complete the experience by staying in the Old Fashioned Stave Away. Then, you’ll be right in the middle of the action, close to Frankfort historical attractions and local dining.
Book a Frankfort, KY River Tour and See the History for Yourself
We’re open and running tours again through the season, and we’d love to show you this stretch of the Kentucky River that shaped so much of the state’s early history.
Check our tours page for upcoming cruises, or contact us to book your trip near Frankfort, KY.