Talk:Daniel Boone

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Daniel Boone article.
Article policies
Featured article star Daniel Boone is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do.
Main Page trophy This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on January 26, 2008.
Maintained The following user(s) are actively contributing to this article and may be able to help with questions about verification and sources:
Kevin Myers (talk · contribs)
This in no way implies article ownership; all editors are encouraged to contribute.

[edit] What are some good books about this man?

147.9.201.80 22:22, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Some great books on Daniel Boone are listed below. I have read all of them and recommend them highly. Daniel Boone is a fascinating historical character.

  • Bakeless, John (1965, original 1939). Daniel Boone. Harrison, PA: Stackpole Co.
  • Boone, Daniel (1967, original 1784). The adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone, formerly a hunter: Containing a narrative of the wars of Kentucky with the discovery, purchase, and settlement of Kentucky, and the Piankashaw council, 1784, and Territory of North American Indians, and the Rights of Land in Kentucky. Old Chelicothe, 1967 reprint of John Filson's History of Kentucky as reprinted by Gilbert Imlay in his Topographical Description. 1797. Alvin Salisbury ed. [This is the original (and largely fictionalized) account of Daniel Boone]
  • Draper, Lyman (1998). The life of Daniel Boone. Ted Franklin Belue ed. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. [This is one of the best sources on Daniel Boone. If you can only have three sources, this should be one of them]
  • Lofaro, Michael (2003). Daniel Boone: an American Life. Lexington, KY: The UP of Kentucky.
  • Sweeney, J. Gray (1992). The Columbus of the Woods: Daniel Boone and the typology of Manifest Destiny. St. Louis, MO: The Washington University Gallery of Art. [This book contains beautiful imagery of Daniel Boone and frontier imagery]

E. Conroy (4/4/06)147.9.201.80 22:22, 4 April 2006 (UTC) wow

Missing from this list is John Mack Faragher's Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (1992), the best scholarly biography, written in a very accessible style. Even Michael Lofaro, whose shorter biography is also good, calls Faragher's book the "best biography of Boone published to date". • Kevin (complaints?) 05:59, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Folklore

I am removing some controversial statements and commentary from the Folklore section, as the commentary added by 64.83.45.90 belongs on this discussion page, not in the article -- MarkBrooks 13:08, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

  • When he first met his wife Rebecca, he thought she was a deer in the dark woods, but couldn't shoot her because he never saw a deer with blue eyes before. He tracked her to her home and was smitten when he saw her. He continued to follow her around until she consented to marry him. [I challenge the source of this statement as well. Where has this "deer with blue eyes" tale about Rebecca ever been recorded, besides here?]
  • He claimed he once killed a Yahoo, a hairy giant. [I challenge this -- where has it ever been reported, even anecdotedly, that Daniel Boone claimed he killed a Yahoo? Besides here.]
I am re-doing the above changes, which unfortunately got caught up in the Scottish-American (cat) revert wars -- MarkBrooks 02:27, 21 October 2005 (UTC)
Just to clear up some old business: User:64.83.45.90 asked, "Where has this 'deer with blue eyes' tale about Rebecca ever been recorded, besides here?" The answer is: pretty much everywhere. It's a common Boone folk tale, recorded in most biographies (the modern ones of course identify it as an improbable folk tale). The "Yahoo" story can also be easily found -- apparently it's something Boone told his young grandchildren to amuse them. --Kevin Myers | (complaint dept.) 06:26, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

A supposed cast of the tree he famously engraved is located in the Grandfather Mountain museum in Linville, NC, near Boone, NC. The town of Boone, NC is named for Daniel Boone. Daniel Boone is also portrayed in the ongoing performance of the fictional outdoor drama "Horn in the West" in Boone, NC. There are two memorials to Daniel Boone in Boone, NC: a statue of Boone sitting next to some coon hounds and a campfire in front of Newland Hall near the intersection of Rivers Street and Stadium Drive, and a memorial obelisk at the corner of Rivers Street and Moretz Street.

Throughout Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky there are lots of local legends regarding Boone. A former Charleston, WV hotel was named the Daniel Boone reflecting some locals legends. Does anyone else know any of these to confirm? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.83.223.224 (talk) 15:47, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

A tree purported to be inscribed by Daniel Boone is also located in the museum of The Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Kentucky. The inscription reads "D. Boon kill a bar, 1803." The tree was discovered in the early 20th century, cut down, and is now preserved in a glass case at the Filson.

[edit] towns named for Daniel Boone

Are all the towns named Danville [Ohio Ky? and Illinois and even Caifornia] like town named Bonville named after Daniel Boone?

[edit] GA

This article is quite clearly a GA. I'm surprised that someone didn't nominate it earlier. Some P. Erson 15:54, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Daniel Boone's relatives

I am a relative of Daniel Boone. His son is my mothers Grandfather. Daniel Boone Kinnison. I have his signature book and what believe to be rebecca'a bible.. How cool is that!! The favorite topic of "drive-by" additions to this article seems to involve supposed relatives of Daniel Boone. The most recent ones are:

  1. George and Mary Boone were also the common ancestors of singer Loretta Lynn and her husband. [1]
  2. A cousin Thomas Boone was married to a Susannah Brumfield; reportably a distant relative of Susannah Brumfield married a Nancy Lincoln-aunt of President Abraham Lincoln.[2]
  3. Mary Boone was said to have been a Morgan and a relative of General Daniel Morgan of the Revolutionary War. [3]

The third one had the advantage of being referenced. However, these alleged connections are all trivia. The best way to determine if a relationship is significant enough to include in an encyclopedia article is: do Boone biographers mention it? Bakeless and Faragher, for example, did not find Boone's supposed kinship to Daniel Morgan significant enough to mention in 300 or 400 pages of biography, which suggests it's too trivial for our encylopedia article. If you have come here to add some distant relative of Boone to the article, take a look at the biographies first to see if Boone scholars found the connection notable enough to mention. —Kevin 02:51, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

This is a spurious argument, that something is not encyclopedic because it is not included in a biography. They are not equal, the simple test is "is something not biographical because it is not in an encyclopedia" doesn't make sense. Genealogical connections of consequence are almost always non-trivial, historic and of encyclopedic value.Tstrobaugh 16:41, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
Nonsense. An encyclopedia article on a person is biography in miniature. If published scholars thought a piece of information was too trivial to be included in a full-length biography, that's a pretty good indication that the information is indeed trivial. We're here to summarize what scholars have published on various topics, not to second guess their decisions. Also, keep in mind this dictum: "Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of items of information. That something is 100% true does not mean it is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia." —Kevin 22:20, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
It's not nonsense. You’re wrong that an article in an encyclopedia is a miniature biography. At least now we can put our finger on the problem. How did you develop this opinion? Let's start here; Define the terms biographical and encyclopedic. Is one narrow and one more encompassing? Of course a biography will not deal with other peoples lives (that were not a direct influence), an encyclopedia however by its very nature will include relevant historical information. Genealogy is not indiscriminant, if you can show that it is I'll withdraw.Tstrobaugh 04:41, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
"Genealogical connections of consequence are almost always non-trivial, historic and of encyclopedic value." / "Genealogy is not indiscriminant." I agree completely. That's why I have no problem with this article mentioning Boone's parents, brother, and children. Those people are obviously "relevant" and "of consequence". But are Daniel Morgan and Loretta Lynn "relevant" and "of consequence"? Please demonstrate that they are Tstrobaugh. Punctured Bicycle 13:40, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

I too am related to Daniel Boone. He is my sixth great-uncle, I believe. It was pretty cool to see him featured on the front page. And with that, I have nothing more to contribute. Baseballbaker23 (talk) 08:13, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Timeline

I liked the timeline that had been added to article. Does anyone else think its removal was necessary and, if so, why? 71.104.102.155 05:59, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

The entries on the timeline were very good, although some were unsourced. The problem is the formatting, which created a massive infobox which trailed down the side of the article for about half its length. That's an aesthetic nightmare. This is a featured article and should reflect Wikipedia's best practices. If someone is still interested in having a Boone timeline, follow the examples of other featured articles. The Timeline of Mary Wollstonecraft is a recent featured example. —Kevin Myers 13:30, 13 November 2007 (UTC)
I actually don't think the timeline was the aesthetic nightmare that you claim it to be. However, I'll agree to leave it off. The Wollstonecraft timeline is very nicely done, and should be a model to what could be done for Boone or, for that matter, any other significant historical figure. - 71.104.102.155 05:19, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 50th birthday in 1784?

Uh... TJSwoboda (talk) 00:43, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes. Unfortunately, someone added bogus birthday information recently, so the numbers were off. —Kevin Myers 05:06, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Redundancy and vandalism

Someone might notice that I made an edit to this article that was a redundancy of what Curtis Clark had just done. (That observer might also notice that this note is very similar to what I posted on that editor's user page). This was unintentional--we apparently were both working on restoring the bottom half of the article at the same time, but Curtis Clark's edit happened a few seconds before mine. I would like to point out, however, that I suspect that the cut wasn't vandalism, as was stated. The Wikipedia article on vandalism says, "Vandalism is any addition, removal, or change of content made in a deliberate attempt to compromise the integrity of Wikipedia" (emphasis is from the article). I suspect this was an unintentional error in a good faith edit. I point this out because calling someone a "vandal" or their work "vandalism" has been a part of many misunderstandings and hurt feelings here. But I assume the comment of vandalism was also made in good faith. Thanks for your patience! Wakedream (talk) 19:04, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] British English in Featured Article summary

I noticed a difference between the summary on this page, and the featured article summary on the front page.

Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky

is from the FA summary. Why was the word "State" changed to "Commonwealth?" Isn't that almost exclusively a British term for territory? ataricom (talk) 23:50, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Look at the article Kentucky, especially at the flag and seal there. A few members of the American union follow the pattern. Bill (talk) 00:08, 27 January 2008 (UTC)
Yeah, Kentucky is one of four U.S. states officially styled "Commonwealths"; see Commonwealth (United States). Either "commonwealth" or "state" can be used when describing those states: "commonwealth" is more formal, while "state" is more, um, common. —Kevin Myers 00:22, 27 January 2008 (UTC)