The Historic Daniel Boone Home

Historic Daniel Boone Home and Boonefield Village

I had the pleasure of finally getting to tour the Historical Daniel Boone Home and Boonefield Village today. It is located in Defiance Missouri off of Highway F and about 5 miles from Highway 94. Lindenwood University now owns this whole site and a lot of land surrounding it. They are doing a great job I think of helping to keep history preserved and helping it to be as accurate as possible to the times. That can be a trick sometimes.

Daniel Boone came from Kentucky and was a pioneer, hunter, and what you could call a trailblazer. He had 10 children, 70 grandchildren and over 250 great grandchildren that live all over the world now. He has left quite a legacy and was quite an interesting fellow to be sure.

He came upon this area after leaving Kentucky, as it was getting more and more settled there. He found the area he settled in by traveling in a large hollowed out poplar canoe, rather large! He camped along the way, hunted, and came across Native American Indians on occasion. He found another river off of the Missouri river, traveled up that way, and spotted this land that he finally settled on. He ended up dying there when it was time to go.

Nathan Boone

Nathan Boone was with him on some of his excursions, and learned to hunt and more from his Father. Many of the stories I heard today included Nathan and his wife. You did hear about other children as well. A couple of his sons were killed by Indians, as well as another relative. A couple of his daughters were almost killed as well, but he was able to rescue them days later after Indians took them from a canoe in the river, when they drifted to close to the other bank one day. There are just so many stories, it almost hard to know where to start. It is one of the great reasons to take the guided house tour and the village tour.

The House

The Daniel Boone Home took seven years to build, and we got to see all the levels but the fourth and highest level. There is a fire code rule where there is only one exit, so they can't take the public up there.

We enjoyed the tour very much, and didn't use the inside stairs but ones built on the outside. There are a lot of items in the house, but as the property has exchanged hands over the years, much has been gone for some time, though there are a few pieces and replicas. The "kitchen" and the dining area in the whole bottom level was quite impressive for that time! Keep in mind, this is all before 1880. We could see two of the three fireplaces they used for cooking. One is in the process of going through an archaeology dig and they are finding different things. They want to recreate the third fireplace as it was.

Lindenwood University is doing an excellent job of trying to keep true to how things would have been to this era. I am so glad that the people that kept it before, have kept things as nice as they have.

The Boonesfield Village

One think that needs to be made clear, is that this village you can tour today wasn't there like this back in Daniel Boone's day. What they have done is recreated a period village from that same general time, all before 1880. There are homes, a chapel, and different buildings that have all been moved to the site, to recreate what could be any village in that day in that area. It is simply fascinating.

Some of the buildings they have include, the Squire Boone Home, a school house, the Sappington - Dressel House, an open faced shelter, a dressmaker's shop, the Stake house with detached kitchen, the Old Peace Chapel, potter's shop, the Engeldew House, the Print Shop, a grist mill, and a general mercantile store. There is even more, but you get the idea!

I learned so much, it was great and fascinating to me, but I do enjoy that kind of thing. You get to see a video of the basic story before you go in to the tours as well. You can opt for one of 3 tours, or a combination of two of the three with a small discount. For an adult, you pay seven dollars for a guided tour of the home or village, and you get to see inside those buildings, or you can take a self guided tour of the village with a booklet but not go inside.

Some Things that Stood Out to Me

I found it interesting that there was such a beautiful house built out here when it was, it was probably considered upper middle class we were told.

There were holes in the walls of the front of the house, where they could put guns through to fight off any Indians if they ever came under attack. The walls were two to two and a half feet thick in this house.

The house was built on bedrock. It was from the area, on site.

The realization that life is has so many more conveniences now than before, or reminder rather. Just to cook meals would have felt like a work out with bending over fires, and carrying cast iron pots, etc.

The leading cause of death for women in this time was childbirth and infection from burns.

There was a big judgement tree, where they held "court", and Daniel Boone tried his best to sort out community difficulties and disputes. They have that tree to this day, and keep trying to preserve it.

Many weddings are held at the Old Peace chapel, sometimes two or three a day during peak seasons.

The Historic Daniel Boone Home has survived three fires and two earthquakes. It has some reinforcement now in the basement level of course to keep it strong. You can see where things have shifted. The bedrock has kept it strong.

Finally, they hold classes and different events throughout the year. They even have a Christmas event which sounds so neat. There are classes and camps for kids in the summer. I imagine that the more time you had there, the more you would keep learning.

I would highly recommend going to the Historic Daniel Boone Home if you never have. It is an interesting place to see from a person from that time in history. I have barely scratched the surface of what I could have shared.

For the photos, please feel free to click on them to see them enlarged. Also, you can view a slide show of the photos.

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