Daniel Boone Was a Man…He Was a Big Man…

There was a metal monument of Daniel Boone, with his flintlock rifle and his dog placed on a stone at the corner of Bay Street in Jacksonville, Florida.   Times Union photographer, Bob Self took a photo of this monument while photographing and profiling the emptying of the 1958- year courthouse.  This Boone monument was placed at the corner of that building beneath a group of overgrown trees. I remember it well.

Self, photographer for the Times Union newspaper, wrote that the plaque was placed at the courthouse built in 1902 in November of 1921. Later, it was moved to the 1958 courthouse.  I was a kid when I saw the one in Jacksonville, Florida and through the years, I remember seeing it when coming through the back doors with large, open glass at the old courthouse.  It was there when I had jury duty back some 10 years ago that we got on and off of the jury bus which took us to lunch.

According to Tommy Townsend who talked with J. Hampton Rich, the organizer of this plaque project,  he placed 358 of them from “Virginia Beach to San Francisco”.  Jacksonville, Florida got one but why?  No one really knows except, Daniel Boone was a folklore character.  He was born in 1734 and died in 1820.  Being an American pioneer, many still call him one of the “first folk heroes of the United States”. His fame of exploring and settling Kentucky, blazing though the Cumberland Gap and all the while dealing with the Indians. His story went far and wide and exploded for sure when the 1964 Daniel Boone television series came out.  Fess Parker played Daniel Boone.   Boone was known to be God-fearing and is said to have taken his  Bible with him on his excursions.  

It is unclear if Boone ever came to Jacksonville, Florida but his marker did and all because of the a campaign to keep the Boone name alive while highlighting and gaining members for the Boone Trail Highway Association.  The association would raise money, have monuments made and take them to those who celebrated Boone and his life by their gifts and donations towards the plaques. 

The 1958 courthouse was demolished and the new courthouse completed in 2012. The courthouse is gone. The monument is too.  I have now walked the current courthouse grounds at 501 West Adams Street to see if it was removed from the old courthouse and placed at the new.  I’ll keep you posted if things change but right now… no monument of Daniel.

Each of the markers highlight the fact that the metal is “From Battleship Maine”.  The USS Maine (1889) was a Navy ship that sank in the Havana harbor which in simple terms help to bring about the Spanish-American war.  The metal was used from that wreckage to make the plaques.

Apparently, Rich started the “Boone Trail Highway Association” to promote highway projects and he said to keep live the name of Daniel Boone.  On HMdb. org, there is a “historical data base” that charts the Boone Trail Highway markers.  From topics and information, to locations, the list is quite extensive.  I did not see Jacksonville on the site though, so there’s that…..When I locate the Jacksonville Boone marker, I’ll up date you and them.

They say, even the great Babe Ruth was a member of his The Daniel Boone Highway Trail Association.  While Ruth may have been a member, I feel like the man in Hillsville, Va who wrote:  “We had no idea what Maine or Daniel Boone had to do with our town in Hillsville”.

There are many who feel that same way.  We really have no idea what Daniel Boone has to do with Jacksonville except for when we were  growing up we would sing his song:

“Daniel Boone was a man Yes, a big man With an eye like an eagle And as tall as a mountain was he Daniel Boone was a man Yes, a big man He was brave, he was fearless And as tough as a mighty oak tree From the coonskin cap on the top of ol’ Dan To the heel of his rawhide shoe The rippin’-est, roarin’-est, fightin’-est man The frontier ever knew Daniel Boone was a man Yes, a big man And he fought for America To make all Americans free.“

See you tomorrow,

Nan

Sources: Openplaques, Daniel Boone Trail Highway Association, Bob Self, Florida Times Union, Wikipedia, Theme song sung by the Imperials, personal visit. 1/29/23