Boone’s Lick Trail - High Hill, MO
N 38° 53.067 W 091° 24.122
15S E 638599 N 4305167
A Boone’s Lick Trail marker on old U.S. Hwy 40 (also known as Boone's Lick Road) honors Lewistown (a village named in honor of Meriwether Lewis) and is located near present-day High Hill, Missouri.
Waymark Code: WM3Y7G
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 06/04/2008
Views: 49
According to the
U.S. Route 40 website: "In 1807, three years after Lewis and Clark first noted the presence of a salt lick in the area, Nathan and Daniel Boone (sons of the pioneer Daniel Boone) blazed a trail from Saint Charles to a point just northwest of present day Boonville. The road terminated at the Boones' salt lick. A few years later, there was a movement to make the trail a wagon road and in 1827 this was done. The salt lick was used up until 1833; a state historic site now preserve's the Boones' small settlement."
The marker at this site is one of a series of 30 stone markers placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1913 to mark the Boone's Lick Trail. This marker honors Lewistown, near present-day High Hill. The village, named in honor of Meriwether Lewis, lasted just seven years.
The following information about the Boone's Lick Trail is available on the internet
(visit link):
The Boone’s Lick Trail carried travelers as far west as Franklin, where the Sante Fe Trail began. In New Franklin, back-to-back markers recognize the end and beginning of the two trails.
Often what brought settlers along these trails was Daniel Boone himself. Throughout his life Boone opened an ever-westward-reaching frontier, first leading settlers across the Blue Ridge Mountains into Kentucky and later into Missouri.
There are no public remnants of the original trail today. Instead, its course became “the state road” prior to the 20th century. The route closely paralleled today’s Highway N through St. Charles and Warren counties and Interstate 70 from Warrenton to Boonville.
In fact, it could be said that the Boone’s Lick Trail gave birth to the interstate. In 1911, the Daughters of the American Revolution led a crusade for a national highway built along the old frontier roads. Missourians, especially the Missouri Good Roads Committee, led that fight. Their determination that the pioneer paths form the basis of the national road system won the day.
Much of the Boone’s Lick Trail became U.S. Highway 40 and later I-70. In fact, the first section of the interstate completed was just a few blocks from the beginning of the Boone’s Lick Trail.