" ... passed some Plantations, which is called Boons settlement lying on the North side of the River. This settlement was made by Colonel Daniel Boone, the person who first discover'd Kentucky & who was residing at this place, with a number of his family and friends. -- "
Pvt. Joseph Whitehouse
May 23, 1804
On May 23, 1804, the Corps of Discovery. traveling in a large keelboat and two smaller open boats called porigues, stopped at the mouth of the Femme Osage Creek, a short distance from this Katy Trail State Park crossing. They had made the ... miles since breaking morning camp. On the way, the keelboat became stuck on a submerged log, and the party needed an hour to free it. This was just a small hint of the hazards that awaited the expedition on the Missouri River.
The expedition's stop here held the potential of a historic meeting renown and soon-to-be-renown explorers. An American settlement of 30-40 families known as the "Boone Settlement," had sprung up along the Femme Osage. The patriarch of this settlement was the celebrated frontiersman Daniel Boone. He had arrived 5 years earlier at the invitation of Spain, which had offered him a grant of land. Although he was 69 years old in 1804, the last Spanish Governor of Upper Louisiana, Carlos Tayon Delassus, told the new American authorities that "Mr. Boone is a respectable old man, just and impartial. He has already since I appointed him offered his resignation owing to his infirmities ... I have induced him to remain, in view of my confidence in him for the public good."
Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark sent the Fields brothers, Reuben and Joseph, ashore to purchase fresh food at the Boone settlement. The brothers returned with corn and butter, along with families from the settlement wanting to meet the expedition. The expedition spent about an hour here before crossing the river to explore Tavern Rock and Cave.
For unknown reasons, Daniel Boone was not among the Boone settlement well-wishers. There is little doubt the captains realized Boone lived here. Pvt. Joseph Whitehouse's journal mentions Boone, and the captains certainly knew at least as much, but neither captain noted the fact that Daniel Boone, one of the most famous backwoodsman of the era, lived nearby.
Daniel Boone made his name as a woodsman, hunter, scout and soldier. Boone became the classic American frontiersman, although his life was considerably more complex than his legend. In 1769, he and a small party crossed the Appalachian mountain into Kentucky through the Cumberland Gap on a route that became known as the Wilderness Road. He established the stockade settlement of Boonsborough by 1775. Shortly after his arrival, he fought British and Indians in Kentucky during the Revolutionary War. Eventually, several hundred thousand Americans settlers followed his route into Kentucky. In 1799, when Boone was 65 years old, he came to Missouri to take up Spain's offer of land along the Missouri River at Femme Osage Creek. Spain, which controlled the Louisiana Territory at that time, appointed Boone a syndic, or commandant, of the district. In 1805, his sons, Nathan and Daniel Morgan Boone founded a salt-making operation further up the Missouri River at a salt spring (or "Lick") that is across the river from today's Arrow Rock. One of early Missouri's most celebrated settlement areas, the Boonslick ("Boone's Lick") region, was named after this legendary family. In 1808, William Clark, now a general of militia, selected Captain Nathan Boone to lead him and a party of soldier to the site where Fort Osage was built, and bring the Osage to engage in treaty negotiations at the fort. Daniel Boone died in Missouri in 1820 at the age of 85.