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Daniel Boone's First View of Kentucky
1850
After William T. Ranney (American, 1813–1857)
Alfred Jones (American, born England, 1819–1900)
Jun 7
Daniel Boone Day
Banks of Boone
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
"🎶 A tailor he came into town and all he wanted was elbow room!"
~ Traditional, Galloway
You know who else wanted some elbow room? The famous American frontiersman, Daniel Boone, born today in 1734, famous for saying "Too crowded! Too crowded! I want elbow-room!"
The "Banks of Boone", a 32 bar reel for three adventures couples, was devised by Charlie Harrington for the dancers of Boone, Iowa, and Boone, North Carolina. The dance includes an intrepid chases, hands across, and a figure of eight, worthy of any piney woodsman dancer with wanderlust.
Although separated by nearly a thousand miles, both communities share a common namesake: the legendary American frontiersman Daniel Boone, whose adventures helped shape the popular image of the pioneer exploring the vast American frontier.
Born in 1734 in Pennsylvania, Boone spent much of his life hunting, exploring, surveying, and guiding settlers through the Appalachian Mountains. He became particularly associated with Kentucky after blazing the famous Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap in the 1770s, opening a route that thousands of settlers would follow westward. During his lifetime he was celebrated as a woodsman, tracker, and explorer, although many of the stories told about him grew taller with each retelling. By the nineteenth century, Boone had become a larger-than-life folk hero whose exploits were woven into American legend.
Popular tales credited him with wrestling bears, escaping impossible dangers, and surviving countless adventures in the wilderness!
Boone's name has long been associated with adventure, exploration, and the search for opportunity. That spirit is reflected in a phrase often linked with the frontier: "elbow room." In America, the expression came to mean having enough space to spread out, build a life, and pursue one's ambitions. For generations of settlers moving westward, "more elbow room" meant land, freedom, and the promise of a fresh start.
The phrase, however, has older roots. The traditional Scottish rhyme, with the words "gie me some elbow room" is a playful request for space to move, dance, and enjoy oneself.
Give every dancer some elbow room by remember to keep those elbows down while dancing. 😜 🕺 💃 🤎 🤎 🤎 💪 💪 💪
Banks of Boone
Daniel Boone (1734–1820) was one of the most celebrated frontiersmen in American history, though many of the stories told about him blend fact and legend. Born in Pennsylvania to a Quaker family of English and Welsh ancestry, Boone grew up on the edge of the colonial frontier, where he developed exceptional skills as a hunter, woodsman, and explorer. As a young man he moved with his family to North Carolina, where the vast forests and wilderness further nurtured his love of exploration and adventure.
Boone is best known for helping to open the American frontier beyond the Appalachian Mountains. In 1769, he set out on an expedition through the Cumberland Gap, a natural passage through the mountains that would become one of the most important routes into Kentucky. Although Native American peoples had long used these trails, Boone's journeys helped make the region known to settlers eager for new opportunities. In 1775, he and a group of workers blazed the Wilderness Road, creating a route that enabled thousands of pioneers to move westward into Kentucky.
Life on the frontier was often difficult and dangerous. Boone faced harsh weather, disease, food shortages, and frequent conflict as settlers and Native American nations struggled over control of the land. During the American Revolutionary War, Boone was captured by Shawnee warriors in 1778. He was adopted into the Shawnee community and lived among them for several months before escaping to warn the settlers at Boonesborough of an impending attack. Despite the hardships he endured, Boone generally expressed admiration for Native American skills and culture, a perspective that distinguished him from many of his contemporaries.
Much of Boone's fame came from the publication of John Filson's 1784 book, The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucky, which included an account of Boone's adventures. The book transformed him into a national folk hero and helped inspire further westward migration. Over time, countless stories, tall tales, novels, paintings, television programs, and films embellished his exploits, portraying him as a larger-than-life wilderness hero. While historians have since separated fact from fiction, Boone remains one of the enduring symbols of the American frontier.
In his later years, Boone continued moving westward, eventually settling in what is now Missouri. Despite his fame, he often struggled financially, largely because of complicated land claims and poor record-keeping rather than a lack of success. He died in 1820 at the age of eighty-five, having witnessed the transformation of the American frontier from a wilderness beyond the mountains to a rapidly expanding nation. Today, Daniel Boone occupies a unique place in American history as both a real historical figure and a legendary icon whose story helped shape the nation's image of exploration, independence, and adventure.
To hear Scottish Fiddler Bonnie Rideout's version of "Elbow Room" click the portrait of Daniel Boone, by Chester Harding, 1820.
Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!
