Daniel Boone as a real estate investor?

. . . by Meredith Mason Brown is a great read if you have any interest in U. S. history. I hope your experience in US History class was more enlightening (and more comprehensive) than mine. Despite an unbroken string of history teachers having done their dead-level best to ensure a lifelong lack of interest, I developed a love of history many years after graduating from college. My best example of why I despised history as a student was how briefly we covered Lewis & Clark. It was basically "They explored the west", "They came home", inevitably followed by, "What was the exact date of each event we mentioned?". Until reading Stephen Ambrose's excellent "Undaunted Courage" (only a few years ago), I had no idea of what a momentous and amazing feat they performed, nor that they lost only one man (probably to a ruptured appendix) doing so.

So it is with Col. Boone. The Daniel Boone of my imagination is Fess Parker in the 60's TV series, barrel-chested & well over six feet tall, coonskin cap & fringed buckskin shirt, throwing an ax that splits a tree down the middle in the opening credits.  In reality Boone was a land surveyor (though he was not known for either precision or detail), stood 5-7 on his best day, and became notorious for not paying his debts.  

Aside from his imprecise surveying and his carelessness in repaying debt, Col. Boone was every bit the frontiersman. He played a huge role in literally opening up the portions of the US consisting of what's now western NC, practically all of KY, and a significant portion of MO. He fought his share of native Americans, before and after becoming the adopted son of a high-ranking chief.  Two of his daughters were captured by natives at one point, and their rescue was a feat of courage worthy of Hollywood. Though he surveyed thousands of acres of wilderness land with the intention of claiming a substantial portion for himself, Col. Boone died almost penniless in 1820 at the age of 83.

The book is painstakingly-researched and well written.