Daniel Boone's home

We just attended the last field trip of the year with our local homeschooling group and we went to Daniel Boone's last residence before he died.  This was actually his youngest son's Nathan's house but Daniel Boone and his wife lived with them for many years.

Found another St Louis birthday cake, I think we are nearly 2-3 dozen so far this year

Our tour guides were dressed up like characters of the period.  The young man we were told was a Homeschool graduate who is passionate about this period:)

The house is four story Georgian style house and the entire site is now owned by the Lindenwood University Heritage center

We were only able to see the 2 floors the kitchens and the second floor, no pictures were allowed inside:(

One of the interesting things I discover while touring the house  was how tea was imported to this country.  Since the kids and I are studying the revolutionary war and reading the Boston tea party, I always imagine that the tea thrown into the harbor was loose leaf tea, but it wasn't.  I did know it wasn't in teabags:)

The tea was compressed into large hard blocks to make for easier shipping. We were told that then the blocks of tea would be sold in smaller shapes like the sample I bought from the gift shop and the pioneers would use a knife to shave off a teaspoon or so into their mugs.  I am going to give this a try right after this post is done:)

Some activities the kids got to enjoy was playing Graces which was a hoop and stick game that was popular for this period

Potato sack races

stick and hoop races

It is hard keeping that hoop going on uneven ground according to MarioFan

Touching Beaver pelt and hearing stories of Daniel Boone as a fur trader

Entering a woodworkers cabin we were told that there were 3 specific axes that the pioneers needed and shown their differences and how they were used

Kids got to try their hands at smoothing out a piece of wood

Then we were told about the Kentucky long rifle and shown how it works

Looking at gun powder which was not as fine as it is these days, we were told.

That was one very loud shot, and look at all that smoke.  Can you imagine a battlefield of these guns going off and the smell of sulfur in the air:(

While Daniel Boone and his family lived on this property there were no other homes for miles around, however currently the University is adding period homes to the area with the hopes of making this a real pioneer village of Mo.  For this field trip we did not get to enter any of these homes but I hope to return for another visit and see the building we missed.  I am showing a few so you can see the different styles, we were told the houses are from this period and from about a 100 mile radius for this site.

Lawyers cabin

cabin

parish church

An interesting story was relied to us regarding the burial of Daniel Boone. It was said he died in his son's home and was buried about 15 miles away beside his wife who died about 13 years earlier.  However about 15 years after his death the state of Kentucky was celebrating its 50th birthday and realized that it founding father, Daniel Boone was not buried in its territory.  The Kentucky officials attempted to reach out to the Boone family to have his remains return and buried in Kentucky.  It is thought a distant relative gave permission but that Kentucky dug up the wrong two graves, although they claim to have the actual bones of Daniel Boone.  The state of MO contends they only have the bones of his wife and an unknown man.