Boone's Lick Road - Danville (1834) - Danville, MO
Posted by: 
gparkes
N 38° 54.587 W 091° 32.115
15S E 626999 N 4307784
Danville marker along the historic Boone's Lick Road.
Waymark Code: WM5TE8
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 02/10/2009
Views: 18
BOONE'S LICK ROAD
Danville (1834)
Marked by the
Daughters of the
American Revolution
and the
State of Missouri
1913
Danville was a stagecoach stop along the Boone's Lick Road. Founded in 1834, the town was the county seat from founding until 1925, when the county seat was moved to Montgomery City. Danville was the third of four county seats that Montgomery County has had. Other markers in the town note the Danville Female Academy and Civil War activities.
Today, Danville's section of the Boone's Lick Road remains virtually the way it has for centuries. The road is graveled and is the town's Main Street. Danville has always been on major transportation arteries of the nation: First on the Boone's Lick Road, then on US-40 (the National Road) which was located one block south of Main, and now on I-70, for which US-40 has become the outer road.
The Boone's Lick Road originated as an old Indian trace. In the 1764, the first part of the road was expanded by trappers through St. Louis County, Missouri. The road was expanded by brothers Daniel Morgan and Nathanal Boone, sons of famous frontiersman Daniel Boone, as part of gaining access to salt springs near present day New Franklin, Missouri. The complete road from St. Louis to Franklin, Missouri takes its name from the Boone brothers. In 1821, William Becknell established a road from Franklin to Santa Fe, Mexico, there by establishing the Santa Fe Trail. The Santa Fe Trail at Kansas City splits off into other major wagon roads such as the California and Oregon Trails. The Boone's Lick road is the land route to the beginning of the Santa Fe Trail and carried many of those who would settle the west.