Reedy Creek, Sullivan County

Reedy Creek, Sullivan County

In March 1775, Daniel Boone departed the Long Island of the Holston, in today's Kingsport, TN, along with 30 axe men to begin marking a trail for others to follow into the Kentucky lands across the Cumberland Gap. He departed on this expedition under the employment of Judge Richard Henderson of Salisbury, who was treating with the Cherokee headmen at Sycamore Shoals for the lease of 20 million acres of land between the Ohio and Cumberland Rivers.

While Daniel was preparing to depart, so the legend goes, he killed a bear nearby on Reedy Creek and carved his name on a tree. A copy of the tree carving can be seen today at Exchange Place, open seasonally in Kingsport, TN.

Randell Jones

www.exchangeplace.info