Published: October 08, 2009 09:14 am      

Daniel Boone Fest begins

By Carl Keith Greene

Staff Writer

For the 62nd time, Barbourville will celebrate frontiersman Daniel Boone’s treks about Knox County as he cut roads through the wilderness into central Kentucky.

The Daniel Boone Festival, initiated in 1948, is the oldest festival in Kentucky that marks the explorer’s work in establishing a population west of the Alleghenies.

This year’s event, which began Monday, gets into full swing today.

Today, the Primitive Camp on North Main Street and the Arts and Crafts Village at First Baptist Church will open at 9 a.m. The Art/Quilt shows will begin at noon at city hall. The carnival begins at 2 p.m., and at 6 p.m., the best Daniel Boone outfits and best beard contest will begin behind the courthouse.

There’s entertainment all over town during the festival.

Friday morning will see soap making and apple butter demonstrations at the Primitive Camp. And Friday night, the Daniel Boone Festival Feast with the annual signing of the Cane Treaty and Cherokee Entertainment will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the National Guard Armory on Manchester Street. Tickets are $6.

The Daniel Boone Festival Concert on the court square stage that evening will feature the Medley Boys at 5:30 p.m. and Halfway to Hazard at 9 p.m. Local singer Amanda Jack Partin will open for the Hazard group.

Saturday features the 5K Fun Run at 8 a.m. with registration at 7 a.m. in the Union College student center parking lot.

The car show begins at 9 a.m. in the Recreational Park and Homer Lee’s Old Time Show begins at the same time in front of the courthouse.

The Long Rifle Shootout begins at 10 a.m. at Lay Field.

Parade floats begin lining up at 11 a.m., bands at 1 p.m. and horses at 1:45 p.m. with the parade kicking off at 2 p.m.

The festival winds up at 5:30 p.m. on the concert stage on court square with Caught Red Handed and closes out with Exile at 8 p.m. on the stage.

In 1948, Union College Professor Karl Bleyl created the event in an attempt to change the public’s demeaning images of Kentuckians. The idea was to replace negative stereotypes with a heroic concept of frontier adventure.

Another reason for developing the event was to provide cane to Cherokee Indians for making baskets, chairs and other Native American Crafts.

Thus, the Cane Treaty written by Blyel, and signed annually, marks the good relations between the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina and the people of Barbourville and has been called the first treaty in American history to be written solely in the interest of the Indians.