Boone Trace technically terminated at Fort Boonesborough in 1775, but the story goes on. Settlers crossed the Kentucky River and proceeded northwest along Athens-Boonesboro Rd, now officially designated as the Daniel Boone Heritage Trail.

Winchester was founded as a town in 1792 after Clark County was established, but its roots date from 1685 when Shawnee Indians inhabited the area. Clark County was named for George Rogers Clark, commander of the Great Northwest Campaign that took place in 1779-80.

Strode's Station was founded in 1779 just northwest of present-day Winchester to counter Indian attacks. When the Indian threat ceased, the station fell into disuse and the village of Winchester was established at a crossroads on the Lexington Pike.  

To follow the Boone Trace auto tour, stop in at the Kentucky River Field School which is being developed at the Billy Bush Settlement site. It is located just beyond the bridge over the Kentucky River on Hwy 627 if traveling north. Take the second right after passing over the bridge on Old Boonesboro Road. The school will be about one mile north on the left.

Daniel Boone earned substantial income as a deputy county surveyor (1783-1797), a dangerous job in frontier Kentucky. He made legal surveys in six Kentucky counties, including Clark. Boone’s first eleven surveys were for William Bush and became the basis for the settlement. The first was made January 7, 1783. The settlement features “the Old Rock Barn” and the cemetery on the site.

Directions can then also be obtained to the Daniel Boone Heritage Trail (Athens-Boonesboro Rd) featuring the Lower Howard’s Creek Nature Preserve, which has a fascinating history of its own, near Hall’s Restaurant on the Kentucky River. It became one of the first industrialized areas in Kentucky, called “Factory Bottom” including a boatworks, warehouses, mills, quarries and a ford across the Kentucky River. 

The preserve holds the Salt Spring Trace, an early Indian trail used by the Shawnee, when Fort Boonesborough was besieged for nine days in 1778. The Trail terminates at Boone Station in Athens, KY, where Daniel Boone lived for four years. Along the Trail are also featured the famous rock fences.