Additional information
by Randell Jones (Author)
From 1963 to 1973 the Daniel Boone Wagon Train attracted enthusiastic pioneer "wannabes" to Northwest North Carolina for an exciting frontier experience. Each June, hundreds of folks brought their old, wooden-wheeled wagons pulled by horses, mules, and oxen and loaded them with ample provisions, excited families, and dreams of adventure. They traveled in a caravan for four days through the foothills and over the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains to parade through the streets of Boone, the town named in honor of America's pioneer hero. Part historical reenactment, part rolling, rollicking party, the expedition was full of wholesome entertainment with old time music, square dancing, and open-pit barbecued chicken served to the thousands of visitors who flocked to each night's campsite in North Wilkesboro, Ferguson, Darby, Triplett, and Boone to join in the special experience. The Wagon Train began in 1963 as a celebration of North Carolina's 300th birthday, the Carolina Charter Tercentenary, and then took on a life of its own, developing its own reputation and its own cast of colorful characters. During the ten years encompassing the annual events, the Sixties and early '70s, America experienced a host of changes as social, economic, scientific, and political events swept through the country: the space race, assassinations, Beatlemania, civil rights demonstrations, race riots, the Viet Nam War, anti-war demonstrations, the Summer of Love, the moon landing, Woodstock, Watergate, and more. The reliable annual Daniel Boone Wagon Train was both a respite from and a marker of our collective journey through those challenging, turbulent, and memorable times 50 years ago.
Author Biography
Randell Jones is an author and storyteller. He is the author of the award-winning "In the Footsteps of Daniel Boone" and companion DVD, "On the Trail of Daniel Boone." During four years of intensive research and writing from 2007 into 2011, Randell wrote "Before They Were Heroes at King's Mountain" and "A Guide to the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail." Both received awards from the North Carolina Society of Historians. In 2012, he released "Trailing Daniel Boone," the story of the DAR marking Daniel Boone's Trail from 1912-1915. It received a 2012 Kentucky History Award from the Kentucky Historical Society. Randell is an invited member of the Road Scholars Speakers' Bureau of the NC Humanities Council since 2007. He is a past-president of the Overmountain Victory Trail Association and appears annually as a volunteer storyteller to school groups during Overmountain Victory Days sponsored by the National Park Service at the Museum of NC Minerals on the Blue Ridge Parkway. He lives in Winston-Salem, NC. Randell speaks to groups of varying size on topics related to American heritage and North Carolina history. If you would like him to speak to your group, please contact him at DBooneFootsteps@gmail.com.
