Building Fort Boonesborough

Building Fort Boonesborough. . Built for Defense , Daniel Boone and his trail crew arrived at the beginning of April 1775 and began building a fort. They had finished several small, rough cabins when Richard Henderson and forty men arrived a few weeks later. Henderson promptly relocated the fort to higher ground., Like all frontier forts, Boonesborough was a defensive structure meant to provide refuge in case of attack. Progress on the fort was slow. Men worked on it for a short time then left to plant crops and build their own cabins. The danger of Indian attacks seemed to have faded, so to Henderson's disgust, the fort's completion was delayed., What Did the Fort Look Like? , Historic drawings and residents' descriptions tell us that Fort Boonesborough was longer than it was wide. Occupants stated that there were blockhouses at each corner and shed-roof cabins, some of them double, inside the fort. A wall, formed by sections of upright logs and the backs of the cabins, enclosed the fort. Residents entered through gates in each of the long walls. A double cabin stood near the center of the fort, as did a well dug to provide water in times of siege. By early 1777, the fort was fully enclosed and two blockhouses had been constructed., When Daniel Boone returned to the fort after escaping from the Shawnee in June 1778, he found it in a "bad state of defense." Fearing an attack, the residents hurriedly repaired the wall and built two more blockhouses.