“With Boon, hunting and exploration were passions, and the
lonely life of the wilderness, with its bold, wild freedom, the only existence
for which he really cared. He was a tall, spare, sinewy man, with eyes like an
eagle’s, and muscles that never tired; the toil and hardship of his life made
no impress on his frame, unhurt by intemperance of any kind, and he lived for
eighty-six years, a backwoods hunter to the end of his days. His thoughtful, quiet, pleasant face, so
often portrayed, is familiar to everyone; it was the face of a man who never
blustered or bullied, who would neither inflict nor suffer any wrong, and who
had a limitless fund of fortitude, endurance, and indomitable resolution upon
which to draw when fortune proved adverse.
His self-command and patience, his daring, restless love of adventure,
and, in time of danger, his absolute trust in his own powers and resources, all
combined to render him peculiarly fitted to follow the career of which he was
so fond.”
TR wrote that Boone’s Birthday was August 22nd,
Britannica notes October 22nd, and my history book and Wikipedia put
the date as November 2. I await a note
back from the Boone Society.In any case, TR named his fair hunting and conservation organization Boone & Crockett, after the two intrepid frontiersman. It’s a good thing to know more about real American heroes of bygone days.