One of a string of markers along the original trail. This trail started at Franklin Missouri (tying in with the Boone's Lick Trail). The two trails extended the "road" from the Missouri River to Sante Fe, New Mexico. In Kansas area a treaty with the Kaw Indians allowed relatively safe conduct.

One of the first settled areas north of the Missouri (River), Montgomery County was an early gateway to the Boone's Lick Country. Organized, 1818, and named for Gen. Richard Montgomery, it was a vast area and first two county seats, Pinckney and Lewiston, lay in what is now Warren County. Danville, the third county seat, was succeeded, 1924, by Montgomery City, founded 1857, when the North Missouri R.R.(Wabash)reached there.

Historic Danville, founded 1833-34, was a prominent town on the Boone's Lick Trail and popular stops were See-Nunnelly and Fulkerson taverns.

J.H. Robinson's Female Academy, 1857-65, was a noted early school. The Academy Chapel, built in 1859, is now a Methodist Church. In the Civil War, Danville was looted and burned, Oct.14, 1864, by Bill Anderson's guerrillas. This severe blow and not being on the railroad resulted finally in the loss of the county seat, after a long struggle, to Montgomery City.

The county was surveyed by Nathan and Daniel Morgan Boone, sons of Daniel Boone. Daniel M. lived near Mineola for a time and another son, Jesse, settled near Danville.

In a grain and livestock farming region, Montgomery County lies in territory ceded by Sac and Fox Indians in 1804, the first Indian land cession in Missouri. Southern pioneers who followed Daniel Boone to MO. made the county's first settlement on Loutre Island at the mouth of Loutre River on the Missouri, 1807. A number of Germans, the followers of Gottfried Duden, came in the 1830's.

The Loutre (Otter) River, long known to French trappers, was first named Fouchure (Forking) by explorer De Bourgmond, 1714. The Lewis and Clark Expedition camped at the river's mouth, 1804. In the War of 1812, rangers were stationed at Fort Clemson on Loutre Island. Indians killed Captain James Callaway near Danville, 1815.

Mineola, to the south, was laid out as a spa in 1879, near a mineral spring where Isaac Van Bibber had settled, 1815, and built a tavern on the Boone's Lick Trail. Graham Cave, at Mineola, has been utilized by man since prehistoric times. Astronomer Thomas J.J. See was born in Montgomery City and Supreme Court Justice Walker J. Lovelace made his home in Danville.

[Boone's Lick Trail was a "road" built by Nathan and Daniel Morgan Boone from current Saint Charles to current Franklin in Missouri. The "road" was identified with a marker every few miles. These markers were "replaced" with Missouri Marble markers approximately the same locations by the DAR in 1913.]

[A lick is a natural deposit of salts in the soil. Animals lick the soil to acquire the necessary minerals for their dietary needs. Humans would dig up the soil and in a process of mixing with water, boiling and evaporation would extract the salt from the soil.]

[This "road" was built to allow land holders in the Femme Osage region access to the salts. It became the main road during the War of 1812, and later because the link from the Missouri River to the Santa Fe Trail which started just outside Frankiln, Missouri.]

[Danville, this marker is on Old Main Street and other than the building in the background, no other buildings exist today. The town, originally a county seat, was burned to the ground in 1864 by "Bloody" Bill Anderson and his Kansas raiders during the Civil War.]