Preserving History

BRISTOL, Va. – Billie Whisnant hardly recognized the monument for the trees.
But there it was – this weathered, old slab of concrete, standing along Old Abingdon Highway, near I-81’s Exit 5. Shaped like an arrowhead, it pointed to the sky near the rippling waters of Beaver Creek in Bristol, Va.
“There was a kind of deterioration overall,” Whisnant said. “It was still standing. You couldn’t knock it over. Whoever did it originally did a great job. You could still see it was an arrowhead.”
This marker, actually, is one of more than 300 monuments across the country commemorating the legacy of Daniel Boone, the famed frontiersman noted for such feats as blazing the Wilderness Trail through the Cumberland Gap.
In 1927, the Boone Trail Highway and Memorial Association erected this Bristol monument, Whisnant said.
A longtime member of the Bristol-based Fort Chiswell chapter of the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution), Whisnant wondered how she might help restore the marker.
“I just looked at the sad monument and thought, ‘Whoa! How are a bunch of DARs going to fix this? What do I know about concrete? Nothing,’ ” she said.
Searching for assistance, Whisnant eventually found herself, in 2007, talking to Chuck Brewster, a surveyor in the City of Bristol, Va.’s engineering department.
Brewster, unfortunately, was not able to offer municipal funds to help restore the marker.
But, Brewster did have an idea: He called on the help of his nephew William Richard Major of Johnson City, Tenn.
“Will’s been in scouts for six years now,” Brewster said, “and he’s come up on his last rank of Eagle, and he has to have a service project, which requires at least 100 hours of time on it.”
In late 2007, Major took on the year-long project to restore the marker – mixing concrete, sanding and repainting the piece.
Working on this marker was a way “of being a part of history and trying to restore something that was once deteriorated,” Major said.
Now 17, Major is a student at the University School in Johnson City.
For inspiration, Major would visit another Daniel Boone marker, located on the grounds of the Munsey Memorial United Methodist Church near the Johnson City Public Library.
On the restoration job in Bristol, meanwhile, passersby also fueled Major’s enthusiasm.
“There was this older lady who actually lived near where the marker was,” Major said, “and she stopped and walked up and said, ‘I’ve seen this marker deteriorate over my lifetime, and now I’m really glad to see that somebody’s actually started work on it.’ ”
Whisnant, in turn, helped organize a group of 17 DAR organizations to contribute money to help fund the project’s $600 expense, including donations from chapters called Appalachian Trail, Black’s Fort, Boone Trail, Carter’s Fort, Count Pulaski, Fort Chiswell, Fort Maiden Spring, George Pearis, Levisa River, Lovelady, Major George Gibson, New River Pioneer, Royal Oak, Sandy Basin, Stuart, Tabitha Adams Russell and Wilderness Road.
“It was just a cascade of wonderful things that happened,” Whisnant said.
As for Major, he’s glad this project came along, so that he could achieve the Eagle Scout rank.
“I really enjoyed this project because it helped me become more of a leader,” Major said. “And it [put me] more in touch with what Daniel Boone did in his lifetime.”

YOU SHOULD KNOW
The monument is located off Old Abingdon Highway, near U.S. 11 (Lee Highway) and I-81’s Exit 5 in Bristol, Va.

Click here for an audio clip about the project