By Bob Weaver
Did Daniel Boone grace the environs of Sunny Cal?
It's possible.
Some of the most famous scribblings etched on rocks and inside caves in the eastern USA says "George Washington Slept Here," leading to the conclusion that ole George couldn't have slept in all those places.
A Sunny Cal story, oft told in the last century, was an account of Daniel Boone traveling through this area with some of western Virginia's early explorers.
The signature of Daniel Boone, according to the tale, was left on a rock cliff near the long-gone village of Losie in Washington District, recorded by the late Calhoun educator Don McGlothlin.
The actual location is just off Walnut Run on Grannyshe, in a small hollow behind the original Knotts Chenoweth house, occupied these last 30 years by Will and Sally Goodsavage, who have since sold the property.
"The huge cave rock collapsed about 15-20 years ago," said Will Goodsavage, "awakening us in the middle of the night when it struck the earth."
This huge moss-covered rock, an overhang creating
the Daniel Boone cave, fell about 15-20 years ago...
... under the boulder you're likely to find Boone's
alleged signature, described by McGlothlin in the 1940s
McGlothlin, a teacher and former principal of Calhoun County High School in the 1940s, once embarked on an ambitious writing project about the history of the county - "Inland Retreat."
After writing a few chapters, he likely abandoned the work when he was fired from his principals job for failing to force a high school student to say the Pledge of Allegiance during the troubled days of World War II.
It is in those few pages of his ill-begotten book that he says Boone graced the hills of the county in the late 1700s.
He writes:
"Four years after William Lowther and the two Hughes boys 'discovered' Calhoun, the famous pioneer paid her a visit. We are not sure from which direction he came or what point he left the county. We do not know what day he was our guest."
"The only record we have of his visit is left by himself, his signature. The name and date appear on an irregular cliff - D. Boone 1776 - near Losie in Washington District."
"The author has taken great pains to ascertain the authenticity of this carving and has become completely satisfied that it is the work of Boone himself ... the name and date appear near the top of the cliff at least a dozen feet from the ground."
"Likely in Boone's time the upper layer of rocks formed the roof of the cave under which the pioneer camped for the night. Fortunately for the historian, a little of the roof remains, enough to shelter and preserve the ancient record."
"As far as we have been able to ascertain, Daniel Boone was the fourth white man in Calhoun ... while he sheltered under the cave on Walnut Creek."
Boone certainly was friends with Calhoun-connected Peter McCune and Adam O'Brien, who lived at a Clarksburg fort during Revolutionary War times.
The probability is high that Daniel came through this area, McCune and O'Brien eventually settling in Washington District.
"It's going to be pretty hard to check out Daniel's signature," Will Goodsavage said, indicating the boulder weighs tons and it would take a pretty big pry-bar to lift it.
Local legend says that Jacob Boone, who settled early-on in the Bear Fork Wilderness, was the illegitimate son of Daniel Boone.
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