Appalachian Community Histories – Fort Blackmore, Scott County: Stony Creek, Daniel Boone, and the Lower Clinch Frontier
Fort Blackmore belongs to Scott County history, but its records begin before Scott County existed. The Library of Virginia lists Scott County as formed in 1814 from Lee, Russell, and Washington Counties, which means the oldest paper trail for Fort Blackmore runs through earlier frontier counties, militia correspondence, Draper Manuscripts, pension files, land surveys, and later local histories.
That is one reason Fort Blackmore can be hard to follow. The same place may appear as Blackmore’s Fort, Blackamore’s Fort, Blakamore Station, Blackmore’s Station, or Fort Blackmore. The spelling changes, but the geography remains centered on the lower Clinch River, near Stony Creek and the present Fort Blackmore community.
In the records of the 1770s, Fort Blackmore was not a large stone military post. It was a frontier station, a small fortified place built around families, cabins, stockade walls, armed watchfulness, and the need to survive in a contested borderland. Scott County’s own early history describes Fort Blackmore as standing on an elevated flood plain on the north side of the Clinch River, opposite the mouth of Rock Branch. The edited Draper correspondence identifies Blackmore’s Fort as the lowest fort on the Clinch, at the mouth of Stony Creek. Taken together, those descriptions place the fort in the Clinch River bottomlands where local memory, road names, and later markers still hold the name.
John Blackmore and the Mouth of Stony Creek
The fort took its name from John Blackmore, one of the settlers whose land and family became part of the early Clinch frontier. A public-history summary tied to the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail tradition states that Blackmore settled near the mouth of Stony Creek in 1773 and that his 518-acre tract was surveyed on March 25, 1774, by Captain Daniel Smith, deputy surveyor for Fincastle County.
That detail matters because the fort grew out of settlement, not the other way around. Families had already pushed into the Clinch country. Hunters, surveyors, and land speculators were moving across a region that Native people had long known, hunted, traveled, and defended. Scott County’s early history preserves a memory of an Indigenous village on the south bank of the Clinch near the mouth of Stony Creek, showing that the site’s importance did not begin with the fort.
By 1774, violence along the Ohio, Kentucky, Holston, and Clinch frontiers had drawn the region into Lord Dunmore’s War. Fort Blackmore stood in the middle of that fear. It was a place where families tried to hold ground while militia officers wrote letters, moved men, guarded gaps, and tried to guess where the next attack might come.
The Clinch Forts in Dunmore’s War
The strongest early evidence for Fort Blackmore comes from the Draper Manuscripts and the edited volume Documentary History of Dunmore’s War, 1774. In July 1774, militia officers discussed the forts being built and held along the Clinch. A letter printed in that volume stated that four forts were being erected in Captain William Russell’s company, including one at Blackmore’s, and that men were to be stationed there. The same printed record recommended men at Blackmore’s “back of Moccison gap,” showing how the fort fit into the defensive line around Big Moccasin Gap and the lower Clinch.
Captain William Russell’s own letter to Colonel William Preston makes the settlement sound smaller and more fragile. Russell wrote that there were four families at John Blackmore’s near the mouth of Stony Creek and that they would not be able to stand without help. He asked that men be supplied so they could continue the small fortification they had erected.
Those few lines give a clearer picture than any legend could. Fort Blackmore was not simply a name on a marker. It was a cluster of exposed families, trying to stay in place while the surrounding frontier shifted between settlement, war, flight, and return.
Daniel Boone on the Clinch
Daniel Boone’s connection to Fort Blackmore is one of the reasons the place remains remembered beyond Scott County. Boone was already tied to the Clinch country before the Wilderness Road made his name famous. In 1774, while Dunmore’s War pulled many militia men toward the Ohio and Point Pleasant, Boone was involved in the defense and movement of men around the Clinch settlements.
Scott County’s official early history states that Daniel Boone was in command of Fort Blackmore and other forts on the Clinch River in 1774 while militia men were engaged in the Point Pleasant campaign. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation gives the same general interpretation, placing Boone in command of Fort Blackmore and other Clinch forts during Dunmore’s War.
The primary correspondence is more specific and more human. In the Documentary History of Dunmore’s War, Captain Russell mentioned Boone in connection with scouts and surveyors, hoping he would bring in men who were out in Kentucky. Later that autumn, Arthur Campbell’s letter placed Boone at Blackmore’s in the aftermath of an attack, moving with Captain Daniel Smith and a party of men in pursuit of the raiders.
That makes Fort Blackmore part of Boone’s Virginia story, not just his Kentucky story. Before Boone helped open the Wilderness Road through Cumberland Gap, he was already moving through the dangerous country of the Clinch, Holston, Moccasin Gap, and Powell Valley.
The Attack of October 1774
The most vivid early account of Fort Blackmore comes from Major Arthur Campbell’s letter to Colonel William Preston, written from Royal Oak on October 12, 1774. The Wisconsin Historical Society identifies the original as a repaired letter in the Draper Manuscripts, dated October 12, 1774, summarizing the attack on Blackmore’s Fort, the killing of Deal Carter, and the pursuit by Captain Smith and Boone with twenty-six men.
Campbell wrote that an express had come from the Clinch with news that on Thursday, October 6, at Blackmore’s, Deal Carter had been killed and scalped within fifty-five steps of the fort. The letter describes the attackers creeping along the bank of the river, out of sight, while many of the people were away from the gate. Carter discovered them and raised the alarm. The account says shots were fired, Carter was wounded, and then he was killed before the raiders withdrew.
The letter also describes the fort itself in passing. Campbell mentioned a bastion and a stockade, and he wrote that a shot struck the stockade only a few inches from Anderson’s head. That small detail turns the place from an abstract “fort” into a real frontier refuge, one where wood walls, a gate, a riverbank, and a few armed men could mean the difference between survival and disaster.
The attack spread fear across the Clinch. Campbell wrote of alarming apprehensions among the inhabitants, missing cattle and horses, want of ammunition, scarcity of provisions, and families fleeing. That was the world Fort Blackmore stood in during the autumn of 1774. It was a station of defense, but it was also a place where people knew how thin that defense could be.
Boone, Smith, and the Pursuit
The day after the attack, Captain Daniel Smith came to Blackmore’s with a party of men connected with Boone. Campbell’s letter says that six of seven horses were taken from a small enclosure near the fort, and the next morning Smith and Boone set out with twenty-six chosen men to follow the tracks.
The records do not turn that pursuit into a clean story with a dramatic ending. Instead, they show what frontier war often looked like. Men reacted to alarms. Horses disappeared. Spies watched paths. Letters traveled slowly. Officers tried to hold frightened settlements together. Boone appears here not as a polished legend, but as one of the men trusted to move fast through difficult country.
That makes the Fort Blackmore story especially useful. It places Boone in the working machinery of frontier defense. It also shows that the famous routes through Moccasin Gap and Cumberland Gap were not just migration paths. They were watched, guarded, feared, and fought over.
A Revolutionary War Station
Fort Blackmore did not disappear after Dunmore’s War. Later Revolutionary-era documents show the station continuing as part of the Clinch defense system. The Calendar of the Tennessee and King’s Mountain Papers of the Draper Collection identifies a 1777 Joseph Martin payroll for a company stationed at Rye Cove on the Clinch River, with an endorsement listing Fort Blakamore Station. Another 1777 payroll placed detachments at Rye Cove, Blackmore’s, and Moore’s forts. In 1778, Alexander Ritchie gave receipts to Captain Joseph Martin for militia garrison payments at Fort Blackmore.
Pension applications from Revolutionary War veterans add another layer. Lewis Green, who later lived in Harlan County, Kentucky, stated in his pension declaration that he served under John Blackmore and others, and that he was forted at Blackamore’s Fort on the Clinch River while guarding the frontier.
George Blackmore’s pension file stated that he lived at Blackamore’s Station on the Clinch River and served as a drummer there under several captains. Peter Luna’s pension statement said he guarded Blackmore’s Station in 1779, and that George Blackmore was there as a drummer. Luna also stated that the station was kept, built, and named after John Blackmore.
These pension files were created decades after the events, and they should be read carefully. Memories could be imperfect, and veterans were trying to prove service under federal pension laws. Still, when placed beside the Draper correspondence and payroll records, they help show that Fort Blackmore remained a known station through the Revolutionary era.
From Frontier Fort to Community Memory
The fort eventually passed from military necessity into local memory. The walls are gone, but the name remained. Fort Blackmore became a Scott County place-name, a road name, a community identity, and a stop in the larger story of the Daniel Boone Wilderness Road.
Modern Scott County history still frames Fort Blackmore as one of the county’s early defensive sites. It also places the fort alongside the Blockhouse, Big Moccasin Gap, Rye Cove, Fort Houston, Carter’s Fort, Porter’s Fort, and other early places of refuge and movement.
That wider geography matters. Fort Blackmore was not isolated. It sat in a network of river crossings, gaps, forts, farms, hunting grounds, and migration routes. To the east were the older Holston and Clinch settlements. To the west were Powell Valley, Cumberland Gap, and Kentucky. To the south lay the Long Island of Holston and the routes toward what became Tennessee. Every movement through that country carried meaning.
Why Fort Blackmore Still Matters
Fort Blackmore’s story is not only about Daniel Boone. It is also about John Blackmore’s family, Deal Carter’s death, militia officers trying to defend scattered settlers, Native resistance to colonial expansion, and the way a small Clinch River station became part of several larger histories at once.
It belongs to the story of Dunmore’s War because the correspondence from 1774 shows the fort under threat while Virginia’s militia fought toward Point Pleasant. It belongs to the story of the American Revolution because later payrolls and pension files show militia service tied to the station. It belongs to Scott County because the modern county inherited the place, the name, and the memory long after the earliest records were written under other county jurisdictions.
Most of all, Fort Blackmore matters because it helps us see the frontier at ground level. The story is not just governors, land companies, or famous pioneers. It is also four families near Stony Creek, a small fortification, a stockade wall, a riverbank, a frightened alarm, and a community trying to hold its place on the edge of Virginia.
Sources & Further Reading
State Historical Society of Wisconsin. “Letter to William Preston from Maj. Arthur Campbell, Front Page.” Draper Manuscripts, Preston and Virginia Papers, October 12, 1774. Wisconsin Historical Society. https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM99724
Thwaites, Reuben Gold, and Louise Phelps Kellogg, eds. Documentary History of Dunmore’s War, 1774. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society, 1905. https://archive.org/details/documentaryhisto00kelluoft
State Historical Society of Wisconsin. The Preston and Virginia Papers of the Draper Collection of Manuscripts. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society, 1915. https://archive.org/details/prestonvirginiap00wiscuoft
University of Wisconsin Digital Collections. “Draper Manuscripts: William Preston Papers, 1731–1791.” Wisconsin Historical Society Archives. https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=wiarchives;cc=wiarchives;view=text;rgn=main;didno=uw-whs-draper0qq
University of Wisconsin Digital Collections. “Draper Manuscripts: Daniel Boone Papers, 1760–1911.” Wisconsin Historical Society Archives. https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=wiarchives;cc=wiarchives;view=text;rgn=main;didno=uw-whs-draper00c
State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Calendar of the Tennessee and King’s Mountain Papers of the Draper Collection of Manuscripts. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1929. https://archive.org/stream/calendaroftennes00stat/calendaroftennes00stat_djvu.txt
National Archives and Records Service. Pamphlet Describing M804: Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application Files. Washington, DC: General Services Administration, 1974. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m804.pdf
FamilySearch. “United States, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Applications, 1800–1900.” Database. FamilySearch. https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/collection/1417475
Southern Campaign American Revolution Pension Statements and Rosters. “Pension Application of Lewis Green, S31080.” Transcribed by Will Graves. https://revwarapps.org/s31080.pdf
Southern Campaign American Revolution Pension Statements and Rosters. “Pension Application of George Blackmore, W2558.” Transcribed by Will Graves. https://revwarapps.org/w2558.pdf
Southern Campaign American Revolution Pension Statements and Rosters. “Pension Application of Peter Luna, S1554.” Transcribed by Will Graves. https://revwarapps.org/s1554.pdf
Southern Campaign American Revolution Pension Statements and Rosters. “Pension Application of John Osborn, S32423.” Transcribed by Will Graves. https://revwarapps.org/s32423.pdf
Southern Campaign American Revolution Pension Statements and Rosters. “Pension Application of Charles Bickley, S10091.” Transcribed by Will Graves. https://revwarapps.org/s10091.pdf
Southern Campaign American Revolution Pension Statements and Rosters. “Pension Application of James Fraley, R3736.” Transcribed by Will Graves. https://revwarapps.org/r3736.pdf
Sioussat, St. George L., ed. “The Journal of General Daniel Smith.” Tennessee Historical Magazine 1, no. 1, 1915. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/42637971.pdf
Palmer, William P., ed. Calendar of Virginia State Papers and Other Manuscripts Preserved in the Capitol at Richmond. Richmond: R. F. Walker, 1875–1893. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001268458
Hening, William Waller, ed. The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619. Richmond: Samuel Pleasants, 1809–1823. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009714930
Force, Peter, ed. American Archives: Fourth Series. Washington, DC: M. St. Clair Clarke and Peter Force, 1837–1846. https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp70176
Summers, Lewis Preston. History of Southwest Virginia, 1746–1786; Washington County, 1777–1870. Richmond, VA: J. L. Hill Printing Company, 1903. https://archive.org/details/historyofsouthwe00lewi
Summers, Lewis Preston. Annals of Southwest Virginia, 1769–1800. Abingdon, VA: Lewis Preston Summers, 1929. https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp96741
Addington, Robert M. History of Scott County, Virginia. Marceline, MO: Walsworth Publishing Company, 1932. Reprint, Johnson City, TN: Overmountain Press, 1992. https://books.google.com/books/about/History_of_Scott_County_Virginia.html?id=n2pWQWkA1cUC
Scott County, Virginia. “Early History of Scott County.” Scott County, Virginia. https://www.scottcountyva.gov/177/Early-History-of-Scott-County
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. “Scott County, Virginia.” Preserve America Community. https://www.achp.gov/preserve-america/community/scott-county-virginia
Virginia Department of Historic Resources. “Blackmore’s Fort.” Historical Marker K-13. Accessed through Historical Marker Database. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=89868
Virginia Department of Historic Resources. “Highway Markers.” https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/programs/highway-markers/
Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association. “Lord Dunmore’s War, Fort Blackmore, Scott County, Virginia.” https://www.mylonghunters.info/lord-dunmores-war-fort-blackmore-scott-county-virginia
Explore Scott County, Virginia. “History.” https://www.explorescottcountyva.org/things-to-do/history/
Rife, J. P. “The Causes and Course of Dunmore’s War.” Master’s thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1999. https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstreams/71162a0b-144f-48cd-b6da-567f105ba785/download
Colonial Williamsburg. “The Shawnee-Dunmore War.” December 2, 2024. https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/discover/moments-in-history/road-to-independence/the-shawnee-dunmore-war/
American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati. “Lord Dunmore’s War.” https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/video/lord-dunmores-war/
Hagy, James W. “Arthur Campbell and the Origins of Kentucky: A Reassessment.” Filson Club History Quarterly 55, no. 4, 1981. https://filsonhistorical.org/wp-content/uploads/publicationpdfs/55-4-3_Arthur-Campbell-and-the-Origins-of-Kentucky-A-Reassessment_Hagy-James-William.pdf
Library of Virginia. “Scott County.” County and City Microfilm Collection. https://www.lva.virginia.gov/collections/ccmf/VA/VA255
Author Note: Fort Blackmore is one of those places where Scott County history reaches back into older county records and frontier militia papers. I wanted to treat it as more than a Daniel Boone footnote, because the smaller details at Stony Creek tell a much wider story about the Clinch frontier.