Note 117 — Chapter XXIV

The Lower Blue Licks, which Cuming here describes, were discovered in 1773 by a party of surveyors led by John Finley. It was a well-known spot in early Kentucky annals, and Daniel Boone was here engaged in making salt when captured by Indians (1778). The most famous event in its history was the disastrous battle fought here, August 19, 1782, in which the flower of Kentucky frontiersmen lost their lives. See Young, “Battle of Blue Licks” in Durrett, Bryant’s Station (Filson Club Publications, No. 12; Louisville, 1897). The Lower Blue Licks later became, as Cuming indicates, a favorite watering-place for the vicinity.—Ed.