Boone Trace. The name of the road ahead, Trace Branch Rd., commemorates Boone Trace. Colonel Richard Henderson of the Transylvania Land Company hired Daniel Boone to establish a trail from Long Island on the Holston River (near present-day Kingsport, Tn.) to a site on the Ky. River (that became Ft. Boonesborough). Blazed in 1775, it was significant in settling Ky. and the west. Over. (Reverse) Boone Trace, which ran close to the present-day Trace Branch Rd., was the first marked route that settlers used to travel into what became Kentucky. Many took the Trace through the Cumberland Gap to Ft. Boonesborough. The trail, which ran for nearly 200 miles, became known as Boone Trace, named in honor of Daniel Boone.