SETTLEMENTS AND LOGGING
Boone’s Fort, or Boonesborough, was built in 1775. Afraid of reprisals by angry tribesmen whose land they had appropriated, settlers huddled in stockaded enclaves built of logs. The ring of cleared land created to obtain building materials increased in width year by year as more trees were felled for fuel. Livestock were pastured in the clearing under armed guard during the day and herded into the stockade for safety at night.
Every American settlement established during the late 18th and early 19th century voraciously consumed wood. When Europeans first arrived in eastern North America, the land was covered by one of the world’s most extensive climax forests of temperate character. As the accompanying maps show (opposite), over the next 200 years Americans completely changed the environment by cutting down almost all the tall trees. In the process, they converted vast tracts of mature forest to open farmland and pasturage suitable for breeding cattle and horses.