BOONE

city, Boone county, central Iowa, U.S., near the Des Moines River, 15 mi (24 km) west of Ames. Founded in 1865 as a railroad town, it was originally called Montana but was renamed (1871) to honour Capt. Nathan Boone, son of Daniel Boone. With the annexation in 1887 of adjacent Boonesboro (established 1848), it became the county seat. Boone Biblical College was opened in 1905 and the Boone campus of Des Moines Area Community College in 1969. The city's economy is sustained by agriculture, railroads, and light manufacturing. There are many summer camps for youth organizations in the vicinity. Ledges State Park is 4 mi south. The Kate Shelley High Bridge, 4 mi west, is one of the highest (185 ft above the river) and longest (2,685 ft) railroad bridges in the U.S. Inc. town, 1866; city, 1868. Pop. (1990) 12,392. town, seat of Watauga county, northwestern North Carolina, U.S., 4 mi (6 km) from the Blue Ridge Parkway atop the Blue Ridge Mountains at an altitude of 3,333 ft (1,016 m), near the Tennessee line. On the Daniel Boone Trail at the fork of the Wilderness Road, the settlement was incorporated in 1871 and named for the pioneer who, according to tradition, camped there while on a hunting trip. A noted mountain vacation spot with fishing streams and game forests, it also has a large burley tobacco market and is a beef and dairy cattle centre. Electric components, apparel, and canned foods are produced there. Boone is the seat of Appalachian State University (founded as a teachers' college in 1899), which has a collection of Appalachian artifacts in its Belk Library. An outdoor pioneer drama Horn in the West by Kermit Hunter has been produced each summer since 1952 in the Daniel Boone Theatre, 1 mi east. The Seven Devils Ski Area is 1 mi south. Pop. (1990) 12,915.