Between 1769 and 1773, various associations of men were formed, in
Virginia and North Carolina, for visiting the newly-discovered regions
and locating lands; and several daring adventurers, at different times
during this period, penetrated to the head-waters of the Licking River,
and did some surveying; but it was not till the year 1774 that the
whites obtained any permanent foothold in Kentucky. From this year,
therefore, properly dates the commencement of the early settlements of
the State.[22]

The first great impetus given to adventure in Kentucky was by the bounty
in Western land given by Virginia to the officers and soldiers of her
own troops who had served in the British army in the old war in Canada
between the English and French. These lands were to be surveyed on the
Ohio River, and its tributaries, by the claimants thus created, who
had the privilege of selecting them wherever they pleased within the
prescribed regions. The first locations were made upon the Great Kenawha
in the year 1772, and the next on the south side of the Ohio itself the
following year. During this year, likewise, extensive tracts of land
were located on the north fork of the Licking, and surveys made of
several salt-licks, and other choice spots. But 1774 was more signalized
than had been any preceding year by the arrival, in the new "land of
promise," of the claimants to portions of its territory, and the
execution of surveys. Among the hardy adventurers who descended the Ohio
this year and penetrated to the interior of Kentucky by the river of
that name, was James Harrod, who led a party of Virginians from the
shores of the Monongahela. He disembarked at a point still known as
"Harrod's Landing," and, crossing the country in a direction nearly
west, paused in the midst of a beautiful and fertile region, and _built
the first log-cabin_ ever erected in Kentucky, on or near the site of