Nearly 400 Daniel Boone markers were erected between 1913 and 1938, first from North Carolina to Kentucky by the D.A.R. and then across the country by Davie County native and 1898 Wake Forest graduate J. Hampton "Hamp" Rich, founder of the Boone Trail Highway and Memorial Association. Born in 1874 on land where the Boones had lived, Rich promoted Boone as America's "pioneer hero" and erected an estimated 358 markers in his honor. Elkin was originally slated to receive marker #104 during the 1920s, when other area markers were placed in Mocksville, Farmington, Pfafftown, and Winston-Salem. Rich hoped the Boone Trail Highway would both commemorate the life of Daniel Boone and encourage the building of better roads in mountainous regions of North Carolina and across 20th-century America.