KNOX, James, pioneer hunter. He was a resident of western Virginia, and in 1769 was the leader of forty-two men from southwest Virginia and North Carolina who met at Reedy creek in June and crossed through Cumberland gap westward for the purpose of hunting and trapping. Each had one or more horses, with arms and camp equipage. Fording the south fork of Cumberland river, they halted at what is since known as Price's meadow, near a flowing spring, six miles from Monticello, Wayne County, Kentucky, and there made a permanent camp for their supplies and skins, for deposit every five weeks. They hunted during the year over the country of Upper Green and Barren rivers, and found much of it open prairie covered with high grass. In October, 1769, Colonel Knox with nine men sought fresher hunting-grounds northward. They met a party of friendly Cherokee Indians, whose leader, Captain Dick, directed them to the blue-grass region on the south side of Kentucky river. Following this direction, they came to a stream in the midst of this fertile region, and found game so abundant that they gave it the name of Dick's river, which it bears to the present day. Here they were on the borders of the country that was ranged over by Daniel Boone and his companions for the same two years, yet neither party knew of the other's presence in the wilderness. In 1774 Knox led his men 100 miles farther west, and built a camp and station for skins on a site nine miles east of Greensburg, on Green river, where they slew many thousands of bears, panthers, otters, beavers, deer, and other game. After over three years' absence, most of the party returned home, and were named and known afterward as the "long hunters," from their prolonged absence. Drake's pond and lick, Bledsoe's lick, and Manseo's lick, were discovered and marked on this expedition, and each named after the finder. Colonel Knox returned to Kentucky in 1775 and settled. For years afterward he figured in the civil and military events of the state, and in 1795-1800 was state senator for Lincoln county.