Across the Gap: History, Identity, and What We Carry Forward is a compact work of narrative history and personal reflection that looks beyond the familiar Daniel Boone legend to the human being underneath it. Drawing on early accounts, historical research, and the landscapes connected to Boone's life, Mike Martin explores failure, grief, responsibility, identity, and the stories people inherit about themselves and others. As old roads fade beneath newer ones, the book asks what we lose when history becomes legend-and what we may recover by looking more closely. Across the Gap is ultimately about the distance between who we are, who others believe us to be, and how understanding the past can help us carry our own stories forward with greater honesty.