On August 17, 1786, in a tiny log cabin near the Nolichucky River in eastern Tennessee, a baby was born who would become one of the most famous frontiersmen in American history: David Crockett. His family was poor, and David grew up barefoot in the mountains, learning to track bears, shoot a long rifle, and tell tall tales taller than the trees around him.
Davy ran away from home at 13 to escape a school whipping and traveled around the frontier for years before coming back. He served as a soldier under Andrew Jackson, then was elected to the Tennessee state legislature, and then to the U.S. Congress. He showed up in Washington in buckskin clothes and joked with politicians in his thick country drawl. He stood up for poor settlers and Native Americans even when it cost him votes, famously telling Congress, 'You may all go to blazes, and I will go to Texas.'
And go to Texas he did. In 1836, Davy joined the small group of Texan rebels defending a mission called the Alamo against a huge Mexican army. He died there at 49, but his legend kept growing. Storybooks claimed he had killed a bear at three years old and grinned a raccoon out of a tree. In the 1950s, Walt Disney made a TV show about him, and millions of American kids ran around in fake coonskin caps singing, 'Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.' He's been a folk hero ever since.
