Speaker 1: Think about it.
Speaker 2: If you're a factory worker and you're in Philadelphia and
Speaker 2: it's hot and it's dirty, and you're on dirty streets
Speaker 2: and smelly streets, and then here's this guy representing beautiful
Speaker 2: water and green grass and you know, the wide open spaces.
Speaker 1: You know you'd want more of that. It intrigued people.
Speaker 3: On this episode, we're exploring the man many say was
Speaker 3: America's first true celebrity, and it was built on his
Speaker 3: identity as a bear hunter. He was world famous in
Speaker 3: his lifetime, and he believed that it all came upon
Speaker 3: him completely by accident. All he did was played the
Speaker 3: part of himself. David Crockett, this folksy Tennessee backwoodsman, embodied
Speaker 3: the narrative of the self made man and manifest destiny
Speaker 3: that became a national obsession and deeply influenced our culture
Speaker 3: even to this day. I'm interested in how his life
Speaker 3: has affected my life as an American. What do you
Speaker 3: know about Davy Crockett other than that he wore a
Speaker 3: coonskin cap. Of course, you know that that ringtail hat
Speaker 3: is a low hanging field edge acren compared to what
Speaker 3: we're about to discover. The crocket myth and reality will
Speaker 3: be hard to parse through, but one thing's for sure.
Speaker 3: I love this guy, and I doubt you're gonna want
Speaker 3: to miss this one.
Speaker 4: Folkloric characters are created and sustained because of a need
Speaker 4: the culture needs them.
Speaker 3: My name is Klay Nukem, and this is the Bear
Speaker 3: Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search
Speaker 3: for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the
Speaker 3: story of Americans who live their lives close to the land,
Speaker 3: presented by f HF Gear, American made purpose built hunting
Speaker 3: and fishing gear as designed to be as rugged as
Speaker 3: the place.
Speaker 5: As we explore.
Speaker 3: I need a baseline understanding of what average American people
Speaker 3: know about David Crockett. And in case you think of
Speaker 3: already misspoken, he never called himself Davy. That didn't start
Speaker 3: until one hundred and twenty years after his death. You
Speaker 3: two are just the guys I've been looking for. Tell
Speaker 3: me everything that you know about Davy Crockett.
Speaker 6: I don't know much about David Crockett. I did read
Speaker 6: about him some. I know who he is, I don't
Speaker 6: necessarily know where he was from.
Speaker 5: From Kentucky. Close interesting?
Speaker 6: Okay, all right in the area, Like, what did he do?
Speaker 6: Here's a hunter, right, yeah, he's a hunter.
Speaker 3: Sir, I'm talking to another gentleman here. What could you
Speaker 3: fill in the gap? What do you know about David.
Speaker 5: Cron I mean Davy Davy Crockett. He can go at
Speaker 5: the wild Frontier.
Speaker 3: He killed him a bear when he was only three.
Speaker 5: I love it.
Speaker 3: We've tapped into some skeletal details about Crockett. He was
Speaker 3: from Tennessee and a bear hunter, true story, but he
Speaker 3: didn't kill a bear when he was only three. Can
Speaker 3: you sing that song? The fact that this dude can
Speaker 3: sing this song means something. He was reaching deep into
Speaker 3: the recesses of his childhood. I need more info from
Speaker 3: these American commoners. Excuse me, sir, what what do you
Speaker 3: know about Davy Crockett.
Speaker 5: Davy Crockett, he was a man's man. Okay, then I
Speaker 5: don't know anything about David Crily. You don't know anything.
Speaker 3: You don't have any sense of where it's from, what
Speaker 3: he did, how he affected American identity.
Speaker 5: No comment. You're you're a you're a well educated man too, Senator,
Speaker 5: I do not recall are you an American?
Speaker 7: It's hard to tell country it's hard to know. Parley
Speaker 7: on Glass, I don't I don't know.
Speaker 3: He was a man's man. Did Crockett give our culture
Speaker 3: ideas about manhood? This is getting out of hand. I'm
Speaker 3: very interested in how we're unconsciously born with a value
Speaker 3: system because of a geographic location. Most of the world,
Speaker 3: especially at the time of Crockett, didn't identify with the
Speaker 3: American value system.
Speaker 5: It was completely new.
Speaker 3: This is Josh Landbridge, Spillmaker and his wife Christie.
Speaker 1: He was a big man, Davy Crockett.
Speaker 3: Wasn't there a song about him?
Speaker 5: A Disney song.
Speaker 7: About Davy Crockett was at the Alamo? Yeah, and he
Speaker 7: was the king of the wildfront here. He was the
Speaker 7: king of the wild Frontier. Definitely. Yes, he wore buckskin.
Speaker 5: Skin hat, for sure.
Speaker 7: He wore con't skin hat. I think that's a I
Speaker 7: think that's a farce.
Speaker 5: But wasn't he a giant man? No?
Speaker 3: Do you have any of how d C. Davy Crockett
Speaker 3: influenced American identity, like even how you think about yourself? No,
Speaker 3: you guys did pretty good in the song the Walt
Speaker 3: Disney song, Davey Crockett was king of the wild Frontier.
Speaker 3: He was roughly six foot tall, so it wasn't giant.
Speaker 3: He's from Tennessee. He wore a coonskin hat only after
Speaker 3: there was a play about him in New York City
Speaker 3: and the actor wore a coonskin hat, and then for
Speaker 3: a good part of his life he started wearing a
Speaker 3: coonskin hat after that.
Speaker 7: So I mean legendary character, but none of us know
Speaker 7: what the legend is all about. Like I think every
Speaker 7: American would be familiar with the name Davy Crockett, but
Speaker 7: not know why.
Speaker 3: Well, what you're gonna learn is is that David Crockett
Speaker 3: was truly America's first celebrity. Daniel Boone was our first,
Speaker 3: one of our first folk heroes. D c was truly
Speaker 3: a celebrity, global celebrity.
Speaker 8: Born on them out the top of Tennessee Breen Estate,
Speaker 8: in the Land of the Three, raised in the woods,
Speaker 8: so than you ever Tree killed Tim Lebar when he
Speaker 8: was only three day. Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier,
Speaker 8: walk single handed through the engine war till the Greeks whipped.
Speaker 3: And the piece that song is the Ballad of Davy
Speaker 3: Crockett from Walt Disney's nineteen fifty four David Crockett trilogy.
Speaker 3: The song seems to be embedded in the hearts of
Speaker 3: all American boys over the age of forty. It was
Speaker 3: number one on the Top ten list in America for
Speaker 3: thirteen weeks and sold over four million copies. It was
Speaker 3: a true American hit at almost the exact same time
Speaker 3: Elvis Presley came onto the scene. Crockett had two surging
Speaker 3: peaks of American and even global popularity, one starting in
Speaker 3: the eighteen thirties in his lifetime, in the second one
Speaker 3: in the nineteen fifties. National myths are simple, but their
Speaker 3: real story, usually based in some level of truth, is
Speaker 3: more complex. Crockett was a Tennessee pioneer born in seventeen
Speaker 3: eighty six.
Speaker 5: He was a renowned bear hunter and houndsman.
Speaker 3: He fought in the Creek Indian Wars, which was part
Speaker 3: of the War of eighteen twelve, and he became one
Speaker 3: of America's first commoner politicians, or what we'd call a populist.
Speaker 3: He almost ran for president and was the arch enemy
Speaker 3: of Old Hickory himself Andrew Jackson, who had become president.
Speaker 3: But most notably he was the wild American backwoodsman that
Speaker 3: gained global fame in his lifetime because of his folksy, witty, humorous,
Speaker 3: self deprecating way of communicating. But of all that stuff,
Speaker 3: he most identified as a bear hunter.
Speaker 5: I love it. In the words of Cross biographer Michael.
Speaker 3: Wallace, his bear hunting ability became a key ingredient in
Speaker 3: the manufacture of the populist, hyper masculine persona he often
Speaker 3: used to bolster his public image and political career.
Speaker 5: End of quote.
Speaker 3: But Crockett would seal his fame and myth in America's
Speaker 3: Hall of Fame when he died of martyr at the
Speaker 3: Alamo in Texas in eighteen thirty six. It's the age
Speaker 3: of forty nine, which there is much controversy around his
Speaker 3: martyr status, and we'll get into that in later episodes.
Speaker 3: So bam, there you go. That's Crockett in a nutshell.
Speaker 3: Our story delivery strategy is that we're gonna look at
Speaker 3: Crockett's influence first, so we just kind of understand what
Speaker 3: he did and how he did it, and then we'll
Speaker 3: dive into the specifics of his life that made him.
Speaker 3: We're gonna spend a lot of time on Crockett because
Speaker 3: of how important he was to American culture and let's
Speaker 3: head something off at the pass. Many would view our
Speaker 3: below of Daniel Boone and David Crockett as basically the
Speaker 3: same person, and there were many confusing commonalities, but they're
Speaker 3: very different people at different times did different stuff. However,
Speaker 3: they were both involved in claiming land on the western
Speaker 3: frontier that were commercial hunters, were involved in Native American conflicts.
Speaker 3: Both were failed entrepreneurs, both were in politics. Both were
Speaker 3: renowned storytellers that people were enamored with. However, Crockett was
Speaker 3: much more of what we would call a true celebrity.
Speaker 3: He knew about his fame, he interacted with that fame,
Speaker 3: but Daniel Boone dB didn't gain his fame until he
Speaker 3: was in his mid fifties, and he would die a
Speaker 3: common impoverished man in Missouri in eighteen twenty at the
Speaker 3: age of eighty six. Boone was fifty two years old
Speaker 3: when Crockett was born in seventeen eighty six. Their lives overlapped,
Speaker 3: but they never met. Probably the main reason people get
Speaker 3: him mixed up is because the same Hollywood actor Fest
Speaker 3: Parker played Crockett in the nineteen fifty five Walt Disney.
Speaker 3: David Crockett trilogy and fest Parker, very confusingly, also starred
Speaker 3: as Daniel Boone in Disney's nineteen sixty series. In both,
Speaker 3: he wore buckskin, a coonskin hat, fought indians, shot a
Speaker 3: long rifle. But perhaps the differences in Boone are inconsequential
Speaker 3: to the masses, and in some ways they represent similar things.
Speaker 3: But to those of us desirous of parsing out the
Speaker 3: nuance of that backwoods, rough and tumble, self made man
Speaker 3: identity that we just woke up and found ourselves in,
Speaker 3: the distinction between Boone and Crockett is important. More on
Speaker 3: this later, bros. Here's the clip from Disney's wildly popular
Speaker 3: David Crockett Indian Fighters.
Speaker 6: Pucket.
Speaker 4: Where's Crockett?
Speaker 9: Speak up? Man?
Speaker 5: Where is Crockett? Soldiers are looking for Crockett, But he's
Speaker 5: in the bushes with a growling bear.
Speaker 9: Where is he?
Speaker 5: A man points in the bushes?
Speaker 9: What's he doing in there?
Speaker 1: What's he doing?
Speaker 5: Experimenting?
Speaker 9: He's trying to grin down a bear.
Speaker 5: Grin down, you backwards buffalos.
Speaker 9: Think the rest of us will believe anything, don't you Crockett? Crockett,
Speaker 9: can't you hear me? Come out of here man.
Speaker 5: Crockett's thrown out of the woods by the beast.
Speaker 9: You sure sparm things good. Now I gotta do it
Speaker 9: the old fashion way, Eh give my perd.
Speaker 3: Crockett's experiment grinning down the bear fails, so he goes
Speaker 3: back in with his knife to finish the job. Crockett
Speaker 3: was the original voice of American frontier dialect that touched
Speaker 3: the world. He was a folksy orator, had an unquenchable
Speaker 3: reservoir of anecdotes with keen, humorous wit. In real life,
Speaker 3: he often said that he could grin a coon out
Speaker 3: of a tree, and even grinned down a bear. Disney
Speaker 3: didn't make this up. Crockett did once in a political speech.
Speaker 3: The real Crocket, not the actor, said this, I discovered
Speaker 3: a long time ago that a coon couldn't stand my grin.
Speaker 3: I could bring one tumbling down from the highest tree.
Speaker 3: I never wasted, powdered and lead when I wanted one.
Speaker 5: Of those creatures.
Speaker 3: He went on to describe how he once thought he
Speaker 3: was grinned out a coon, but it turned out to
Speaker 3: be a knot on a tree branch, and he said,
Speaker 3: I saw that I grinned all the bark off that
Speaker 3: tree and left the knot perfectly smooth. Now, fellow citizens,
Speaker 3: you must be convinced that in the grinning line, I
Speaker 3: myself am not slow. Yet when I look upon my
Speaker 3: opponent's countenance. Remember he's talking about his political opponent, I
Speaker 3: must admit that he is my superior.
Speaker 5: You must all admit it.
Speaker 3: Therefore, be wide awake, look sharp, and don't let him
Speaker 3: grina out of your votes. Crockett proved to be an
Speaker 3: incredibly savvy politician, self deprecating, funny, but always sincere what
Speaker 3: he was saying. That his opponent was all smile, an
Speaker 3: elite pretty boy, but Crockett smile could actually do something
Speaker 3: for you. Crockett would become famous for his political antics
Speaker 3: and showdowns. More on this later. Here is author and
Speaker 3: Crockett biographer R. Scott Williams of West Tennessee. He wrote
Speaker 3: a book called the Accidental Fame and Lack of Fortune
Speaker 3: of West Tennessee's David Crockett.
Speaker 5: There are a.
Speaker 3: Ton of Crockett biographies. We're inside an authentic log cabin
Speaker 3: at the Discovery Park of America Museum in Union City, Tennessee.
Speaker 3: It's incredible.
Speaker 2: I mean, the way I've been describing it is he
Speaker 2: is America's first celebrity. I've got a poster in my
Speaker 2: office of folk heros from the United States, and each
Speaker 2: one is placed in the state where they're from, and
Speaker 2: so there's an awful lot of foulk heroes. But I
Speaker 2: would definitely say, in my opinion, he was the first celebrity.
Speaker 2: He had lithographs with his image and his signature printed
Speaker 2: and sold. You know, I don't know if any you know,
Speaker 2: certainly Daniel Boone.
Speaker 1: Never did anything like that. You know, he went on
Speaker 1: a book tour.
Speaker 2: He saw that people were making money off his name,
Speaker 2: image and likeness, and so he wanted a piece of it,
Speaker 2: and so he himself went to somebuddies that could help
Speaker 2: him write and publish this autobiography and then went on
Speaker 2: a book tour, you know. And so you read about
Speaker 2: that book tour and the audiences were screaming and yelling,
Speaker 2: and you know, I think he absolutely Lee was the
Speaker 2: first in his lifetime, first and biggest celebrity.
Speaker 3: David Crockett was considered an exotic celebrity who rose amid
Speaker 3: America's growing nationalism. We were feverishly grasping for identity that
Speaker 3: would signify how we were different than the Europe from
Speaker 3: which we were hewn. The eyes of the world were
Speaker 3: on the western edge of the American frontier. I think
Speaker 3: it's hard for us to understand today how intriguing American
Speaker 3: expansion into the West was. It was a wildly unknown world,
Speaker 3: just first explored by Lewis and Clark in eighteen oh four,
Speaker 3: and it was considered a wilderness free to those brave
Speaker 3: enough to come and take it, in a world dominated
Speaker 3: by poverty and personal land ownership only for the ultra wealthy.
Speaker 3: There is nothing like this in the world today, a
Speaker 3: land grab like this, and nor will there ever be again.
Speaker 3: A very important piece of the Crocket puzzle is understanding
Speaker 3: the worldview and characteristics of his people, the Ulster Scots
Speaker 3: from Ireland. Man, I told you this is going to
Speaker 3: be a deep due boy. You guys remember Robert Morgan,
Speaker 3: the author of the best Boone biography of all time Boone,
Speaker 3: but he's also a Crockett expert.
Speaker 5: Here's mister Morgan.
Speaker 4: There's a long history of the Ulster Scots and it
Speaker 4: does explain, I think the aggressiveness of people looking for land.
Speaker 4: They had been encouraged. Let's say to leave Scotland to
Speaker 4: go to Northern Ireland and settle there, to have a
Speaker 4: Protestant presence in this Catholic country, and were offered land,
Speaker 4: and of course land was the important thing. Land was
Speaker 4: owned by the big land owners, the gentry, the aristocracy,
Speaker 4: and the best you could do the poor person was
Speaker 4: pay quit rents and their lease. So they had moved
Speaker 4: over from Scotland, and then the upper class wanted that land,
Speaker 4: so they were kicked off and many came to North America.
Speaker 4: That was the thing where there's lots and lots of land.
Speaker 4: So these people had basically been kicked off land in
Speaker 4: Scotland and then Northern Ireland. And we was so hungry
Speaker 4: to own land and to be able to hunt, to
Speaker 4: be able to go into the wilderness and arrive in
Speaker 4: the New world. And there's an infinite amount of land
Speaker 4: and deer and bear and smaller animals. So where would
Speaker 4: they go. The free land or the cheap land is
Speaker 4: on the frontier. And those people are really a part
Speaker 4: of the settlement in the history of the United States.
Speaker 4: They were re aggressive, they were determined, they learned to
Speaker 4: use weapons, They were willing to go into the wilderness
Speaker 4: and nothing was going to stop from no treaties, no laws,
Speaker 4: no Indians, anything that stood in their way to have land. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's hard for us to understand that hunger and the
Speaker 4: idea of letting the native people stand in the way
Speaker 4: to them were just ridiculous. The scott Irish were very,
Speaker 4: very determined and aggressive and explain an awful lot of
Speaker 4: the history of the frontier. They were not alone. There
Speaker 4: were Germans, there were welsh People, people from England, people
Speaker 4: from Scotland. But the most aggressive people, I think were
Speaker 4: the scotch Irish. They have names like Jackson and Crockett.
Speaker 3: The people of the United States and Europe couldn't intake
Speaker 3: enough media about the Frontier, this thin edge where our
Speaker 3: people met the wilderness.
Speaker 5: That's where Crockett was.
Speaker 3: The frontier became the breeding grounds of our national identity
Speaker 3: and the new to the world democratic ideas of the
Speaker 3: self made man. From this unique situation, creating a unique ideology,
Speaker 3: America grew to become one of human history's most powerful empires.
Speaker 3: It wasn't just a land grab, but it was an
Speaker 3: experiment in government and ideology, and this ideology became attached
Speaker 3: to people who gained mythical status at this time as
Speaker 3: the hype of the moment became personified and in Crockett's time,
Speaker 3: and even after almost two hundred years since his death,
Speaker 3: he still carries the baton.
Speaker 5: Here's mister Morgan.
Speaker 4: We can only speculate on why would he become such
Speaker 4: a celebrity. Well, he was charming, he was funny, but
Speaker 4: he met a need. Folkloric characters are created and sustained
Speaker 4: because of a need the culture needs them. Daniel Boone
Speaker 4: becomes so famous because they needed somebody who with a
Speaker 4: great gone into the wilderness, who was self sufficient. Johnny
Speaker 4: Appleseed becomes this iconic figure because this aggressive society needs
Speaker 4: a folkloreis figure who's so gentle and doesn't kill the
Speaker 4: Indians and plants apple trees and thought they need that
Speaker 4: kind of character as opposed to the people who kill
Speaker 4: the Indians take their land. And Crockett becomes so famous
Speaker 4: because at that particular point is eighteen and thirty, the
Speaker 4: country needs, on the one hand, somebody looked down on,
Speaker 4: not as good as they are, but somebody who's really
Speaker 4: smart and funny and tells these jokes. And again the
Speaker 4: parallel is with the minstrel shows and all these people
Speaker 4: in the Northeast and to somebody in the South, are
Speaker 4: amused by this fellow who's not quality, but he's a
Speaker 4: lot of fun. We can you know. He's from the cane,
Speaker 4: he's from the backwoods. He has it double because the
Speaker 4: people from the backwoods and the working people, so he's
Speaker 4: popular with everybody.
Speaker 3: The people from the city thought he was a sensational,
Speaker 3: crass wild man, and the people from the backwoods thought
Speaker 3: he was one of them. On all sides, people had
Speaker 3: reasons to be attracted to Crockett. It's interesting to me
Speaker 3: that many of the armor bearers of American identity weren't
Speaker 3: the rich, elite, and educated, but rather a category unique
Speaker 3: to the world, the backwoodsman.
Speaker 5: Crockett was a.
Speaker 3: Part of the first generation to carry America's torch without
Speaker 3: the help of the founding fathers. Author Paul Hutton said
Speaker 3: the rise of men like Crockett represented to many the
Speaker 3: triumph of pure democracy and a complete rejection of European
Speaker 3: values of social class and aristocracy. These were common men
Speaker 3: who made their economic and political fortunes through hard work
Speaker 3: coupled with natural ability. Crockett came to symbolize a rough egality, freedom,
Speaker 3: of opportunity, manifest destiny, and reaffirmation of the cherished principles
Speaker 3: of the Declaration of Independence.
Speaker 5: End of quote.
Speaker 3: I think part of the reason Americans are so enamored
Speaker 3: or appalled by Britain's royal family is because of how
Speaker 3: we've outright rejected the idea of a monarchy.
Speaker 5: It's so foreign to us.
Speaker 3: A king, a man given honor and title without merit
Speaker 3: because of his birth. I know some of you boys
Speaker 3: probably don't even know it, but King Charles was just
Speaker 3: made king yep. I think gazing upon the antithesis of
Speaker 3: our values helps us define our values.
Speaker 5: It helps to define what we're not.
Speaker 3: A deep American value is that you get what you
Speaker 3: have by merit. But honestly, this is even a myth.
Speaker 3: Here's more from Scott on Crockett's influence. Why was Americas
Speaker 3: so enamored with this guy?
Speaker 8: Like?
Speaker 3: What, what did he do? What was the character of
Speaker 3: him that made him so so appealing?
Speaker 2: I think it was a combination of humor. I think
Speaker 2: he was funny, you know. I think he was one
Speaker 2: of America's first comedians. I think that he was self depreciating,
Speaker 2: and so I think that was something that people weren't
Speaker 2: used to.
Speaker 1: He was representing America's future.
Speaker 2: So if this guy's out there, look how successful he is,
Speaker 2: Look what he's doing.
Speaker 1: And I think for them that was exciting.
Speaker 2: It was an exciting time to think there's brand new
Speaker 2: lands that we can you know, imagine if we had
Speaker 2: millions of acres and it's available and we're trying to decide,
Speaker 2: You and I are trying to decide, Hey, are we
Speaker 2: going to hitch our wagons up and wagon train over there.
Speaker 2: My own ancestors settled on Revolutionary Land, Grant Land here
Speaker 2: in in West Tennessee, so they were probably influenced by Crockett, absolutely,
Speaker 2: you know, and he was there represented. So my ancestors
Speaker 2: traveled across the state and settled here and then they
Speaker 2: did not leave until my parents went to college in
Speaker 2: the fifties. And so both sides of my family come
Speaker 2: out of that group of people. You know, those were
Speaker 2: the kind of people that David Crockett was representing. People
Speaker 2: with enough spirit and enough attitude that they're willing to
Speaker 2: say goodbye to their families forever, knowing that they will
Speaker 2: probably never see their friends and family and loved ones
Speaker 2: ever again. And so they carved out. You know, the
Speaker 2: land was rough and they carved it out and began farming.
Speaker 2: And for somebody who's up north, who's a shopkeeper, who's wanting.
Speaker 5: Who was well established in a place and probably never
Speaker 5: going to.
Speaker 2: Leave, right, But some of those people, I think David
Speaker 2: Crockett was maybe sparking a sense of curiosity.
Speaker 5: He had something for everybody.
Speaker 3: For the person that wasn't going to leave, he was
Speaker 3: just intriguing and entertaining, right, But then he was also
Speaker 3: spurring some of those people to go to go. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was just a he was just the right voice
Speaker 3: at the right time.
Speaker 2: That's a great point, is it really was. He was
Speaker 2: at the right place at the right time.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Think about it.
Speaker 2: If you're a factory worker and you're in Philadelphia and
Speaker 2: it's hot, and it's you know, it's dirty, and you're
Speaker 2: on dirty streets and smelly streets, and then here's this
Speaker 2: guy representing beautiful water and green grass and you know,
Speaker 2: the wide open spaces.
Speaker 1: You know, you'd want more of that. You'd want to
Speaker 1: read about it, you know.
Speaker 2: And so it was in magazine articles and plays, as
Speaker 2: we mentioned, in books, and you know it it intrigued people.
Speaker 5: It intrigued people.
Speaker 3: In eighteen thirty one, a newspaper labeled Crockett an object
Speaker 3: of universal notoriety. Author Paul Hutton said he represented the
Speaker 3: quote dawning age of the common man, who symbolized Western
Speaker 3: egalitarianism and unbridled opportunity. So Crockett again had two surges
Speaker 3: of fame in America, the first starting in the eighteen
Speaker 3: thirties during his life and lasting for decades after his death.
Speaker 3: But again his popularity surged in the nineteen fifties with
Speaker 3: that Disney movie and song. We've established that he was
Speaker 3: a celebrity in his own time, primarily because of his
Speaker 3: political prominence, which led him to writing an autobiography released
Speaker 3: only after several other fake autobiographies had come out. And
Speaker 3: you can understand why that would be frustrating. People were
Speaker 3: writing fake stories about it, so he had to write
Speaker 3: his own to rectify his reputation. Crockett's real autobiography was
Speaker 3: essentially a New York Times bestseller. You can order it
Speaker 3: today on Amazon, and unlike Boone, we can hear firsthand
Speaker 3: the written voice of David Crockett. If you remember multiple
Speaker 3: times Boone's attempts at an autobiography were spoiled once an
Speaker 3: entire manuscript was lost. And one of the great mysteries
Speaker 3: of Boone is that we never really heard his unfilm
Speaker 3: altered voice. Not so with Crockett, and I think that
Speaker 3: might even be to his detriment. When you see someone
Speaker 3: as honest and vulnerable as Crockett, they become easier to criticize.
Speaker 3: But I think it's important we understand why we're still
Speaker 3: talking about Crockett today. Walt Disney laid the modern track
Speaker 3: for hyper commercializing our heroes using Crockett in the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 3: This was a big one and the first time it
Speaker 3: was really done at this extent.
Speaker 5: Scott previously worked for Elvis Presley.
Speaker 3: Enterprises, so he understands Americans marketing their heroes.
Speaker 2: Coming from the Elvis world, I know a little bit
Speaker 2: about licensed product and paraphernalia and memorabilia, and they had
Speaker 2: never seen anything like it before. And honestly, since the
Speaker 2: amount of David Crockett, Davy Crockett is what they call it,
Speaker 2: the amount of Davy Crockett and Dice that was produced
Speaker 2: and manufactured and distributed and sold was just.
Speaker 5: Incredibly heard of.
Speaker 2: Disney was making millions of dollars off of this. Today,
Speaker 2: if somebody's even curious and looking, you can go to
Speaker 2: eBay and search Davy Crockett and you'll see everything imaginable
Speaker 2: from the guitars.
Speaker 5: Old stuff from that time, from.
Speaker 2: That time, from that little era. Because it came and
Speaker 2: then it went. I mean when it ended, it ended
Speaker 2: like a lead balloon.
Speaker 1: It was over.
Speaker 2: You couldn't sell anything else, they didn't manufacture anything else.
Speaker 5: It was over.
Speaker 2: So there's this era in there where he was the
Speaker 2: hottest thing going. So many little boys and girls bought
Speaker 2: raccoon skin caps that they were worried raccoons were going
Speaker 2: to go extinct.
Speaker 5: Wow, that's incredible.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 2: It is when you look at the amount of coontails.
Speaker 2: They started selling skunt tails and nye in them so that.
Speaker 5: It would they didn't have enough. They ran out of raccoons.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 5: Man, that's that's a conservation.
Speaker 3: That would be the answer to some of our conservation
Speaker 3: issues right now with raccoons eating our turkey and coil eggs. Man,
Speaker 3: we need to revive Davy Crockett the coonskin hat.
Speaker 5: That's a personal mission of mine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go. We used to start wearing wearing
Speaker 1: a coonskin.
Speaker 5: Cat, Scott, it's already happening.
Speaker 3: I've got more authentic hound treed Ozark Mountain coonskin hats
Speaker 3: than I have broke mules. But for whatever reason, in
Speaker 3: all the literature, coon hides were recorded as sold by
Speaker 3: the pound, so hides went from twenty five cents a
Speaker 3: pound to over six dollars per pound, creating a two
Speaker 3: thousand percent increase in the price of coon hides in
Speaker 3: nineteen fifty six that were selling over five thousand coonskin
Speaker 3: hats every day. That's putting a herd on old Ricky raccoon.
Speaker 3: But don't feel bad.
Speaker 5: Today.
Speaker 3: Per the Science, raccoon numbers in North America are soaring
Speaker 3: and are far above pre European settlement numbers. Scott makes
Speaker 3: a point in his book that today Crockett would hardly
Speaker 3: be remembered if it wasn't for Disney to think of
Speaker 3: us sitting here and David Crockett being just kind of
Speaker 3: like a yeah, he was a guy that, you know,
Speaker 3: just kind of an obscure character in history. Because David
Speaker 3: Well Davy Crockett, what Disney made him, that name would
Speaker 3: probably be equivalent to the the top most recognized names
Speaker 3: maybe in the world.
Speaker 5: Is that you think that would be true?
Speaker 2: Oh well, certainly if you were going to take me
Speaker 2: to Disneyland Paris, the most popular place to go is
Speaker 2: the Davy Crockett campground where they have a large in Paris,
Speaker 2: and so they have Davy Crockett, they have it's all themed.
Speaker 2: You know what what Europeans must think. We live like
Speaker 2: here in West Endessee, but with wagon wheel salad bars
Speaker 2: and little carved animals out of wood everyone where and
Speaker 2: today right now. So yeah, I mean, I would say
Speaker 2: you would be hard pressed to mention the word Davy
Speaker 2: Crockett to somebody and not have them at least recognize
Speaker 2: the name and know that he was somebody famous.
Speaker 3: As much as Crockett was commercialized even in his time,
Speaker 3: there was a lot of moral substance in American hunting
Speaker 3: grit in this Crockett, and I don't want us to
Speaker 3: think that he was all show.
Speaker 5: He was the real deal. But as we examined his.
Speaker 3: Influence on early American culture, we can't go any further
Speaker 3: without talking about the.
Speaker 5: Broadway play in.
Speaker 3: New York City called The Lion of the West, which
Speaker 3: came out in eighteen thirty one. Crockett had nothing to
Speaker 3: do with it, but the main character's name was Nimrod Wildfire,
Speaker 3: and everyone in the country knew it was supposed to
Speaker 3: be Crockett. So much of the fame Crockett got he
Speaker 3: never asked for, nor did the things he did seem
Speaker 3: like they would get this kind of return on investment.
Speaker 3: He was just a normal dude being himself. I think
Speaker 3: Crockett was as surprised as anyone. In the foreword of
Speaker 3: Crockett's autobiography, he says, I know that, as obscure as
Speaker 3: I am, that my name is making a considerable deal
Speaker 3: of fuss in the world. I can't tell why it is,
Speaker 3: nor in what it is to end go where I will.
Speaker 3: Everybody seems anxious to get a peep at me, and
Speaker 3: it would be hard to tell which would have the advantage.
Speaker 3: If I the government, and a black Hawk, and a
Speaker 3: great eternal caravan of wild barments were all to be
Speaker 3: shown at the same time in four different parts of
Speaker 3: any of the big cities of the nation. I am
Speaker 3: not so sure that I shouldn't get the most custom
Speaker 3: of any crew. There must therefore, be something in me
Speaker 3: or about me that attracts attention which is even mysterious
Speaker 3: to myself. Sometimes Crockett's assessments of himself can sound air
Speaker 3: on paper, but when you look at him in so
Speaker 3: many areas of his life, he was humble, generous, loyal, loving,
Speaker 3: and empathetic to the poor. I think a good editor
Speaker 3: could have helped Crockett tone down the vibe he was
Speaker 3: putting out and it wouldn't have come across as so arrogant.
Speaker 3: But back to the play The Lion of the West.
Speaker 3: Here is the line that comes from the play, not Crockett.
Speaker 3: And see if you think it sounds like Crockett. He said,
Speaker 3: and let all the fellers in New York know that
Speaker 3: I'm half horse, half alligator, a touch of earthquake with
Speaker 3: a sprinkle in a steamboat.
Speaker 5: If I ain't, I wish I may be shot. End
Speaker 5: of quote. This was the line in the.
Speaker 3: Play, but Crockett was actually quoted once is saying, I'm
Speaker 3: that same David Crockett, fresh from the backwoods, half horse,
Speaker 3: half alligator, a little touched with snapping turtle. I can
Speaker 3: wade the Mississippi, leap the Ohio, ride upon a streak
Speaker 3: of lightning, and slip without a scratch down a Honey
Speaker 3: Locust and I can whip my weight in Wildcats. He
Speaker 3: actually said that it's clear this play was about Crockett.
Speaker 3: Here's Scott.
Speaker 2: Well, David Crockett didn't say it was David Crockett, and
Speaker 2: they never really said this is David Crockett.
Speaker 5: But the character wore.
Speaker 2: A wild cat on its head, you know, which is
Speaker 2: really where the idea of Davy Crockett.
Speaker 1: Wharing a kunskin cap came from.
Speaker 2: And so it was the most performed play in the
Speaker 2: world at the time. So this play was all over
Speaker 2: Europe and you can actually find it online and there's
Speaker 2: a lot of really interesting things written about that play
Speaker 2: because it was a very early theatrical you know, it
Speaker 2: was an example of an early American performance, which at
Speaker 2: the time they were bringing in a lot of places
Speaker 2: from Europe, but there wasn't yet a big strong American
Speaker 2: culture of the popular culture, of even music, and a
Speaker 2: lot of things were coming over from Europe.
Speaker 1: But Crockett was the first embodiment of true American culture.
Speaker 2: And so these plays are being performed and this character
Speaker 2: Nimrod Wildfire is saying these words on stage, and journalists
Speaker 2: are writing it down and saying David Crockett said blah
Speaker 2: blah blah, and so so without anybody even doing anything,
Speaker 2: the media played a part in people suddenly thinking that
Speaker 2: David Crockett is Nimrod Wildfire.
Speaker 5: Yeah, which was fascinating, isn't it wild?
Speaker 3: It seems like all throughout history media plays such a
Speaker 3: powerful role inside of even writing, the functionality of what
Speaker 3: people believe about what happened. I mean, it happened with Boone,
Speaker 3: like Daniel Boone, this formative American archetype.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: The only reason we know about him is he there
Speaker 3: was a chapter in a book written about him when
Speaker 3: he was in his fifties, right, And all of a
Speaker 3: sudden we hear about Boone and his myth and lord
Speaker 3: grows and grows, and then here Crockett.
Speaker 5: The reason we know Crockett.
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously it's because of media, because people talking, writing,
Speaker 3: doing stuff. But they were looking for what would sell,
Speaker 3: what the American public wanted to hear about, would be
Speaker 3: interested in. And then here was this wild cat on
Speaker 3: the frontier that was this great orator.
Speaker 2: Well, and he was just responding to a gut instinct constantly,
Speaker 2: you know, and he was he just barreled through and
Speaker 2: so you know, it was fascinating to see how he
Speaker 2: didn't hesitate, and you know, he didn't always know he
Speaker 2: was right, and he just barreled through and did stuff.
Speaker 3: One of Crockett's sayings he said, be sure you're right
Speaker 3: and then go.
Speaker 2: Ahead, exactly, and that's what he and to me, it's fascinating.
Speaker 1: Here's this guy who had a tagline. Yeah, he wrote
Speaker 1: that everywhere.
Speaker 2: Go ahead became a huge popular culture thing that people
Speaker 2: would say and attribute to him, Joha and poster be
Speaker 2: sure you're right, then go ahead. When the Queen made
Speaker 2: a carriage for Tiny Tim as a gift, she put
Speaker 2: go ahead on.
Speaker 1: The side of it.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 2: Also another thing that I found was interesting as I
Speaker 2: was looking and researching, and I came upon several instances
Speaker 2: of a popular culture saying at the time around his
Speaker 2: death and after his death was like, if you were
Speaker 2: to brag to me, I would say, yeah, that may
Speaker 2: be true, but it's nothing to crock it. And so
Speaker 2: people would say, it's nothing to Crockett. And that was
Speaker 2: a famous saying that people said.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Crockett was the embodiment of the first true American culture.
Speaker 3: We were starving for American things. That weren't connected to Europe.
Speaker 3: Crockett had his own tagline in a world with social media.
Speaker 3: It's easy to understand how this could happen. But imagine
Speaker 3: the energy and hype that would have had to have
Speaker 3: followed this guy for his catch phrase to be so widespread.
Speaker 3: But I guess one could say that's nothing to Crockett.
Speaker 3: As we're learning the Crockett story, I want to introduce
Speaker 3: him to you in four distinct sections of his identity.
Speaker 3: This is the way that America knew him. And we'll
Speaker 3: go through these sections chronologically so you can understand where
Speaker 3: these identities arose. And first, I want to introduce you
Speaker 3: to Crockett the bear hunter. This was the foundation of
Speaker 3: his fame. Here's mister Morgan.
Speaker 4: Well, there weren't many bears around eastern Tennessee then. It
Speaker 4: was only when he got to central Tennessee that there
Speaker 4: were enough bears for him to become a bear hunter.
Speaker 4: But he hated farming and he loved hunting, and he
Speaker 4: particularly liked bear hunting. I mean, there were deer and
Speaker 4: other things he hunted, but he discovered his great talent.
Speaker 4: He was better at bear hunting than anybody else. And
Speaker 4: when he got to that region where there were a
Speaker 4: lot of bears. That's what he loved to spend his
Speaker 4: time doing. And I guess he could make some money
Speaker 4: out of that too. You can sell the oil and
Speaker 4: meat and the skin. And he became very famous in
Speaker 4: that region as a bear hunter. And there are three Crocketts,
Speaker 4: maybe four Crocketts, and one of them is the bear Hunter,
Speaker 4: the great bear Hunter. And there's the politics, and there's
Speaker 4: the martyr at the Alamo. But I think there's a fourth,
Speaker 4: which is the soldier in the Greek War, which happened
Speaker 4: a little later in eighteen fourteen. But the bear hunters
Speaker 4: is the original one. He was known. He was famous
Speaker 4: as the bear hunter, and he was famous at telling
Speaker 4: stories about it.
Speaker 3: Too, and he used that in his political career for
Speaker 3: the rest of his life. Is he talked about bear hunting.
Speaker 3: He told stories about it, and that was kind of
Speaker 3: the foundation of his folk character was bear hunting.
Speaker 4: That impressed people in the East, you know, that gave
Speaker 4: him a prestige in the East as well as in Tennessee.
Speaker 4: He was the bear hunter. Lincoln was the reil splitter
Speaker 4: and honest abe and he was he was Crockett, the
Speaker 4: bear hunter, and it was authentic. He was a great
Speaker 4: bear hunter.
Speaker 3: I want us to listen to a bear hunting story
Speaker 3: and David's words. This is a wild adventure from his autobiography,
Speaker 3: written in eighteen thirty four. I had seen the track
Speaker 3: of the bear they were after, and I knowed he
Speaker 3: was a screamer. I followed on to about the middle
Speaker 3: of the hurricane, but my dogs pursued him so close
Speaker 3: that they made him climb an old stump about twenty
Speaker 3: feet high. I got in shooting distance of him and fired,
Speaker 3: but I was all over in such a flutter from
Speaker 3: fatigue and running that I couldn't hardly hold steady.
Speaker 5: But however, I broke his shoulder and he fell.
Speaker 3: I run up and loaded my gun as quick as possible,
Speaker 3: and shot him again and killed him. But when I
Speaker 3: went to take out my knife to butcher him, I
Speaker 3: found I had lost it. Coming through the hurricane, the
Speaker 3: vines and briars was so thick that I would sometimes
Speaker 3: have to get down and crawl like a varmint to
Speaker 3: get through it all. And a vine had, as I supposed,
Speaker 3: caught in the middle of the handle and pulled it out.
Speaker 3: While I was standing and studying what to do. My
Speaker 3: friend came to me he had followed my trail through
Speaker 3: the hurricane and had found my kN eye, which is
Speaker 3: mighty good news to me, as a hunter hates the
Speaker 3: worst in the world to lose a good dog or
Speaker 3: any part of his hunting tools. I now left McDaniel
Speaker 3: to butcher the bear, and I went after our horses
Speaker 3: and brought them as near as the nature of the
Speaker 3: case would allow. I then took our bags and went
Speaker 3: back to where he was, And when we had skinned
Speaker 3: the bear, we fleeced off the fat and carried it
Speaker 3: to our horses at several loads. We then packed it
Speaker 3: up on our horses and had a very heavy pack
Speaker 3: of it on each one. We now started out and
Speaker 3: went until about sunset, when I concluded we'd bust be
Speaker 3: near our camp. So I hollered, and my son answered me,
Speaker 3: and we moved on in the direction to the camp.
Speaker 3: We had gone but a little way when I heard
Speaker 3: my dogs make a warm start again, and I jumped
Speaker 3: down from my horse and gave him to my friend,
Speaker 3: and I told him I would follow them. He went
Speaker 3: onto the camp, and I went ahead after my dogs
Speaker 3: with all my might for a considerable distance till it.
Speaker 5: Last night came on.
Speaker 3: The woods were very rough and hilly, and all covered
Speaker 3: with cane. I now was compelled to move on more slowly,
Speaker 3: and was frequently fallen over logs and into the cracks
Speaker 3: made by the earthquakes, so that I was very much
Speaker 3: afraid I would break my gun. However, I went on
Speaker 3: about three miles when I came to a good, big creek,
Speaker 3: which I waited. It was very cold, and the creek
Speaker 3: was about knee deep, but I felt no great inconvenience
Speaker 3: from it just then, as I was all over wet
Speaker 3: with sweat from running and felt hot enough.
Speaker 5: After I got.
Speaker 3: Over the creek and out of the cane, which was
Speaker 3: very thick on all of our creeks, I listened for
Speaker 3: my dogs. I found they had either treed or brought
Speaker 3: the bear to stop, as they continued barking in the
Speaker 3: same place. I pushed on as near in the direction
Speaker 3: to the noise as I could till I found a
Speaker 3: hill that was too steep for me to climb, and
Speaker 3: so I backed down and went down to the creek
Speaker 3: some distance till I came to a hollow, and then
Speaker 3: took up that till I come to a place where
Speaker 3: I could climb up the hill. It was mighty dark
Speaker 3: and was difficult to see my way or anything else.
Speaker 3: When I got up to the hill, I found I
Speaker 3: had passed the dogs, and so I turned and went
Speaker 3: to them. I found when I got there they had
Speaker 3: treed the bear in a large forked poplar, and it
Speaker 3: was setting in the fork. I could see the lump,
Speaker 3: but not plain enough to shoot with any certainty, as
Speaker 3: there was no moonlight, so I set into hunting for
Speaker 3: some dry brush to make me a light, but I
Speaker 3: couldn't find none, though I could find the ground was
Speaker 3: torn mighty to pieces by the cracks.
Speaker 5: At last, I thought I could shoot.
Speaker 3: By guests and kill him, so I pointed as near
Speaker 3: the lump as I could and fired away. But the
Speaker 3: bear didn't come. He only calmed higher and got out
Speaker 3: on a limb, which helped me see him better. I
Speaker 3: now loaded up again and fired, but this time he
Speaker 3: didn't move it all. I commenced loading for the third time,
Speaker 3: but the first thing I knowed, the bear was down
Speaker 3: among my dogs and they were fighting all around me.
Speaker 3: I had my big butcher knife in my belt, and
Speaker 3: I had a pair of dressed buckskin breeches on, so
Speaker 3: I took out my knife and stood determined if he
Speaker 3: should get a hold of me, to defend myself from
Speaker 3: the best way I could. I stood there for some
Speaker 3: time and could now then see a white dog I had,
Speaker 3: but the rest of them and the bear, which were
Speaker 3: dark colored, I couldn't see it all. It was so
Speaker 3: miserable dark. They fought all around me, sometimes within three
Speaker 3: feet of me. But at last the bear got down
Speaker 3: in one of the cracks that the earthquakes had made
Speaker 3: in the ground, about four feet deep, and I could
Speaker 3: tell the biting end of him by the hollering of
Speaker 3: my dogs. So I took my gun and pushed the
Speaker 3: muzzle of it about till I thought I had it
Speaker 3: against the main part of his body, and fired, but
Speaker 3: it happened only to be the fleshy part of his
Speaker 3: fore leg. With this, he jumped out of the crack,
Speaker 3: and the dogs that had another hard fight all around
Speaker 3: me as before. At last, however, they forced him back
Speaker 3: into the crack again as he was when I'd shot.
Speaker 3: I had laid my gun down in the dark, and
Speaker 3: now it began to hunt for it. And while I
Speaker 3: was hunting, I got a hold of a pole, and
Speaker 3: I concluded I would punch him awhile with that. I
Speaker 3: did so, and when I would punch him, the dogs
Speaker 3: would jump in on him. When he would bite him badly,
Speaker 3: they would jump out again, I concluded, as he would
Speaker 3: take punching so patiently, it might be that he would
Speaker 3: lie still enough for me to get down in the
Speaker 3: crack and feel slowly along until I could find the
Speaker 3: right place to give him a dig with the butcher.
Speaker 3: So I got down, and my dogs got in before him,
Speaker 3: and kept his head towards them till I got along.
Speaker 3: Easing up to him and placing my hand on his rump,
Speaker 3: I felt for his shoulder, just behind which I intended
Speaker 3: to stick him. I made a lunge with my long
Speaker 3: knife and fortunately stuck him right through the heart, at
Speaker 3: which he just sank down, and I crawled out in
Speaker 3: a hurry and a little time my dogs all came
Speaker 3: out too, and seemed satisfied, which was the way they
Speaker 3: always had of telling me that they had finished him.
Speaker 3: I suffered very much that night with cold, as my leather,
Speaker 3: breeches and everything else I had was wet and frozen,
Speaker 3: but I managed to get my bear out of the
Speaker 3: crack after several hard tries, and so butchered him and
Speaker 3: laid down to try to sleep. But my fire was
Speaker 3: very bad, and I couldn't find anything that would burn
Speaker 3: well to make it any better. So I concluded that
Speaker 3: I should freeze if I didn't warm myself in some
Speaker 3: way by exercise. So I got up, hollered awhile, and
Speaker 3: then I would just jump up and down with all
Speaker 3: my might and throw myself into all sorts of motions.
Speaker 3: But all this wouldn't do, for my blood was now
Speaker 3: getting cold and the chills coming all over me.
Speaker 5: I was so tired too that I could hardly walk.
Speaker 3: But I thought I would do my best to save
Speaker 3: my life, and then if I died, nobody.
Speaker 5: Would be to blame.
Speaker 3: So I went to a tree about two feet through
Speaker 3: with not a limb on it for thirty feet and
Speaker 3: I would climb it to the limbs and then lock
Speaker 3: my arms together and slide down to the bottom again.
Speaker 3: This would make the inside of my legs and arms
Speaker 3: feel mighty warm and good. I continued this till daylight
Speaker 3: in the morning, and how often I clumbed that tree
Speaker 3: and slid down I don't know, but I reckon at
Speaker 3: least one hundred times. In the morning, I got my
Speaker 3: bear hung up to be safe, and then set out
Speaker 3: to hunt for my camp. I found it after a while,
Speaker 3: and McDaniel and my son were very much rejoiced to
Speaker 3: see me back, for they were about to give me
Speaker 3: up for lost. We got our breakfast and then secured
Speaker 3: our meat by building a high scaffold and covering it over.
Speaker 3: We had no fur of it spoiling, for the weather
Speaker 3: was so cold it couldn't. We now started after my
Speaker 3: other bear, which had caused me so much trouble and suffering,
Speaker 3: and before we got to him, we started after another
Speaker 3: and took him also. We went on to the creek
Speaker 3: i'd crossed the night before in camp, and then went
Speaker 3: to where my bear was that i'd killed in the crack.
Speaker 3: We examined the place and McDaniel said he wouldn't have
Speaker 3: gone into it, as I did for all the bears
Speaker 3: in the woods. We took the meat down in our
Speaker 3: camp and salted it, and also the last one we'd killed,
Speaker 3: intending in the morning to make a hunt in the
Speaker 3: hurricane again. We prepared for resting that night, and I
Speaker 3: can assure the reader I was in need of it.
Speaker 3: We had laid down by our fire, and at ten
Speaker 3: o'clock there came a most terrible earth quake, which shook
Speaker 3: the earth so that we were rocked about like we
Speaker 3: had been in a cradle. We were so very much alarmed,
Speaker 3: for though we were accustomed to feeling earthquakes, we were
Speaker 3: now right in the region which had been torn to
Speaker 3: pieces by them in eighteen twelve, and we thought it
Speaker 3: might take a notion to swallow us up like the
Speaker 3: big fish did Jonah. In the morning, we packed up
Speaker 3: and moved to the Hurricane, where we made another camp,
Speaker 3: and turned out that evening and killed a very large bear,
Speaker 3: which made eight we had now killed in this hunt.
Speaker 3: The next morning we entered the Hurricane again. In a
Speaker 3: little or no time, my dogs were in full cry.
Speaker 3: We pursued them and soon came to a thick cane
Speaker 3: break in which they'd stopped their bear. We got up
Speaker 3: close to him, as the cane was so thick we
Speaker 3: couldn't see more than a few feet.
Speaker 9: Here.
Speaker 3: I made my friend hold the cane a little open
Speaker 3: with his gun till I shot the bear, which was
Speaker 3: a mighty large one. I killed him dead in his tracks.
Speaker 3: We got him out butchered him, and in a little
Speaker 3: time started another and killed him, which now made ten
Speaker 3: bears we'd killed, and we knowed we couldn't pack any
Speaker 3: more home. We only had five horses along. Therefore we
Speaker 3: returned to the camp salted our meat to be ready
Speaker 3: for the start homeward the next morning. The morning came,
Speaker 3: we packed our horses with meat and had as much
Speaker 3: as they could possibly carry, and sure enough cut out
Speaker 3: for home. It was about thirty miles and we reached
Speaker 3: our home the second day. I had now accommodated my
Speaker 3: neighbor with meat enough to do him, and had killed
Speaker 3: in all up to that time fifty eight bears during
Speaker 3: the fall and winter. As soon as the time come
Speaker 3: for them to quit their houses and come out again
Speaker 3: in the spring, I took a notion to hunt a
Speaker 3: little more, and in about one month I killed forty
Speaker 3: seven more, which made one hundred and five bears I
Speaker 3: had killed in less than one year from that time.
Speaker 3: That was incredible. Crockett talked about the New Madrid earthquake
Speaker 3: of eighteen twelve and all the cracks in the ground.
Speaker 3: He killed a bear down in one of the cracks,
Speaker 3: the bear Grease Hall of Famer to Come is believed
Speaker 3: by some to have invoked that earthquake when he prophesied
Speaker 3: that he'd stomp the ground and it would shake down
Speaker 3: every house. That quake was felt from New Orleans to
Speaker 3: Canada and all the way to Maine. It made the
Speaker 3: Mississippi River run backwards, and the quakes lasted for four
Speaker 3: months to Comps would die in Ontario in eighteen thirteen.
Speaker 3: If there's one thing I know from chasing bears and
Speaker 3: pounding around in the mountains of the yeast, that killing
Speaker 3: one hundred and five bears fully processing them in the
Speaker 3: back country using primitive gear, packing them out with horses.
Speaker 3: He'd have been better off with mules, we all know.
Speaker 3: But that was some rough living and you can't fake it.
Speaker 3: Crockett was the real deal. He said in his autobiography
Speaker 3: that he had seven of the most vicious bear hounds
Speaker 3: in the South.
Speaker 5: Bear hunting was.
Speaker 3: So core to Crockett's identity. I felt like we needed
Speaker 3: to establish that up front. And it's so hard to
Speaker 3: tell a complex story like this, but mister Morgan told
Speaker 3: us there were four Crocketts that were the building blocks
Speaker 3: of his fame. The bear hunter, the soldier, the politician
Speaker 3: and the martyr at the Alamo. On the next episode,
Speaker 3: we're gonna start into the chronology of Crockett's life from
Speaker 3: his birth, because all that stuff, all the stuff he did,
Speaker 3: is what made him who he was in America. Knew
Speaker 3: that story and it's gonna get wild, but it's nothing
Speaker 3: to Crockett.
Speaker 5: And we hadn't even started yet.
Speaker 9: Now, how'd you kill that brute with my knife? I
Speaker 9: was figured on grant him to death? But this here,
Speaker 9: stumblefooted majors come along, busted up and concentrate Grinningham to death.
Speaker 9: What founderation is that? Which ame I've been experimenting with.
Speaker 9: You see, there's nothing so absolutely unresistible as an old fashioned,
Speaker 9: good natured grin like this. I started out on Coon's
Speaker 9: I got some good ad one day and old Kon
Speaker 9: throwed up his hands. A minute, he's seen my teeth.
Speaker 9: You got me, Daddy hollered, and he skinned down that
Speaker 9: tree and plopped hisself on my side. Before I knowed
Speaker 9: what was up. I figured the same thing. I ought
Speaker 9: to work on Barns, but I never got a chance
Speaker 9: to find out. Major here come along and busted up
Speaker 9: my concentrating. I wound up having to rise, so let's
Speaker 9: protect your credit at the table meet.
Speaker 3: I can't thank you enough for listening to Bear Grease.
Speaker 3: We've got several more Crockett episodes and we're diving in
Speaker 3: deeper than we probably ever had. And hey, Dave Smith
Speaker 3: decoys are now part of the Meat Eater family.
Speaker 5: For over twenty three years, they've.
Speaker 3: Made the most realistic turkey, deer, and goose decoys in
Speaker 3: the world, and I don't expect them to stop now.
Speaker 3: I look forward to talking with everybody on the Bear
Speaker 3: Grease Render.
Speaker 5: Next week
Speaker 1: Is MHM