Bear Grease - Ep. 110: David Crockett - Celebrity (Part 1)

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

On this episode, Clay Newcomb explores America’s first true celebrity. Built on his identity as a bear hunter, he was world famous during his lifetime and believed it came upon him by accident. All he did was play the part of himself, David Crockett. This Tennessee backwoodsman embodied the narrative of the self-made man and Manifest Destiny that became a national obsession and deeply influenced our culture, even to this day. The Crockett myth and reality are hard to parse, but Clay is joined by R. Scott Williams, author of the new book, “The Accidental Fame and Lack of Fortune of West Tennessee's David Crockett,” as well as by New York Times best-selling author and Bear Grease veteran, Robert Morgan, to help discern fact from legend. One thing’s for sure – we love this guy and we really doubt you’re going to want to miss this one… Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. First Lights fieldware collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days and real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season.

Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new field. Worldware gear at firstlight.com. Think about if you're a factory worker and you're in Philadelphia and it's hot and it's dirty and you're on dirty streets and smelly streets and then here's this guy representing beautiful water and green grass and, you know, the wide open spaces, you know, you'd want more of that. It intrigued people.

On this episode, we're exploring the man, many say was America's first true celebrity. and it was built on his identity as a bear hunter. He was world famous in his lifetime, and he believed that it all came upon him completely by accident. All he did was play the part of himself, David Crockett. This folksy Tennessee backwoodsman embodied the narrative of the self-made man and manifest destiny that became a national obsession and deeply influenced our culture, even to this day.

I'm interested in how his life, has affected my life as an American. What do you know about Davey Crockett other than that he wore a coon-skin cap? Of course you know that. That ringtail hat is a low-hanging field-edge acren compared to what we're about to discover. The Crockett myth in reality

will be hard to parse through. But one thing's for sure. I love this guy, and I doubt you're going to want to miss this one. Folklore characters are created and sustained because of a need. The culture needs them. My name is Clay Newcomb, and this is the Bear Greece podcast,

where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant. Search for insight in unlikely places, and where we'll tell the story of Americans who live their lives close to the land. Presented by FHF Gear, American-made, purpose-built, hunting and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the places we experience. I need a baseline understanding of what average American people know about David Crockett.

And in case you think of already misspoken, he never called himself Davy. That didn't start until 120 years after his death. You two are just the guys I've been looking for. Tell me everything that you know about Davy Crockett. I don't know much about David Crockett. I did read about him some. I know who he is. I don't necessarily know where he was from.

He's from Kentucky? Close. Tennessee. Tennessee. Okay. All right. In the area. What did he do?

He was a hunter, right? Yeah, he was a hunter. Sir, I'm talking to another gentleman here. What could you fill in the gap? What do you know about Davey Crockett? I mean, Davey, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier. He killed him a bear when he was only three. There you go.

I love it. We've tapped into some skis. skeletal details about Crockett. He was from Tennessee and a bear hunter. True story. But he didn't kill a bear when he was only three. Can you sing that song? The fact that this dude can sing this song means something.

He was reaching deep into the recesses of his childhood. I need more info from these American commoners. Excuse me, sir. Oh, man. I've never met this man before in my life. What do you know about Davy Crockett? Davey Crockett? He was a man's man.

Okay. Then I don't know anything about Davey Crum. Really? You don't know anything. You don't have any sense of where he was from, what he did, how he affected American identity. No comment? You're a well-educated man, too. Senator, I do not recall. Are you an American?

It's hard to tell. What country are you from? It's hard to know. Parley-Englishe. I don't know. Just sweetly, I don't know. He was a man's man. Did Cruckett give our culture ideas about manhood?

This is getting out of hand. I'm very interested in how we're. unconsciously born with a value system because of a geographic location. Most of the world, especially at the time of Crockett, didn't identify with the American value system. It was completely new. This is Josh Landbridge spillmaker and his wife, Christy. He was a big man, Davy Crockett.

Wasn't there a song about him? A Disney song about David Crockett? David Crockett was at the Alamo. Yeah. And... I thought he was the king of the wild frontier. He was a king of the wild frontier, definitely. Yes.

He wore buckskin. That's good. I don't think he wore a Kunskine hat for sure. I don't think he wore Kunskine hat. I think that's a farce. Wasn't he a giant man? No. Okay.

Do you have any sense of how D.C., Davy Crockett, influenced American identity, like even how you think about yourself? Oh. No. I don't know. I don't have a... Well, you guys did pretty good in the song, the Walt Disney song. Davey Crockett was King of the Wild Frontier.

He was roughly six foot tall, so it wasn't giant. He's from Tennessee. He wore a Coonskin hat only after there was a play about him in New York City, and the actor wore a Coonskin hat. And then for a good part of his life, he started wearing a Coonskin hat after that. So, I mean, legendary character, but none of us know what the legend is all about.

Like, I think every American would be familiar with the name, Davey Crockett, but not know why. Well, what you're going to learn is that David Crockett was truly America's first celebrity. Daniel Boone was our first, one of our first folk heroes. D.C. was

truly a celebrity, global celebrity. Born on a mop-top in Tennessee, Greenish stayed in the land of the three, raised in the woods so he knew every tree, killed him a bar when he was only three. That song is the Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.

That song is the ballad of Davey Crockett from Walt Disney's 1954 David Crockett trilogy. The song seems to be embedded in the hearts of all American boys over the age of 40. It was number one on the top ten list in America for 13 weeks and sold over 4 million copies. It was a true American hit at almost the exact same time Elvis Presley came onto the scene. Crockett had two surging peaks of American and even global popularity, one starting in the 1830s in his lifetime and the second one in the 1950s. National myths are simple, but their real story, usually based in some level of truth, is more complex. Crocket was a Tennessee pioneer born in 1786. He was a renowned bear hunter and houndsman.

He fought in the Creek Indian Wars, which was part of the war of 1812, and he became one of America's first commoner politicians, or what we'd call a populist. He almost ran for president and was the arch enemy of old Hickory himself, Andrew Jackson, who had become president. But most notably, he was the wild American backwoodsman that gained global fame in his lifetime because of his fulxy, witty, humorous, self-deprecating way of communicating. But of all that stuff, he most identified as a bear hunter. I love it. In the words of Crockett biographer Michael Wallace, his bear hunting ability became a key ingredient in the manufacture of the populist hypermasculine persona he often used to bolster his public image and political career.

End of quote. But Crockett would seal his fame and myth in America's Hall of Fame when he died a martyr at the Alamo in Texas in 1836. It's the age of 49, which there is much controversy around his martyr status. And we'll get into that in later episodes. So bam, there you go. That's Crockett in a nutshell. Our story delivery strategy is that we're going to look at Crocket's influence first,

so we just kind of understand what he did and how he did it, and then we'll dive into the specifics of his life that made him. We're going to spend a lot of time on Crocket because of how important he was to American culture. And let's head something off at the past. Many would view our beloved Daniel Boone and David Crockett as basically the same person, and there were many confusing commonalities, but they're very different people at different times did different stuff. However, they were both involved in claiming land on the Western frontier. There were commercial hunters, were involved in Native American conflicts, both were failed entrepreneurs, both were in politics, both were renowned storytellers that people were enamored with.

However, Crockett was much more of what we would call a true celebrity. He knew about his fame, he interacted with that fame, but Daniel Boone, DB, didn't gain his fame until he was in his mid-50s. And he would die a common, impoverished man in Missouri in 1820 at the age of 86. Boone was 52 years old when Crockett was born in 1786. Their lives overlapped, but they never met. Probably the main reason people get them mixed up is because the same Hollywood actor, Fess Parker, played Crockett in the 1955 Walt Disney David Crockett trilogy. And Fess Parker,

very confusingly, also starred as Daniel Boone in Disney's 1960 series. In both, he wore buckskin, a coonskin hat, fought Indians, shot a long rifle, but perhaps the differences in Boone are inconsequential to the masses. And in some ways, they represent similar things, but to those of us desirous of parsing out the nuance of that backwoods, rough-and-tumble, self-made man identity that we just woke up and found ourselves in, the distinction between Boone and Crockett is important. More on this later, bros. Here's a clip from Disney's wildly popular David Crockett Indian fighter.

Crockett! Soldiers are looking for Crockett, but he's in the bushes with a growling bear. Where is he? A man points in the bushes. What's he doing in there? Shh. What's he doing? Experimenting.

He's trying to grin down a bear. Grim down a... You backwards buffoons think the rest of us will believe anything, don't you? Crocket. Can't you hear me? Come out of there, man. I've got a message. Crocett's thrown out of the woods by the beast.

You sure spawn things good. Now I've got to do it the old-fashioned way. Give a life for a, baby. Crocett's experiment grinning down the bear fails, so he goes back in with his knife to finish the job. Crockett was the original voice of American frontier dialect that touched the world. He was a folksy orator, had an unquenchable reservoir of anecdotes with keen, humorous wit. In real life, he often said that he could grin a coon out of a tree and even grin down a bear.

Disney didn't make this up. Crockett did. Once in a political speech, the real Crockett, not the actor, said this. I discovered a long time ago that a coon couldn't stand my grin. I could bring one tumbling down from the highest tree. I never wasted powder and lead when I wanted one of those creatures. He went on to describe how he once thought he was grinning at a coon, but it turned out to be a knot on a tree branch, and he said, I saw that I grinned all the bark off that tree and left the knot perfectly smooth. Now, fellow citizens, you must be convinced that in the grinning line, I myself am not slow. Yet, when I look upon my opponent's countenance, remember he's talking about his political opponent,

I must admit that he is my superior. You must all admit it. Therefore, be wide awake, look sharp, and don't let him grin you out of your votes. Procket proved to be an incredibly savvy politician, self-deprecating, funny, but always sincere. What he was saying that his opponent was all smile, an elite pretty boy. But Crockett's smile could actually do something for you. Crockett would become famous for his political antics and showdowns. More I'll miss later.

Here is author and Crockett biographer R. Scott Williams of West Tennessee. He wrote a book called The Accidental Fame in Lowe. lack of fortune of West Tennessee's David Crockett. There are a ton of Crockett biographies. We're inside an authentic log cabin at the Discovery Park of America Museum in Union City, Tennessee. It's incredible. I mean, the way I've been describing it is he is America's first celebrity. I've got a poster in my office of folk heroes from the United States, and each one is placed in the state where they're from. And so there's an awful lot of folk heroes, but I would definitely say, in my opinion, he was the first celebrity. He had lithographs with his image and his signature

printed and sold. You know, I don't know of any, you know, certainly Daniel Boone never did anything like that. You know, he went on a book tour. He saw that people were making money off his name, image, and likeness. And so he wanted a piece of it. And so he himself, went to some buddies that could help him write and publish this autobiography and then went on a book tour, you know, and so you read about that book tour and the audiences were screaming and yelling, and, you know, I think he absolutely was the first in his lifetime, first and biggest celebrity. David Crockett was considered an exotic celebrity who rose amid America's growing nationalism. We were feverishly grasping for identity that would signify.

how we were different than the Europe from which we were hewn. The eyes of the world were on the western edge of the American frontier. I think it's hard for us to understand today how intriguing American expansion into the West was. It was a wildly unknown world, just first explored by Lewis and Clark in 1804, and it was considered a wilderness, free to those brave enough to come and take it

in a world dominated by poverty and personal land ownership only for the ultra wealthy. There is nothing like this in the world today, a land grab like this, and nor will there ever be again. A very important piece of the Crockett puzzle is understanding the worldview and characteristics of his people, the Ulster Scots from Ireland. Man, I told you, this is going to be a deep dive, boys.

You guys remember Robert Morgan, the author of the best Boone biography of all time, Boone. But he's also a Crockett expert. Here's Mr. Morgan. There's a long history of the Ulster Scots, and it does explain, I think, the aggressiveness of people looking for land. They had been encouraged, let's say, to leave Scotland, to go to Northern Ireland and settle there to have a Protestant presence in the

Catholic country and were offered land and of course land was the important thing land was owned by the big land owners the gentry the aristocracy and the best you could do the poor person was pay quit rents and their lease it so they had moved over from Scotland and then they the upper class wanted that land so they were kicked off and many came to North America. That was the thing where there's lots and lots of land. So these people had basically been kicked off land in Scotland and then Northern Ireland and was so hungry to own land and to be able to hunt, to be able to go into the wilderness and you arrive in the new world and there's an infinite amount of land and deer and bear and

smaller animals. So where would they go? The free land or the cheap land was on the frontier. And those people are really a part of the settlement in the history of the United States. They were very aggressive. They were determined. They learned to use weapons. They were willing to go into the wilderness and nothing was going to stop them. No treaties, no laws, no Indians, anything that stood in their way to have land. Yeah, it's hard for us to understand that hunger and the idea of letting the native people stand in the way to them were just ridiculous. The Scotch Irish were very, very determined and aggressive and explained an awful lot of the

history of the frontier. They were not alone. There were Germans. There were Welsh people, people from England, people from Scotland. But the most aggressive people, I think, were the Scots-Irish. We have names like Jackson and Crockett. The people of the United States and Europe couldn't intake enough media about the frontier. This thin edge where our people met the wilderness, that's where Crockett was.

The frontier became the breeding grounds of our national identity and the new-to-the-world democratic ideas of the self-made, man, from this unique situation, creating a unique ideology, America grew to become one of human history's most powerful empires. It wasn't just a land grab, but it was an experiment in government and ideology. And this ideology became attached to people who gained mythical status at this time as the hype of the moment became personified. And in Crockett's time, and even after almost 200 years since his death, he still carries the baton. Here's Mr. Morgan.

We can only speculate on why would he become such a celebrity. Well, he was charming, he was funny, but he met a need. Folkloric characters are created and sustained because of a need. The culture needs them. Daniel Boone becomes so famous because they needed somebody who was a great hunter, had gone into the wilderness, who was self-sufficient. Johnny Appleseed becomes this iconic figure because this aggressive society needs a folkloric figure who's so gentle and doesn't kill Indians and plants apple trees and thunk. They need that kind of character as opposed to the people who kill the Indians and take their land.

And Crockett becomes so famous because that that particular poem is 18 and 30, the country needs, on the one hand, somebody looked down on. not as good as they are, but somebody who's really smart and funny and tells these jokes. And again, the parallel is with the minstrel shows and all these people in the northeast and to somebody in the south are amused by this fellow

who's not quality, but he's a lot of fun. We can, you know, he's from the cane, he's from the backwoods. He has it double because the people are from the backwoods and the working people love him also. You know, so he's popular. people with everybody.

The people from the city thought he was a sensational, crass wild man, and the people from the backwoods thought he was one of them. On all sides, people had reasons to be attracted to Crockett. It's interesting to me that many of the armor bearers of American identity weren't the rich, elite, and educated, but rather a category unique to the world, the backwoodsmen. Crocket was a part of the first generation to carry a America's torch without the help of the founding fathers. Author Paul Hutton said the rise of

men like Crockett represented to many the triumph of pure democracy and a complete rejection of European values of social class and aristocracy. These were common men who made their economic and political fortunes through hard work coupled with natural ability. Crockett came to symbolize a rough egalitarianism, freedom of opportunity, manifest destiny, and a reaffirmation of the cherished principles of the Declaration of Independence. End of quote. I think part of the reason Americans are so enamored or appalled by Britain's royal family is because of how we've outright rejected the idea of a monarchy.

It's so foreign to us, a king, a man given honor and title without merit because of his birth. I know some of you boys probably don't even know it, but King, Charles was just made king. Yep, I think. Gazing upon the antithesis of our values helps us define our values. It helps to define what we're not. A deep American value is that you get what you have by merit. But honestly, this is even a myth.

Here's more from Scott on Crockett's influence. Why was America so enamored with this guy? Like what did he do? What was the character of him that made him so appealing? I think it was a combination of humor. I think he was funny. You know, I think he was one of America's first comedians. I think that he was self-depreciating.

And so I think that was something that people weren't used to. He was representing America's future. So if this guy's out there, look how successful he is, look what he's doing. And I think for them, that was exciting. It was an exciting time to think there's brand new lands that we can, you know, imagine if we had millions of acres and it's available and we're trying to decide, you and I are trying to decide, hey, are we going to hitch our wagons up and wagon train over there? my own ancestors settled on revolutionary land grant land here in West Tennessee. So they were probably influenced by Crockett.

Absolutely. And he was there representative. So my ancestors traveled across the state and settled here. And then they did not leave until my parents went to college in the 50s. And so both sides of my family come out of that group of people. Those were the kind of people that David Crockett was representing. people with enough spirit and enough attitude that they're willing to say goodbye to their families forever, knowing that they will probably never see their friends and family and loved ones ever again.

And so they carved out, you know, the land was rough and they carved it out and began farming. And for somebody who's up north, who's a shopkeeper, who's wanting. Who's well established in a place and probably never going to leave. Right. And, but some of those people, I think David Crockett was maybe sparking a sense of curiosity. He had something for everybody. For the person that wasn't going to leave, he was just intriguing and entertaining. Right.

But then he was also spurring some of those people to go. To go, yeah. Absolutely. He was just the right voice at the right time, I guess. That's a great point is it really was. He was at the right place at the right time. Think about if you're a factory worker and you're in Philadelphia and it's hot and it's, you know, it's dirty and you're on dirty streets and smelly streets. and then here's this guy representing beautiful water and green grass and, you know, the wide open spaces.

You know, you'd want more of that. You'd want to read about it. You know, and so it was in magazine articles and plays, as we mentioned in books. And, you know, it intrigued people. It intrigued people. In 1831, a newspaper labeled Crockett, an object of universal notoriety. author Paul Hutton said he represented the, quote, dawning age of the common man who symbolized Western egalitarianism and unbridled opportunity. So Crockett, again, had two surges of fame in America. The first starting in the 1830s during his life

and lasting for decades after his death, but again, his popularity surged in the 1950s with that Disney movie and song. We've established that he was a celebrity in his own time, primarily because of his political prominence, which led him to writing an autobiography released only after several other fake autobiographies had come out. And you can understand why that would be frustrating. People were writing fake stories about it.

So he had to write his own to rectify his reputation. Crocket's real autobiography was essentially a New York Times bestseller. You can order it today on Amazon. And unlike Boone, we can hear firsthand the written voice of David. Crocket. If you remember multiple times Boone's attempts at an autobiography were spoiled, once an entire manuscript was lost. And one of the great mysteries of Boone is that we never really heard his unfiltered voice. Not so with Crocket. And I think that might even be to his detriment. When you see someone as honest and vulnerable as Crockett, they become easier to criticize.

But I think it's important we understand. why we're still talking about Crocket today. Walt Disney laid the modern track for hyper-commercializing our heroes using Crockett in the 1950s. This was a big one, and the first time it was really done at this extent. Scott previously worked for Elvis Presley Enterprises, so he understands Americans marketing their heroes. Coming from the Elvis world, I know a little bit about licensed product and paraphernalia

and memorabilia, and they had never seen anything like it before. And honestly, since, the amount of David Crockett, Davy Crockett is what they call it, the amount of Davy Crockett merchandise that was produced and manufactured and distributed and sold was just incredible. Unheard of. Disney was making millions of dollars off of this. Today, if somebody's even curious and looking, you can go to eBay and search Davy Crockett and you'll see everything imaginable from guitars to old stuff from that time period from that

time from that little era because it came and then it went I mean when it ended it ended like a lead balloon it was over you couldn't sell anything else they didn't manufacture anything else it was over so there's this era in there where he was the hottest thing going so many little boys and girls bought raccoon skin caps that they were worried raccoons were going to go extinct Wow, that's incredible. It is, it is, when you look at the amount of coon tails, they started selling skunk tails and dyeing them so that it would. Because they didn't have enough raccoons. Wow.

Man, that's a concert. That would be the answer to some of our conservation issues right now with raccoons eating our turkey and quill eggs, man. We need to revive Davy Crockett, the Coon Skin hat. That's a personal mission of mine. Yep, there you go. We used to start wearing a coonskin cap. Scott, it's already happening. I've got more authentic hound-treeed Ozark Mountain Coonskin hats than I have broke mules.

For whatever reason, in all the literature, Coon Hides were recorded as sold by the pound. So Hides went from 25 cents a pound to over $6 per pound, creating a 2,000% increase in the price of Coon Hides. In 1956, they were selling $0.506 a pound. over 5,000 Coon Skin Hats every day. That's putting a hurt on old Ricky Raccoon, but don't feel bad. Today, per the science, raccoon numbers in North America are soaring and are far above pre-European settlement numbers. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls

in building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called Prime Cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to.

I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at Felps. Game Calls.com. I think you'll be glad you did, and you'll find out that the Steve Ronella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers

who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. Scott makes a point in his book that today, Crockett would hardly be remembered if it wasn't for Disney. To think of us sitting here and David Crockett being just kind of like a, yeah, he was a guy that, you know, just kind of an obscure character

in history. Right. Because Dave, well, Davy Crockett, what Disney made him, that name would probably be equivalent to the top most recognized names, maybe in the world. Is it, would, you think that would be true? Oh, well, certainly, if you were going to take me to Disneyland Paris, the most popular place to go is the Davey Crockett. Campground where they have it's a lodge in Paris and so they have Davy Crockett they have

theme it's all themed you know what what Europeans must think we live like here in West Tennessee but with wagon wheel salad bars and little carved animals out of wood everywhere and you know today today right now so yeah I mean I would say you would be hard pressed to mention the word Davey Crockett to somebody and not have them at least recognize the name and know that he was something famous. As much as Crockett was commercialized even in his time, there was a lot of moral substance in American hunting grit in this Crockett. And I don't want us to think that he was all show. He was the real deal. But as we examine his influence on early American culture,

we can't go any further without talking about the Broadway play in New York City called the Lion of the West, which came out in 1831. Crocket had nothing to do with it, but the main character's name was Nimrod Wildfire, and everyone in the country knew it was supposed to be Crockett. So much of the fame Crockett got he never asked for, nor did the things he did seem like they would get this kind of return on investment. He was just a normal dude being himself.

I think Crockett was as surprised as anyone. In the foreword of Crockett's autobiography, He says, I know that as obscure as I am, that my name is making a considerable deal of fuss in the world. I can't tell why it is, nor in what it is to end. Go where I will. Everybody seems anxious to get a peep at me. And it would be hard to tell which would have the advantage if I, the government, and a black hawk, and a great eternal caravan of wild varmots were all to be shown at the same time

in four different parts of any of the big cities of the nation, I am not so sure that I shouldn't get the most custom of any crew. There must therefore be something in me or about me that attracts attention, which is even mysterious to myself. Sometimes Crockett's assessments of himself can sound arrogant on paper, but when you look at him in so many areas of his life, he was humble, generous, loyal, loving, and empathetic to the person. poor. I think a good editor could have helped Crockett toned down the vibe he was putting out,

and it wouldn't have come across as so arrogant. But back to the play, the Lion of the West. Here is the line that comes from the play, not Crockett, and see if you think it sounds like Crockett. He said, and let all the fellers in New York know that I'm half horse, half alligator, a touch of earthquake, with a sprinkling a steamboat. If I ain't, I wish I may be shot. End of quote. This was the line in the play, but Crockett was actually quoted once as saying, I'm that same David Crockett, fresh from the backwoods, half horse, half alligator, a little touched with snapping turtle.

I can wade the Mississippi, leap the Ohio, ride upon a streak of lightning, and slip without a scratch down a honey locust, and I can whip my weight in wildcats. He actually said that. It's clear this play was about Crockett. Here's Scott. Well, David Crockett didn't say it was David Crockett, and they never really said, this is David Crockett. But the character wore a wild cat on its head, you know, which is really where the idea of Davy Crockett wearing a Coonskin cap came from. And so it was the most performed play in the world at the time. So this play was all over Europe, and you can actually find it online.

And there's a lot of really interesting things written about that play because it was a very early theatrical, you know, it was an example. of an early American performance, which at the time they were bringing in a lot of plays from Europe, but there wasn't yet a big, strong American culture, of theater. Popular culture, of even music and theater. A lot of things were coming over from Europe, but Crockett was the first embodiment of true American culture. And so these plays are being performed, and this character, Nimrod Wildfire, is saying these words on stage, and journalists are writing it down and saying, David Crockett said, blah, blah, blah.

And so without anybody even do anything, the media played a part in people suddenly thinking that David Crockett is an emerald wildfire. Yeah. Which was fascinating. Isn't it wild? It seems like all throughout history, media plays such a powerful role inside of even writing

the functionality of what people believe about what happened. I mean, it happened with Boone. Like Daniel Boone, this formative American archetype, you know, the only reason we know about him is there was a chapter in a book written about him when he was in his 50s. Right. And all of a sudden we hear about Boone and his myth and lore grows and grows. And then here, Crockett, the reason we know Crockett, I mean, obviously is because of media because people talking, writing, doing stuff. But they were looking for what would sell, what the American public wanted to hear about, would be interested in. in, and then here was this wild cat on the frontier that was this great orator.

Well, and he was just responding to a gut instinct constantly, you know, and he was, he just barreled through. And so, you know, it was fascinating to see how he didn't hesitate. And, you know, he didn't always know he was right. And he just barreled through and did stuff. One of Crockett's sayings, he said, be sure you're right. And then go ahead. Exactly. And that's what he, and to me, it's fascinating. Here's this guy who had a tagline. Yeah, he wrote that everywhere. Go ahead became a huge popular culture thing that people would say and attribute to him. Go ahead.

Be sure you're right, then go ahead. When the queen made a carriage for Tiny Tim as a gift, she put Go Ahead on the side of it. Oz, another thing that I found was interesting. As I was looking and researching, and I came upon several instances of a popular culture saying at the time around his death and after his death was, like, if you were to brag to me, I would say, yeah, that may be true, but it's nothing to Crockett. And so people would say it's nothing to Crockett, and that was a famous saying that people said back then. Yeah. Crocket was the embodiment of the first true American culture. We were starving for American things that weren't connected to Europe.

Crocket had his own tagline. In a world with social media, it's easy to understand how this could happen. But imagine the energy and hype that would have had to have followed this guy for his catchphrase to be so widespread. But I guess one could say, that's nothing to Crockett. As we're learning the Crockett story, I want to introduce him to you in four distinct sections of his identity. This is the way that America knew him and will go through these sections chronologically so you can understand where these identities arose. And first, I want to, you know, to introduce you to Crockett the bear hunter. This was the foundation of his fame.

Here's Mr. Morgan. Well, there weren't many bears around eastern Tennessee then. It was only when he got to central Tennessee that there were enough bears for him to become a bear hunter. But he hated farming, and he loved hunting, and he particularly liked bear hunting. I mean, there were deer and other things he hunted, but he discovered his great talent.

He was better at bear hunting. and anybody else. And when he got to that region where there were a lot of bears, that's what he loved to spend his time doing. And I guess he could make some money out of that, too.

You could sell the oil and meat and the skin. And he became very famous in that region as a bear hunter. And there are three crockets, maybe four crockets. And one of them is the bear hunter, the great bear hunter.

And there's the politician. and there's the martyr at the Alamo. But I think there's a fourth, which is the soldier in the Creek War, which happened a little later in 1814. But the bear hunter is the original one. He was known, he was famous as the bear hunter, and he was famous at telling stories about it, too. And he used that in his political career for the rest of his life,

is he talked about bear hunting, He told stories about it. And that was kind of the foundation of his folk character was bear hunting. That impressed people in the East. Yeah, that gave him prestige in the East as well as in Tennessee. He was the bear hunter. Lincoln was the rail slitter and Honest Abe, and he was Crocket, the Bear Hunter.

And it was authentic. He was a great bear hunter. I want us to listen to a bear hunting story in David's words. This is a wild adventure from his autobiography written in 1834. I had seen the track of the bear they were after, and I knowed he was a screamer. I followed on to about the middle of the hurricane, but my dogs pursued him so close that they made him climb an old stump about 20 feet high. I got in shooting distance of him and fired, but I was all over in such a flutter from fatigue and running that I couldn't. hardly hold steady. But however, I broke his shoulder and he fell. I run up and loaded my gun as

quick as possible and shot him again and killed him. But when I went to take out my knife to butcher him, I found I had lost it coming through the hurricane. The vines and briars was so thick that I would sometimes have to get down and crawl like a varmint to get through it all. And a vine had, as I supposed, caught in the middle of the handle and pulled it out. While I was standing and studying what to do, my friend came to me. He had followed my trail through the hurricane and had found my knife, which is mighty good news to me, as a hunter hates the worst in the world to lose a good dog or any part of his hunting tools.

I now left McDaniel to butcher the bear, and I went after our horses and brought them as near as the nature of the case would allow. I then took our bags and went back to where he was, and when we had skinned the bear, we fleeced off the fat and carried it to our horses at several loads. We then packed it up on our horses and had a very heavy pack of it on each one. We now started out and went until about sunset when I concluded we must be near our camp. So I hollered and my son answered me and we moved on in the direction to the camp. We had gone

but a little way when I heard my dogs make a warm start again and I jumped down from my horse and gave him to my friend and I told him I would follow them. He went on to the camp and I went ahead after my dogs with all my might for a considerable distance till it last night came on. The woods were very rough and hilly and all covered with cane. I now was compelled to move on more slowly and was frequently falling over logs and into the cracks made by the earthquakes so that I was very much afraid I would break my gun. However, I went on about three miles when I came to a good big creek which I waited. It was very cold and the creek was about knee-deep, but I felt no great inconvenience from it just then as I was all over wet with sweat from running and felt

hot enough. After I got over the creek and out of the cane, which was very thick on all of our creeks, I listened for my dogs. I found they had either treed or brought the bear to stop as they continued barking in the same place. I pushed on as near in the direction to the noise as I could till I found a hill that was too steep for me to climb, and so I backed down and went down to the creek some distance till I came to a hollow and then took up the mountain. that till I come to a place where I could climb up the hill. It was mighty dark and was difficult to see my way or anything else. When I got up to the hill, I found I had passed the dogs, and so I turned and went to them. I found when I got there they had treed the bear in a large

forked poplar and it was setting in the fork. I could see the lump, but not plain enough to shoot with any certainty, as there was no moonlight. So I set in to hunting for some dry brush to make me a light, but I couldn't find none, though I could find the ground was torn mighty to pieces by the cracks. At last I thought I could shoot by guests and kill him. So I pointed as near the lump as I could and fired away. But the bear didn't come. He only clumb higher and got out on a limb, which helped me see him better.

I now loaded up again and fired, but this time he didn't move at all. I commenced loading for the third time, but the first thing I knowed, the bear was down among my dogs, and they were fighting all around me. I had my big butcher knife in my belt, and I had a pair of dressed buckskin breeches on, so I took out my knife and stood determined if he should get a hold of me

to defend myself in the best way I could. I stood there for some time and could now then see a white dog I had, but the rest of them and the bear, which were dark-colored, I couldn't see at all. It was so miserable dark. They fought all around me, sometimes within three feet of me,

but at last the bear got down one of the cracks that the earthquakes had made in the ground about four feet deep, and I could tell the biting end of him by the hollering of my dogs. So I took my gun and pushed the muzzle of it about till I thought I had it against the main part of his body and fired, but it happened only to be the fleshy part of his foreleg. With this, he jumped out of the crack and the dogs and had another hard fight all around me as before. At last, however, they forced him back into the crack again as he was when I'd shot. I had laid my gun down in the dark and now I began to hunt for it. While I was hunting, I got a hold of a pole and I concluded I would punch him a while with that.

I did so and when I would punch him, the dogs would jump in on him. When he would bite him badly, they would jump out again. I concluded, as he would take punching so patiently, it might be that he would lie still enough for me to get down in the crack and feel slowingly along until I could find the right place to give him a dig with the butcher. So I got down and my dogs got in before him and kept his head towards them till I got along, easing up to him, and placing my hand on his rump, I felt for his shoulder, just behind which I intended to stick him. I made a lunge with my long knife and fortunately stuck him right through the heart, at which he just sank down and I crawled out in a hurry. In a little time my dogs all came out too and seemed satisfied, which was the

they always had of telling me that they had finished him. I suffered very much that night with cold as my leather breaches and everything else I had was wet and frozen, but I managed to get my bear out of the crack after several hard tries and so butchered him and laid down to try to sleep. But my fire was very bad and I couldn't find anything that would burn well to make it any better, so I concluded that I should freeze if I didn't warm myself in some way by exercise. So I got up, hollered a while, and then then I would just jump up and down with all my might and throw myself into all sorts of motions. But all this wouldn't do, for my blood was now getting cold and the chills coming all over me.

I was so tired, too, that I could hardly walk, but I thought I would do my best to save my life, and then, if I died, nobody would be to blame. So I went to a tree about two feet through with not a limb on it for 30 feet, and I would climb it to the limbs, and then lock my arms together and slide down to the bottom again. This would make the inside of my legs and arms feel mighty, warm, and good. I continued this till daylight in the morning, and how often I clumbed that tree and slid down, I don't know, but I reckon at least a hundred times. In the morning I got my bear hung up so as to be safe and then set out to hunt for my camp. I found it after a while, and McDaniel and my son were very much rejoiced to see me back, for they were about to give me up for lost.

We got our breakfast and then secured our meat by building a high scaffold, and covering it over. We had no fear of it spoiling, for the weather was so cold it couldn't. We now started after my other bear, which had caused me so much trouble and suffering. And before we got to him, we started after another and took him also. We went on to the creek I'd crossed the night before in camp and then went to where my bear was that I'd killed in the crack. We examined the place, and McDaniel said he wouldn't have gone into it as I did for all the bears in the woods. We took the meat down in our camp and saw, salted it, and also the last one we'd killed, intended in the morning to make a hunt in the

hurricane again. We prepared for resting that night, and I can assure the reader I was in need of it. We had laid down by our fire, and at 10 o'clock there came a most terrible earthquake, which shook the earth so that we were rocked about like we had been in a cradle. We were so very much alarmed, for though we were accustomed to feeling earthquakes, we were now right in the region which had been torn to pieces by them in 1812, and we thought, It thought it might take a notion to swallow us up like the big fish did Jonah. In the morning we packed up and moved to the hurricane where we made another camp and turned out that evening and killed a very large bear, which made eight we had now killed in this hunt.

The next morning we entered the hurricane again in a little or no time my dogs were in full cry. We pursued them and soon came to a thick cane break in which they'd stopped their bear. We got up close to him as the cane was so thick we couldn't see more than a few feet. Here I made my friend hold the cane a little open with his gun till I shot the bear which was a mighty large one. I killed him dead in his tracks. We got him out, butchered him, and in a little time started another and killed him,

which now made ten bears we had killed. And we knowed we couldn't pack any more home. We only had five horses along. Therefore, we returned to the camp, salted our meat to be ready for the start homeward the next morning. The morning came, we packed our horses with meat, and had as much as they could possibly carry, and sure enough, cut out for home. It was about 30 miles, and we reached our home the second day.

I had now accommodated my neighbor with meat enough to do him, and had killed, in all, up to that time, 58 bears during the fall and winter. As soon as the time come for them to quit their houses and come out again in the spring, I took a notion to hunt a little more, and in about one month I killed 47 more, which made 105 bears I had killed in less than one. one year from that time. That was incredible. Crockett talked about the New Madrid

earthquake of 1812 and all the cracks in the ground. He killed a bear down in one of the cracks. The Bear Greece Hall of Famer, Tacumsa, is believed by some to have invoked that earthquake when he prophesied that he'd stomped the ground and it would shake down every house. That quake was felt from New Orleans to Canada and all the way to Maine.

It made the Mississippi River run backwards, and the quakes lasted for four months. Tacomsa would die in Ontario in 1813. If there's one thing I know from chasing bears and pounding around in the mountains of the yeast that killing 105 bears, fully processing them in the back country, using primitive gear, packing them out with horses, he'd have been better off with mules, we all know. But that was some rough living, and you can't fake it. Crocket was the real deal. He said in his autobiography that he had seven of the most vicious bear hounds in the south.

Bear hunting was so core to Crocket's identity, I felt like we needed to establish that up front. And it's so hard to tell a complex story like this. But Mr. Morgan told us there were four crockets that were the building blocks of his fame. The bear hunter, the soldier, the politician, and the martyr at the Alamo. On the next episode, we're going to start into the chronology of Crockett's life from his birth, because all that stuff, all the stuff he did is what made him who he was. And America knew that story. And it's going to get wild.

But it's nothing to Crockett. And we hadn't even started yet. Now, how'd you kill that brute? With my knife? I was figuring on grinning him to death, but this here's stumbled-footed major has come along busted up my concentrate. Grinned him to death. What thunderation is that? Oh, it's something I've been experimenting with. You see, there's nothing so absolutely unresistable as an old-fashioned good-natured grin. Like this. I started out on Coons. I got so good

at one day an old Coon throwed up his hands a minute he's seen my teeth. You got me, Dave, he hollered, and he skinned down that tree and plopped himself in my sack before I'd note what was up. I figured the same thing ought to work on bars, but I never got a chance to find out. The major here come along and busted up my concentrate. I wound up having to rattle this particular critter into table meat. I can't thank you enough for listening to Bear Grease. We've got several more Crockett episodes, and we're diving in deeper than we probably ever have.

And hey, Dave Smith decoys are now part of the meat eater family. For over 23 years, they've made the most realistic turkey deer and goose decoys in the world, and I don't expect them to stop now. I look forward to talking with everybody on the bare grease render next week. First Lights Fieldwear collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days in real use, hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters, no shortcuts,

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