Discover the Legend: Top 11 Fun Facts About Davy Crockett You Never Knew

1. The Flash of the Frontier

They say a bear never forgets, but that doesn't mean they could out-run the dashing Davey Crockett, who was practically The Flash of the frontier: Contrary to popular belief, he didn't slice and dice over a hundred bears in just six months, although he still had impressive hunting skills and gained legendary status long before his heroic end at the Alamo in 1836.
Source => historymatters.gmu.edu

2. Original "Bear with Me" Guy

You could say that Davy Crockett was the original "bear with me" guy, as he had a knack for turning bears into mere beary-tales: In reality, he possessed such remarkable hunting skills that he earned the nickname "the Bear Hunter" after killing 105 bears in just one hunting season, all without even using whiskey as bait!
Source => wikiwand.com

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=> Fun Facts about George-Washington

3. Coonskin Cap Trendsetter

Here's some cap-ital irony: Davy Crockett's iconic coonskin cap was already all the rage in the Mississippi Valley among Native Americans long before frontiersmen like him adopted this fashion fad! The real scoop: The coonskin cap's popularity began centuries before Crockett, so white settlers in the late 1700s were merely borrowing the Native American trend. Hollywood, however, helped boost its fame through the 1950s Davy Crockett TV series, raking in over $300 million in sales for thousands of starry-eyed children across the nation.
Source => priceonomics.com

4. Furry Fashion Statement

Before Disney turned his famed coonskin cap into a furry fashion statement that raked in enough greenbacks to make a skunk blush: Davy Crockett's larger-than-life image sparked the iconic 1950s "Crockett craze," generating roughly $300 million in profits and turning the Alamo and San Antonio into a must-visit tourist destination with Alamo Gift Museum to this day feverishly ordering and selling thousands of synthetic and authentic fur-laden caps.
Source => uiw.edu

5. Alamo's Unexpected Twist

If Hollywood had history on speed dial, they'd learn the truth about Davy Crockett's final battle being more Alamo-stop than Texas state tour: In reality, Crockett met his end defending the Alamo during the famed 13-day siege in March 1836 rather than in a subsequent battle for Texas independence, a twist that only served to amplify his folk hero status and resulted in countless parks and institutions bearing his name.
Source => history.com

6. Bear Hunter Supreme

Before Davy Crockett was King of the Wild Frontier, he was the Bear Hunter Supreme, exterminating fuzzy foes faster than you can say "Grrr!": In his 1834 autobiography, "A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee," Crockett recounts his phenomenal bear-slaying skills, with one week's victory tally reaching a whopping 17 bears. No need for honey traps here!
Source => historymatters.gmu.edu

7. Congress' Whistle-Blower

Whistle your way into Congress, just like old Davy: Crockett may have lost his first bid for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1825, but he swung back to win a seat in 1827, going on to serve three terms and famously butting heads with Andrew Jackson on hot-button issues like Native American displacement and the Second Bank of the United States, eventually meeting his maker at the historically tragic hoedown known as the Battle of the Alamo in 1836.
Source => history.house.gov

8. King of Bad Choices

Davy Crockett wasn't just King of the Wild Frontier, but King of Bad Life Choices too: While popular culture often paints him as a hero, his real life was riddled with failed businesses, a tendency to abandon his family, and roaming the frontier as a for-hire soldier, all while raising three children after the tragic death of his first wife, Polly Finley.
Source => tbnweekly.com

9. Hunter with a Heart

When Davy Crockett wasn't busy "grinnin' down bears" or sporting the latest in raccoon-tail fashion, he had a bone to pick with his fellow hunters: Despite his renown as a hunter, Davy Crockett actually didn't support hunting for fun. In his autobiography, he criticized those who killed animals merely for sport, proclaiming, "I never could see any fun in shooting squirrels and birds just for the sake of killing". Instead, he saw hunting as a way to feed the family and keep their bellies full of frontier grub.
Source => brianacrandall.com

10. Frontier Boomerang Politician

They say you can't keep a good man down, but that wasn't quite true for Davy Crockett: he was like a frontier boomerang in the game of American politics. A legendary storyteller and famous frontiersman from Tennessee, Crockett had a roller-coaster political career, securing a Congressional seat, losing it, regaining it, and finally losing it again before ultimately joining Texian soldiers in San Antonio and giving a morale boost before meeting his fate at the Battle of the Alamo.
Source => stmuscholars.org

11. Bearchelor Nation A-lister

If you think you've got a bear of a problem, just imagine being Davy Crockett's personal calendar: In Bearchelor Nation, this man was an A-lister, racking up numbers that any reality show contestant would envy: Among his myriad achievements, our dear Mr. Crockett was a preeminent bear hunter, having exterminated over 100 of these furry beasts in the span of a single season, leaving his name etched into Southern legend forevermore.
Source => texasmonthly.com