The Story
Away back in the hills of Tennessee, on the seventeenth of August, 1786, a boy was born who would one day be known as the King of the Wild Frontier.
His name was Davy Crockett.
Davy grew up in a log cabin near the Nolichucky River, where the forest was thick with bear and deer and the nights rang with the sound of wolves. By the time he was eight years old, he could shoot a rifle straighter than most grown men. By the time he was twelve, he had hired himself out to a cattle driver to help his father pay a debt — walking hundreds of miles on foot without complaint.
They said Davy could grin a raccoon right out of a tree. He tried it once: a raccoon was sitting up in a tall oak, bold as brass. Davy squinted up at it and grinned his best, widest grin. The raccoon looked down, studied that grin for a long moment, then slowly climbed down the tree on its own. Davy reckoned it had simply decided not to be shot.
Davy became a famous bear hunter — some said he killed a hundred and five bears in a single season. But he was also a kind man with a good sense of humour. He served in the Tennessee state legislature and then in the United States Congress, where he fought for the rights of poor frontier settlers.
His motto was simple: "Be always sure you're right — then go ahead."
In 1836, Davy rode south to Texas, where settlers were fighting for their freedom. He stood with the defenders at a place called the Alamo, brave to the last.
And though Davy Crockett is gone, his spirit lives on in every American who looks at a hard challenge, squares their shoulders, and goes ahead.