Folk Heroes of the Frontier: The Lives and Legacies of Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett

*Discusses some of the legends and controversies surrounding Boone's life and Crockett's life, including Crockett's death at the Alamo. 

*Includes the story about Crockett's famous Not Yours To Give speech, and the debate over whether he actually gave it.

*Includes pictures of Boone, Crockett and other important people and places in their lives.

*Includes a Bibliography for further reading.


"Many heroic actions and chivalrous adventures are related of me which exist only in the regions of fancy. With me the world has taken great liberties, and yet I have been but a common man." – Daniel Boone


"I know not whether, in the eyes of the world, a brilliant death is not preferred to an obscure life of rectitude. Most men are remembered as they died, and not as they lived. We gaze with admiration upon the glories of the setting sun, yet scarcely bestow a passing glance upon its noonday splendor." – Davy Crockett


The Wild West and the frontier have long held a special place in the narrative of American history, and all of the legends and folk heroes who lived in the 19th century owe their reputation to the original American frontier folk hero, Daniel Boone. Boone was literally a trailblazer: the legendary pioneer established his Wilderness Road by striking west into present-day Kentucky and establishing Boonesborough, one of the earliest white settlements west of the Appalachians. Hundreds of thousands of settlers would follow his path by the end of the 18th century. 


While that was an important and proud legacy for the former Revolutionary War militiaman and Virginia State Assemblyman, Boone became known for the outsized tales and adventures associated with his foray into the frontier. Far and wide, people spoke of Boone’s expert marksmanship, his encounters with wild bears, and his hardscrabble frontier life, making him a living legend and the prototypical Western frontier folk hero in America. All of it bewildered and bemused the actual man himself, whose own words about his affinity for the backwoods made him sound more like Henry David Thoreau than anything else. Boone once noted, “Situated, many hundred miles from our families in the howling wilderness, I believe few would have equally enjoyed the happiness we experienced. I often observed to my brother, You see now how little nature requires to be satisfied. Felicity, the companion of content, is rather found in our own breasts than in the enjoyment of external things…”


Now known today as "The King of the Wild Frontier", Davy Crockett was also a living legend in his own life. Crockett was a hardscrabble frontiersman who could spin a good yarn but who also took a no-nonsense approach that brought him from the backwoods of Tennessee to the halls of Congress. Though he served during the presidency of another Westerner, Andrew Jackson, Crockett was very much his own man, and he was distrustful of other politicians, a sentiment that has only endeared him further to subsequent generations of Americans. 


Crockett was famous in his lifetime, but it was his death in Texas that made him an American legend. Though there is still some mystery and controversy surrounding exactly what transpired at the Battle of the Alamo, the deaths of Crockett, Travis, Bowie and the rest of the defenders at the hands of Santa Anna’s Mexican soldiers became a symbol of sacrifice and defiance, and the battle itself became a rallying cry throughout the rest of Texas’ War for Independence. Naturally, it also cemented Crockett’s legacy as well.


Folk Heroes of the Frontier chronicles the lives of the two frontier heroes, and the legends and tall tales that have helped shape their legacies. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett like you never have before.