David Crockett was an American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He is often referred to in popular culture as the "King of the Wild Frontier". He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives and served in the Texas Revolution.
Davy Crockett portrait by Chester Harding (1834)
Commemorative stone.
Replica cabin at Crockett's birth site in the David Crockett Birthplace State Park.
Contract of marriage for David Crockett and Margaret Elder, October 21, 1805
The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial settlements in the early 17th century and ended with the admission of the last few contiguous western territories as states in 1912. This era of massive migration and settlement was particularly encouraged by President Thomas Jefferson following the Louisiana Purchase, giving rise to the expansionist attitude known as "manifest destiny" and historians' "Frontier Thesis". The legends, historical events and folklore of the American frontier have embedded themselves into United States culture so much so that the Old West, and the Western genre of media specifically, has become one of the defining features of American national identity.
The cowboy, the quintessential symbol of the American frontier. Photo by John C. H. Grabill, c. 1887.
Daniel Boone escorting settlers through the Cumberland Gap
Siege of Fort Detroit during Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763
Native leader Tecumseh killed in battle in 1813 by Richard M. Johnson, who later became vice president