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Born on a Mountaintop: On the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier
Combining the stories of the real hero and his Disney-enhanced afterlife, Born on a Mountaintop delves deep into our love for an American icon.
Pioneer. Congressman. Martyr of the Alamo. King of the Wild Frontier. As with all great legends, Davy Crockett's has been retold many times. Over the years, he has been repeatedly reinvented by historians and popular storytellers. In fact, one could argue that there are three distinct Crocketts: the real David as he was before he became famous; the celebrity politician whose backwoods image Crockett himself created, then lost control of; and the mythic Davy we know today.
In the road-trip tradition of Sarah Vowell and Tony Horwitz, Bob Thompson follows Crockett's footsteps from the Tennessee river valley where he was born, to Washington, where he served three terms in Congress, and on to Texas and the gates of the Alamo, seeking out those who know, love and are still willing to fight over Davy's life and legacy.
Born on a Mountaintop will be more than just a bold new biography of one of the great American heroes. Thompson's rich mix of scholarship, reportage, humor, and exploration of modern Crockett landscapes will bring Davy Crockett's impact on the American imagination vividly to life.
Pioneer. Congressman. Martyr of the Alamo. King of the Wild Frontier. As with all great legends, Davy Crockett's has been retold many times. Over the years, he has been repeatedly reinvented by historians and popular storytellers. In fact, one could argue that there are three distinct Crocketts: the real David as he was before he became famous; the celebrity politician whose backwoods image Crockett himself created, then lost control of; and the mythic Davy we know today.
In the road-trip tradition of Sarah Vowell and Tony Horwitz, Bob Thompson follows Crockett's footsteps from the Tennessee river valley where he was born, to Washington, where he served three terms in Congress, and on to Texas and the gates of the Alamo, seeking out those who know, love and are still willing to fight over Davy's life and legacy.
Born on a Mountaintop will be more than just a bold new biography of one of the great American heroes. Thompson's rich mix of scholarship, reportage, humor, and exploration of modern Crockett landscapes will bring Davy Crockett's impact on the American imagination vividly to life.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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April 27, 2016
I was in Barnes & Noble looking – and failing to find – an entirely different book when I came across Bob Thompson’s Born on a Mountaintop: On the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier. The curse I uttered was the curse of a man who knows he’s about to buy a book at full cover price.
Thompson’s book is of a particular sub-genre that I cannot resist: the historical travelogue/memoir. The best examples of this brand include Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation and Tony Horowitz’s Confederates in the Attic. Thompson’s conceit is similar to that of Vowell and Horowitz: to follow in the footsteps of the past; to reveal history by visiting the present-day remnants; and to meet and converse with people who love their particular subjects with passionate intensity.
Thompson’s love for David Crockett began many years ago – adorably enough – when his then-young daughters demanded continual replays of The Ballad of Davy Crockett. (Alas, I attempted to share this ballad with my fifteen-month old, sung by the ever-twangy Roy Rogers. The result: add one more thing the long list of things that makes the baby cry). At some point, after a long career at the Washington Post, Thompson decided to set out on Crockett’s trail, possibly because these types of road-trip books almost write themselves. (At the very least, the author will get one person – me – to pay hardcover price).
The journey takes you to Crockett’s birthplace in eastern Tennessee, to Washington D.C., where Crockett served as a Congressman, and to San Antonio, Texas – the Alamo – where Crockett died a man and was reborn a myth. Along the way, Thompson stops to explore certain myths and mysteries surrounding the Coonskin-Capped One. For instance, one chapter attempts to trace the life and times of Polly Finley, the “love” of Crockett’s life whose death barely warrants a mention in his famous autobiography.
The tone of Thompson’s narrative is warm and comfortable. Like a story your dad would tell, complete with all the “jokes” your dad – and your dad alone – would find funny. In other words, it lacks the lacerating wit used by Sarah Vowell to puncture gaseous myths and cherished fallacies of American history.
The text is learned and, unlike other similar books of the genre, actually includes source notes and a bibliography. I really appreciated this because Thompson’s book perked my interest in several subtopics – chiefly, the Creek Indian War – and I wanted to know what reading Thompson had found helpful. (It’s also nice to know that the actual history being woven into the travelogue isn’t something printed off Wikipedia).
The chief difficulty in following in David Crockett’s footsteps is that his steps have faded almost entirely away. A travelogue/memoir about the Civil War is easy, because we’ve protected (mostly, the big ones at least) our Civil War battlefields. Not so with Crockett. His birthplace and residences and tavern and mill are all gone. Even the locations are only proximate. The battlefields of the Creek War have similarly disappeared. Take, for example, the battle of the Tallushatchee, in which Crockett participated. In his memoir, Crockett infamously tells of a cabin full of warriors who were burned alive. The next day, he and his men went back to that charred house:
The exact location of this gruesome little event is unknown to this day. Heck, even the spelling of the fight – as Thompson points out – is uncertain. It is one thing to go to the stone wall at Gettysburg and imagine Pickett’s long doomed charge. It is a far less satisfying thing to pull off the road and read a stone marker arbitrarily placed near the shifted-bend of an old river and try to convince yourself you are standing at a hallowed place.
(Even the most famous spot of Crockett’s life – the Alamo – is a sorry shell of its former self. All that remains of the Texan “shrine” is the chapel – with its bastard façade – and part of the convent building. The wooden palisade, where the Crockett of legend fought is gone; as is the north wall, where the leader Travis died; the south wall – including the room where Bowie died; and the west wall, which has been replaced by a Ripley’s Haunted Adventure and a wax museum).
Because ghosts – of men and buildings and villages – are all that are left, Thompson chases them as best he can. One of the most enjoyable chapters centers on Disney’s marvelous three-part television series, Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter, Davy Crockett Goes to Congress, and Davy Crockett at the Alamo.
I was not around in 1954-55 to join the original coonskin cap craze. But when I was seven or eight, my mom rented Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier, the theatrical version of the Disney series, and my life changed. Or, at least, the fate of my next five Halloween costumes was settled.
Thompson briskly provides the making-of story, including an entertaining visit to Cherokee, North Carolina, where parts of the show were filmed. Many of the Cherokee Indians who were cast in the production were still around to pass on their stories.
For obvious reasons, Crockett’s death at the Alamo is the most thoroughly examined single topic of his life. After all, without the Alamo, Crockett is forgotten today. Instead, Daniel Boone would be our preeminent frontiersman, the original pathfinder and trailblazer.
I’ve read just about all there is on the Alamo. It’s one of my favorite historical subjects. As an active observer of the “Alamo wars,” pitting Texans and their heroes verses outside historians and their skepticism, I thought Thompson’s handling of the famous dawn battle was marvelous. Especially laudatory is his handling of Crockett’s death, which has been the topic of much heated speculation.
(Reviewer's Note: Had Pee Wee gone to the Alamo and asked where Crockett had been executed - rather than a query about the Alamo basement - he would not have been laughed at. He would have died. I’m not joking. He would have been shot in the face).
Thompson’s lucid explanation of the de la Pena manuscript – which contains a reference to Crockett’s execution – is thoughtful, rational, and shorn of agenda. He comes to a very simple, probably correct conclusion: that de la Pena’s manuscript is genuine, and genuinely incorrect as to Crockett’s demise.
One thing that Born on a Mountaintop lacked was memorable characters. In Horowitz’s Confederates in the Attic, for instance, the people that Horowitz met and interviewed were unforgettable. There is no one here as funny, as colorful, as poignant as Robert Lee Hodge. The various Crockett aficionados that Thompson meets are friendly, passionate, and helpful. But none of them stick out.
Another mild criticism is the absence of a Crockett Vision. Thompson spends a lot of time trying to track this man down. He’s traveled thousands of miles, read thousands of pages, and probably burned through a pretty good per diem following the vanished wake of this 19th century bear-slaughterer. Yet he never really gives us his Crockett the Man Theory. To the contrary, Thompson seems to concede that a coherent portrait of Crockett is impossible.
There is truth to that, of course. When you think of Crockett, you probably think of Fess Parker or John Wayne (tip: don’t think of John Wayne), not the prolific bear hunter of the cane, or the sometimes Indian fighter, or the rough-spun raconteur who floated to the top (or at least to respectability) during the Age of Jackson, or the failed politician who went to Texas to bolster his flagging fortunes.
Still, I would’ve liked Thompson’s honest-to-goodness take on the man he’s tracked.
Here’s mine: Crockett is the quintessential 21st century American. He created his fame (though not much of a fortune) out of thin air. He went to Congress, wrote a book, and got touted (only semiseriously) for the Presidency on the basis of a biography hewn almost entirely out of crap (or, more politely, thin air). Today, Crockett would have his own reality show on the History Channel called Canebrake Men. The cameras would roll as he roamed the woods, shooting unsuspecting animals and passing on folksy wisdom.
Crockett was an ambitious man whose truest talent – and it is a talent – was self-promotion. He magnified the fact and created a nonexistent truth to make himself a pre-celebrity-era celebrity. Near broke and running on fumes – like a post-Real World Puck – he went to Texas. And there, he got caught in the Alamo. Not by the Mexicans. But by his legend.
Thompson’s book is of a particular sub-genre that I cannot resist: the historical travelogue/memoir. The best examples of this brand include Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation and Tony Horowitz’s Confederates in the Attic. Thompson’s conceit is similar to that of Vowell and Horowitz: to follow in the footsteps of the past; to reveal history by visiting the present-day remnants; and to meet and converse with people who love their particular subjects with passionate intensity.
Thompson’s love for David Crockett began many years ago – adorably enough – when his then-young daughters demanded continual replays of The Ballad of Davy Crockett. (Alas, I attempted to share this ballad with my fifteen-month old, sung by the ever-twangy Roy Rogers. The result: add one more thing the long list of things that makes the baby cry). At some point, after a long career at the Washington Post, Thompson decided to set out on Crockett’s trail, possibly because these types of road-trip books almost write themselves. (At the very least, the author will get one person – me – to pay hardcover price).
The journey takes you to Crockett’s birthplace in eastern Tennessee, to Washington D.C., where Crockett served as a Congressman, and to San Antonio, Texas – the Alamo – where Crockett died a man and was reborn a myth. Along the way, Thompson stops to explore certain myths and mysteries surrounding the Coonskin-Capped One. For instance, one chapter attempts to trace the life and times of Polly Finley, the “love” of Crockett’s life whose death barely warrants a mention in his famous autobiography.
The tone of Thompson’s narrative is warm and comfortable. Like a story your dad would tell, complete with all the “jokes” your dad – and your dad alone – would find funny. In other words, it lacks the lacerating wit used by Sarah Vowell to puncture gaseous myths and cherished fallacies of American history.
The text is learned and, unlike other similar books of the genre, actually includes source notes and a bibliography. I really appreciated this because Thompson’s book perked my interest in several subtopics – chiefly, the Creek Indian War – and I wanted to know what reading Thompson had found helpful. (It’s also nice to know that the actual history being woven into the travelogue isn’t something printed off Wikipedia).
The chief difficulty in following in David Crockett’s footsteps is that his steps have faded almost entirely away. A travelogue/memoir about the Civil War is easy, because we’ve protected (mostly, the big ones at least) our Civil War battlefields. Not so with Crockett. His birthplace and residences and tavern and mill are all gone. Even the locations are only proximate. The battlefields of the Creek War have similarly disappeared. Take, for example, the battle of the Tallushatchee, in which Crockett participated. In his memoir, Crockett infamously tells of a cabin full of warriors who were burned alive. The next day, he and his men went back to that charred house:
It was, somehow or other, found out that the house had a potatoe [sic] cellar under it, and an immediate examination was made, for we were all hungry as wolves. We found a fine chance of potatoes in it, and hunger compelled us to eat them, though I had a little rather not, if I could have helped it, for the oil of the Indians we had burned up on the day before had run down on them, and they looked like they had been stewed with fat meat.
The exact location of this gruesome little event is unknown to this day. Heck, even the spelling of the fight – as Thompson points out – is uncertain. It is one thing to go to the stone wall at Gettysburg and imagine Pickett’s long doomed charge. It is a far less satisfying thing to pull off the road and read a stone marker arbitrarily placed near the shifted-bend of an old river and try to convince yourself you are standing at a hallowed place.
(Even the most famous spot of Crockett’s life – the Alamo – is a sorry shell of its former self. All that remains of the Texan “shrine” is the chapel – with its bastard façade – and part of the convent building. The wooden palisade, where the Crockett of legend fought is gone; as is the north wall, where the leader Travis died; the south wall – including the room where Bowie died; and the west wall, which has been replaced by a Ripley’s Haunted Adventure and a wax museum).
Because ghosts – of men and buildings and villages – are all that are left, Thompson chases them as best he can. One of the most enjoyable chapters centers on Disney’s marvelous three-part television series, Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter, Davy Crockett Goes to Congress, and Davy Crockett at the Alamo.
I was not around in 1954-55 to join the original coonskin cap craze. But when I was seven or eight, my mom rented Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier, the theatrical version of the Disney series, and my life changed. Or, at least, the fate of my next five Halloween costumes was settled.
Thompson briskly provides the making-of story, including an entertaining visit to Cherokee, North Carolina, where parts of the show were filmed. Many of the Cherokee Indians who were cast in the production were still around to pass on their stories.
For obvious reasons, Crockett’s death at the Alamo is the most thoroughly examined single topic of his life. After all, without the Alamo, Crockett is forgotten today. Instead, Daniel Boone would be our preeminent frontiersman, the original pathfinder and trailblazer.
I’ve read just about all there is on the Alamo. It’s one of my favorite historical subjects. As an active observer of the “Alamo wars,” pitting Texans and their heroes verses outside historians and their skepticism, I thought Thompson’s handling of the famous dawn battle was marvelous. Especially laudatory is his handling of Crockett’s death, which has been the topic of much heated speculation.
(Reviewer's Note: Had Pee Wee gone to the Alamo and asked where Crockett had been executed - rather than a query about the Alamo basement - he would not have been laughed at. He would have died. I’m not joking. He would have been shot in the face).
Thompson’s lucid explanation of the de la Pena manuscript – which contains a reference to Crockett’s execution – is thoughtful, rational, and shorn of agenda. He comes to a very simple, probably correct conclusion: that de la Pena’s manuscript is genuine, and genuinely incorrect as to Crockett’s demise.
One thing that Born on a Mountaintop lacked was memorable characters. In Horowitz’s Confederates in the Attic, for instance, the people that Horowitz met and interviewed were unforgettable. There is no one here as funny, as colorful, as poignant as Robert Lee Hodge. The various Crockett aficionados that Thompson meets are friendly, passionate, and helpful. But none of them stick out.
Another mild criticism is the absence of a Crockett Vision. Thompson spends a lot of time trying to track this man down. He’s traveled thousands of miles, read thousands of pages, and probably burned through a pretty good per diem following the vanished wake of this 19th century bear-slaughterer. Yet he never really gives us his Crockett the Man Theory. To the contrary, Thompson seems to concede that a coherent portrait of Crockett is impossible.
History drives a hard bargain. If you aren’t the famous one in the center of the picture, your life will likely be forgotten, no matter how interesting it is. And if you are the famous one, as Crockett was in just about everybody’s picture of the Alamo, you will never be seen clearly again.
There is truth to that, of course. When you think of Crockett, you probably think of Fess Parker or John Wayne (tip: don’t think of John Wayne), not the prolific bear hunter of the cane, or the sometimes Indian fighter, or the rough-spun raconteur who floated to the top (or at least to respectability) during the Age of Jackson, or the failed politician who went to Texas to bolster his flagging fortunes.
Still, I would’ve liked Thompson’s honest-to-goodness take on the man he’s tracked.
Here’s mine: Crockett is the quintessential 21st century American. He created his fame (though not much of a fortune) out of thin air. He went to Congress, wrote a book, and got touted (only semiseriously) for the Presidency on the basis of a biography hewn almost entirely out of crap (or, more politely, thin air). Today, Crockett would have his own reality show on the History Channel called Canebrake Men. The cameras would roll as he roamed the woods, shooting unsuspecting animals and passing on folksy wisdom.
Crockett was an ambitious man whose truest talent – and it is a talent – was self-promotion. He magnified the fact and created a nonexistent truth to make himself a pre-celebrity-era celebrity. Near broke and running on fumes – like a post-Real World Puck – he went to Texas. And there, he got caught in the Alamo. Not by the Mexicans. But by his legend.
April 15, 2013
All over America there are old white guys like me who can still sing the theme song from the Davy Crockett TV shows. Yes, I had a coonskin cap and defended the Alamo in my front yard a thousand times – always dying a heroic death, but only after dispatching hundreds of Mexicans. Bob Thompson’s “Born on a Mountain Top: On the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier” was written for and about us. Thompson embarked on a year-long historical road trip to detach history from mythology as represented by the life of David Crockett. He does a pretty good job. He never takes himself too seriously and looks at both historians and Crockettologists with a sympathetic, yet discerning eye. He tells the real story of Crockett and details the role of TV in shaping the 20th century version of the myth. He left me with a reluctant admiration for Walt Disney as a showman, entrepreneur and cultural arbiter. I recommend the book with a solid three stars. I finished it yesterday and still keep hearing in my head: “Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier!”
December 15, 2017
I won't blame Thompson for making an overt reference to Confederates in the Attic for his book, since it probably helped sell copies. However, there is a two way street and this book from the cover says it is in the tradition of Tony Horwitz and Sarah Vowell. Horwitz's modern classic looms large on this one.
A travelogue is probably not a bad idea. As you may know, most of my reading in the past few years fall in that category. For me, Horwitz, Vowell, Bryson and Algeo to name a few. Thompson's travelogue doesn't quite work as he likely saw it out. Those aforementioned all excellent writers found key hooks to hang their story on.
There is plenty of angles you can go with the Civil War, but you don't need to describe the Civil War to anyone. Where Thompson gets bogged down is that not everyone knows the timeline of Crockett and so he loses something in trying to attempt a travelogue and a biography. Most travelogues are around 200 pages because you don't want to overstay your welcome. This book at 300+ page travels into tedium.
Now, Horwitz (and Ken Burns) got a lot of mileage out of Shelby Foote, and Foote indeed is on the short list of great Civil War historians, but the thing is that there isn't just four or five Civil War historians. I suspect Thompson thought he would find a bunch of whacky zany Davy Crockett obsessed local historians. It just turns out that they are normal people who like Davy Crockett and dedicated themselves to his work.
Most of the book is a slog following Crockett's trail. Staring off with Daniel Boone, who ostensibly did more adventuring but was eclipsed time and time again by Crockett's legend. There of course is not a lot of facts that can be put together to definitively pin Crockett down.
Crockett was arguably America's first pop star. Part was legend and biography written by Crockett, part was facts and folklore written by biographers often with an agenda to sell books, and part was from caricature that eventually blended into the legend (think Tina Fey's Palin).
One of Crockett's most famous moment was stepping up against Andrew Jackson and arguing against Indian removal. Crockett was a rogue politician. Still, like even today's rogues (Palin, Trump, Paul), it's hard to figure out motivations. Crockett's stand made him a favorite of Jackson's opponents and he toured the East with the support of JQ Adams supporters.
It is a weird move. Was Crockett easily duped? Was he exploited? Was Crockett smart and realized his friend was his enemy's enemy? And about Indian removal- hadn't Crockett fought Indians? Was Crockett that unicorn- a politician with real integrity? Maybe all of these?
The records are incomplete and contradictory. Well, even in the age of the 24/7 newscycle, our findings are often incomplete.
Crockett did become a legend though. The country was hungry for a hero and Crockett was provided for them. Crockett's biography was a best seller and is still in print and considered a classic. He became as much of a part of American folklore as Johnny Appleseed and Paul Bunyan.
The book explains how the legend grew, The book never shakes the shadow of Confederates in the Attic though, as Thompson moves from location to location.
As the book nears an end, it hits its more interesting parts. We get the serendipitous intervention of Walt Disney who picked Crockett, and not Daniel Boone or any other more obscure frontiersman to help promote his Theme Park, specifically the area he called Adventureland.
The Davy Crockett series of three episodes (later put together as one movie) causes a mass sensation. Although I am a generation removed, I know that there was a coonskin cap craze for my parents, and the character of Davy Crockett was no distant memory.
Fess Parker was a national hero and went on a nationwide tour, where he was feted by everyone wherever he went. The Ballad of Davy Crockett was the most popular song in the nation, and everyone rushed to cash in.
It is weird to imagine that Davy Crockett was a cultural icon on par with Elvis Presley. Thompson shares the recent cultural history. The myth has endured. Crockett's tragic end making him more of a legend to tell than Boone who made the poor career decision of living to the old age of 85 instead of martyrdom.
The chapter on the 20th Century cultural portrayals puts the book back in line with the fun read the cover promised. They covered Parker in detail, John Wayne, Billy Bob Thornton, and the audiobook character portrayed by Nicholas Cage. Are any of them close to the real thing?
The final chapter which deals with the most compelling mystery- Crockett at the Alamo- also was interesting. We have journals, but they have been found only recently and have been revised through the years. What is the truth? Can we count on "found" journals that are really someone's recollections where they may not have even been there in the first place.
Cultural references put Crockett as the last of a few fighting to the bitter end- rifle raised to strike in hand to hand combat. Not only reference in the most famous Alamo painting, but in many Alamo paintings.
A local legend talks about a surrender of the last few who are taken to Santa Anna and then are executed by the uncaring Mexican leader. From here, there are conflicting reports of Crockett either dying a defiant hero or begging for his life like a coward.
Where Crockett is buried is a mystery, as several places seem to take credit for it. Thompson goes into the history of the various journals and stories of Crockett's death, and presents sides from various Crockettologists who argue violently amongst each other. He also gets a bit into the history of the Mexican War to give it a modern context.
Only in these final pages does the book deliver a light reading of history reminiscent of the work of Sarah Vowell or Tony Horwitz.
A travelogue is probably not a bad idea. As you may know, most of my reading in the past few years fall in that category. For me, Horwitz, Vowell, Bryson and Algeo to name a few. Thompson's travelogue doesn't quite work as he likely saw it out. Those aforementioned all excellent writers found key hooks to hang their story on.
There is plenty of angles you can go with the Civil War, but you don't need to describe the Civil War to anyone. Where Thompson gets bogged down is that not everyone knows the timeline of Crockett and so he loses something in trying to attempt a travelogue and a biography. Most travelogues are around 200 pages because you don't want to overstay your welcome. This book at 300+ page travels into tedium.
Now, Horwitz (and Ken Burns) got a lot of mileage out of Shelby Foote, and Foote indeed is on the short list of great Civil War historians, but the thing is that there isn't just four or five Civil War historians. I suspect Thompson thought he would find a bunch of whacky zany Davy Crockett obsessed local historians. It just turns out that they are normal people who like Davy Crockett and dedicated themselves to his work.
Most of the book is a slog following Crockett's trail. Staring off with Daniel Boone, who ostensibly did more adventuring but was eclipsed time and time again by Crockett's legend. There of course is not a lot of facts that can be put together to definitively pin Crockett down.
Crockett was arguably America's first pop star. Part was legend and biography written by Crockett, part was facts and folklore written by biographers often with an agenda to sell books, and part was from caricature that eventually blended into the legend (think Tina Fey's Palin).
One of Crockett's most famous moment was stepping up against Andrew Jackson and arguing against Indian removal. Crockett was a rogue politician. Still, like even today's rogues (Palin, Trump, Paul), it's hard to figure out motivations. Crockett's stand made him a favorite of Jackson's opponents and he toured the East with the support of JQ Adams supporters.
It is a weird move. Was Crockett easily duped? Was he exploited? Was Crockett smart and realized his friend was his enemy's enemy? And about Indian removal- hadn't Crockett fought Indians? Was Crockett that unicorn- a politician with real integrity? Maybe all of these?
The records are incomplete and contradictory. Well, even in the age of the 24/7 newscycle, our findings are often incomplete.
Crockett did become a legend though. The country was hungry for a hero and Crockett was provided for them. Crockett's biography was a best seller and is still in print and considered a classic. He became as much of a part of American folklore as Johnny Appleseed and Paul Bunyan.
The book explains how the legend grew, The book never shakes the shadow of Confederates in the Attic though, as Thompson moves from location to location.
As the book nears an end, it hits its more interesting parts. We get the serendipitous intervention of Walt Disney who picked Crockett, and not Daniel Boone or any other more obscure frontiersman to help promote his Theme Park, specifically the area he called Adventureland.
The Davy Crockett series of three episodes (later put together as one movie) causes a mass sensation. Although I am a generation removed, I know that there was a coonskin cap craze for my parents, and the character of Davy Crockett was no distant memory.
Fess Parker was a national hero and went on a nationwide tour, where he was feted by everyone wherever he went. The Ballad of Davy Crockett was the most popular song in the nation, and everyone rushed to cash in.
It is weird to imagine that Davy Crockett was a cultural icon on par with Elvis Presley. Thompson shares the recent cultural history. The myth has endured. Crockett's tragic end making him more of a legend to tell than Boone who made the poor career decision of living to the old age of 85 instead of martyrdom.
The chapter on the 20th Century cultural portrayals puts the book back in line with the fun read the cover promised. They covered Parker in detail, John Wayne, Billy Bob Thornton, and the audiobook character portrayed by Nicholas Cage. Are any of them close to the real thing?
The final chapter which deals with the most compelling mystery- Crockett at the Alamo- also was interesting. We have journals, but they have been found only recently and have been revised through the years. What is the truth? Can we count on "found" journals that are really someone's recollections where they may not have even been there in the first place.
Cultural references put Crockett as the last of a few fighting to the bitter end- rifle raised to strike in hand to hand combat. Not only reference in the most famous Alamo painting, but in many Alamo paintings.
A local legend talks about a surrender of the last few who are taken to Santa Anna and then are executed by the uncaring Mexican leader. From here, there are conflicting reports of Crockett either dying a defiant hero or begging for his life like a coward.
Where Crockett is buried is a mystery, as several places seem to take credit for it. Thompson goes into the history of the various journals and stories of Crockett's death, and presents sides from various Crockettologists who argue violently amongst each other. He also gets a bit into the history of the Mexican War to give it a modern context.
Only in these final pages does the book deliver a light reading of history reminiscent of the work of Sarah Vowell or Tony Horwitz.
July 29, 2021
I was a little disappointed in this. It's not bad or anything, just not as much fun as I hoped it would be. Many reviews reference Confederates in the Attic and Assassination Vacation-- both of which I've read and found hilarious-- but this missed somehow. And I may have overestimated my interest level in Davy Crockett but I found this really draggy in spots. (and although I'm too young for the Crockett fad, I did indeed grow up with the theme song...rumor has it that Tom Blackburn, who wrote it, was a friend of my grandparents, and my grandfather never failed to sing it to my cousin David at family gatherings. It will now go through my head for the rest of the day.)
February 24, 2019
I'm afraid this one just didn't connect with me. I was hoping for something educational and charming but not here. Just too little known about Davy after his term in Congress and all the conjecture just wasn't interesting. 2 Stars
June 16, 2013
I came to know and love Davy Crockett in about the same manner as everyone else my age, or even thirty years older than me. It was watching Fess Parker play Davy Crockett for Disney, that made me fall in love with the adventures he had, and the kind of man he was. Parker's Davy was daring, generous, fearless, and about every other positive adjective I can think of. I wanted to go on his adventures and grow into the man he was. He was almost godlike to me as a kid, and all I wanted was that damn coonskin cap. I don't think I ever got that hat, but I never lost that feeling of adventure and awe that Davy, through Parker, instilled in me.
I was such a huge fan that when I finally had enough points with the Disney Movie Rewards program, the very first thing I ordered was the Davy Crockett Two Movie Set on DVD. At that point in time, my son had never seen anything about or knew who Davy Crockett was. When we got it in the mail, we fired it up, and I introduced my son to one of my childhood heroes. There is just something so magical about the way Fess Parker played him, because it got my son hooked on him and he wanted to know all about Davy, Colonel Travis, Jim Bowie, and all the rest of the heroes who died in the Alamo. I actually had to explain to him that Davy, though he is single handily fighting off the Mexican soldiers at the end of the movie, died. My son though he lived and prevailed since the image faded to black. He couldn't believe that this man, who he had just met, could die. This was a few years ago, and while my son isn't as fascinated by him as he was then, he will occasionally put the movie in, and relive the adventures all over again.
For me, watching them with my son, it brought back all the magic. I fell in love all over again. Now my love for Davy has never made me go out and do my own research into his life. I did buy a few children's books for my son after we had watched the movies for the first time, but I was never compelled to go out and read about the man himself. I think part of me was scared that if I got to know the real Davy Crockett, that some of the magic would go away. Even as a kid, I understood that the Davy I knew, was more myth like than real. That he had been built up into some sort of a demigod; much like Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Johnny Appleseed, or John Henry. He was a creation of fact and fiction, and I was worried that some of the fact would overshadow that myth.
It's that separation that Bob Thompson was trying to do in his book, Born on a Mountaintop: One the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier. Much like myself, he first discovered Davy through Fess Parker and Disney and rediscovered him through his kids. Unlike myself, he was curious enough to set out on a journey to try and discover the real Davy Crockett, who the man was behind the myth. What he found out is that sometimes, it's very hard to figure that out.
Our history books are not only full of facts and dates, but they include a fair amount of guesswork, myth building, and a even a tiny bit of fiction. Those boundaries seem to be even further blurred when is comes to Davy Crockett. So much of what we know, or think we know, is myth and reality combined into a rather tangled skein, difficult to comb out. Thompson, through interviews, talking with Davy addicted historians, visiting site and landmarks important to the life of Davy Crockett, and investigation some of the source material himself, tries to do some combing on his own. Oftentimes he discovers enough to make a solid decision on whether something is fact, fiction, or a blending of the two. Other times, he is left with having to make an educated assumption, understanding he may have it wrong.
I'm not sure we will ever know the complete factual details of Davy Crockett's life, nor do I think we need to. We need our heroes, our demigods, almost as much as the Greeks and Romans did. We need men and women to elevate to a higher plane, people we can look up to and celebrate. I'm not sure how much can actually be accomplished if we were able to bring them back down to Earth. I think it's best they are left up in the stratosphere, it gives us, and future generations an example of how to live our lives.
Born on a Mountaintop: On the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier gives us some of those missing facts, dispels some of the myths, but keeps the magic intact. Bob Thompson was able to create this wonderful balancing act of finding out the truth, what he could anyway, and keeping the myth whole. He didn't hurt the legend of Davy Crockett through this book, he made it stronger and brought more color to it. He kept Davy Crockett magical for me, but gave me more information about who the man actually was.
I was such a huge fan that when I finally had enough points with the Disney Movie Rewards program, the very first thing I ordered was the Davy Crockett Two Movie Set on DVD. At that point in time, my son had never seen anything about or knew who Davy Crockett was. When we got it in the mail, we fired it up, and I introduced my son to one of my childhood heroes. There is just something so magical about the way Fess Parker played him, because it got my son hooked on him and he wanted to know all about Davy, Colonel Travis, Jim Bowie, and all the rest of the heroes who died in the Alamo. I actually had to explain to him that Davy, though he is single handily fighting off the Mexican soldiers at the end of the movie, died. My son though he lived and prevailed since the image faded to black. He couldn't believe that this man, who he had just met, could die. This was a few years ago, and while my son isn't as fascinated by him as he was then, he will occasionally put the movie in, and relive the adventures all over again.
For me, watching them with my son, it brought back all the magic. I fell in love all over again. Now my love for Davy has never made me go out and do my own research into his life. I did buy a few children's books for my son after we had watched the movies for the first time, but I was never compelled to go out and read about the man himself. I think part of me was scared that if I got to know the real Davy Crockett, that some of the magic would go away. Even as a kid, I understood that the Davy I knew, was more myth like than real. That he had been built up into some sort of a demigod; much like Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Johnny Appleseed, or John Henry. He was a creation of fact and fiction, and I was worried that some of the fact would overshadow that myth.
It's that separation that Bob Thompson was trying to do in his book, Born on a Mountaintop: One the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier. Much like myself, he first discovered Davy through Fess Parker and Disney and rediscovered him through his kids. Unlike myself, he was curious enough to set out on a journey to try and discover the real Davy Crockett, who the man was behind the myth. What he found out is that sometimes, it's very hard to figure that out.
Our history books are not only full of facts and dates, but they include a fair amount of guesswork, myth building, and a even a tiny bit of fiction. Those boundaries seem to be even further blurred when is comes to Davy Crockett. So much of what we know, or think we know, is myth and reality combined into a rather tangled skein, difficult to comb out. Thompson, through interviews, talking with Davy addicted historians, visiting site and landmarks important to the life of Davy Crockett, and investigation some of the source material himself, tries to do some combing on his own. Oftentimes he discovers enough to make a solid decision on whether something is fact, fiction, or a blending of the two. Other times, he is left with having to make an educated assumption, understanding he may have it wrong.
I'm not sure we will ever know the complete factual details of Davy Crockett's life, nor do I think we need to. We need our heroes, our demigods, almost as much as the Greeks and Romans did. We need men and women to elevate to a higher plane, people we can look up to and celebrate. I'm not sure how much can actually be accomplished if we were able to bring them back down to Earth. I think it's best they are left up in the stratosphere, it gives us, and future generations an example of how to live our lives.
Born on a Mountaintop: On the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier gives us some of those missing facts, dispels some of the myths, but keeps the magic intact. Bob Thompson was able to create this wonderful balancing act of finding out the truth, what he could anyway, and keeping the myth whole. He didn't hurt the legend of Davy Crockett through this book, he made it stronger and brought more color to it. He kept Davy Crockett magical for me, but gave me more information about who the man actually was.
September 21, 2012
"Davy, Davy Crockett, Kind of the Wild Frontier!" Do the words to this song ring through your head with any mention of legendary woodsman? Did you see the 1950s Disney series or movies with Fess Parker and become enchanted with this frontier hero? Bob Thompson takes readers on a journey in "Born on a Mountaintop: On the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier" to discover the real David Crockett,historical figure, and compare him with the pop culture icon that's been hanging around since before his last stand at the Alamo.
Starting out at home base in Tennessee, Thompson travels most of the trails that David (his moniker for the real Crockett vs. Davy for the legend) walked, gathering stories - some half truths, some tall tales and trying to document what happened to the mountain man. What part was real and what part is fabricated? Everywhere the author goes, we see there are no easy answers to these questions. From the pages of his own autobiography to letters and correspondence - and "eye witness" accounts we get to see how murky historical information can really be, especially in situations where written evidence and documents just don't exist. Can third person accounts passed down through generations be trusted?
Because of the multifaceted characters of David and Davy, this story has many interesting twists and turns. Thompson meets a variety of Crockettologists, all with a unique love and perspective of our coon-capped hero (did he even wear a coon cap?) He discovers that every place that has a "story" (verified or not) seems to have some tribute to Crockett - monuments, museums, portrait, hotels, roads, parks. All over Tennessee and Texas, travelers will find the larger than life legend, with sometimes bits of the "man" also apparent. The Crockett story is a complex one. Every piece of his life has three different versions (at least) with no clear trace of the truth.
I really didn't know what to expect when I picked up this book. As a homeschooling mom, a few weeks away from embarking on the era of Crockett, I always like to read additional material on our studies. There is a wealth of Crockett material out there, and it was happenstance that I ran across an ARC of this book. I thoroughly enjoyed Thompson's travels and was amazed at the amount of Crockett lore out there - and how emotionally attached folks are to "their" Davy. Even Thompson acknowledges his own bias, his desire to believe the best about David.
Every part of Crockett's life is meticulously researched. Legends are documented as well. Thompson hunted down site after site in place after place, talked to numerous Crockettologists (I just love that word) from every walk of life, poured over existing documentation and sifted through the various accounts of events along the trail. No stone was left unturned. Thompson mentions a spectrum of resources throughout the book, and then not only provides notes, but explanations of the resources in the notes, perhaps setting his book up to be the ultimate Crockett resource.
One thing I missed in this ARC copy were pictures. Notes in the beginning of the book mention an 8 page B/W photo section, but I didn't find one in my ebook copy. I can only imagine what might be in it - maybe a picture of Fess Parker playing Davy in the 1950s Disney series? Visuals will definitely enhance the reader experience.
This book is more than historical research. It is a study in our culture. How could this one simple man, with a simple life become an icon of his era - the indomitable frontier man - a representative of the American Spirit, so intertwined into the lore of a nation that each generation reinvents him for a new round of idol worship? From the months following his death, right up to today, we find Davy Crockett fueling the passions and imaginations of our country.
Recommend for: Lovers of history and students of pop culture, and anyone who has loved the story of Davy Crockett enough to own their own coon skin cap.
Note: I received a complementary copy of this book in exchange for my review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Starting out at home base in Tennessee, Thompson travels most of the trails that David (his moniker for the real Crockett vs. Davy for the legend) walked, gathering stories - some half truths, some tall tales and trying to document what happened to the mountain man. What part was real and what part is fabricated? Everywhere the author goes, we see there are no easy answers to these questions. From the pages of his own autobiography to letters and correspondence - and "eye witness" accounts we get to see how murky historical information can really be, especially in situations where written evidence and documents just don't exist. Can third person accounts passed down through generations be trusted?
Because of the multifaceted characters of David and Davy, this story has many interesting twists and turns. Thompson meets a variety of Crockettologists, all with a unique love and perspective of our coon-capped hero (did he even wear a coon cap?) He discovers that every place that has a "story" (verified or not) seems to have some tribute to Crockett - monuments, museums, portrait, hotels, roads, parks. All over Tennessee and Texas, travelers will find the larger than life legend, with sometimes bits of the "man" also apparent. The Crockett story is a complex one. Every piece of his life has three different versions (at least) with no clear trace of the truth.
I really didn't know what to expect when I picked up this book. As a homeschooling mom, a few weeks away from embarking on the era of Crockett, I always like to read additional material on our studies. There is a wealth of Crockett material out there, and it was happenstance that I ran across an ARC of this book. I thoroughly enjoyed Thompson's travels and was amazed at the amount of Crockett lore out there - and how emotionally attached folks are to "their" Davy. Even Thompson acknowledges his own bias, his desire to believe the best about David.
Every part of Crockett's life is meticulously researched. Legends are documented as well. Thompson hunted down site after site in place after place, talked to numerous Crockettologists (I just love that word) from every walk of life, poured over existing documentation and sifted through the various accounts of events along the trail. No stone was left unturned. Thompson mentions a spectrum of resources throughout the book, and then not only provides notes, but explanations of the resources in the notes, perhaps setting his book up to be the ultimate Crockett resource.
One thing I missed in this ARC copy were pictures. Notes in the beginning of the book mention an 8 page B/W photo section, but I didn't find one in my ebook copy. I can only imagine what might be in it - maybe a picture of Fess Parker playing Davy in the 1950s Disney series? Visuals will definitely enhance the reader experience.
This book is more than historical research. It is a study in our culture. How could this one simple man, with a simple life become an icon of his era - the indomitable frontier man - a representative of the American Spirit, so intertwined into the lore of a nation that each generation reinvents him for a new round of idol worship? From the months following his death, right up to today, we find Davy Crockett fueling the passions and imaginations of our country.
Recommend for: Lovers of history and students of pop culture, and anyone who has loved the story of Davy Crockett enough to own their own coon skin cap.
Note: I received a complementary copy of this book in exchange for my review. All opinions expressed are my own.
July 4, 2019
Frontiersman, politician, and genuine American Icon, Davy Crockett was a legend in his own time. Although his time on Earth was relatively short, just forty-nine years, he achieved much before that fateful battle at the Alamo ended his celebrated life. His legendary status will live on forever, and it will never be equaled in its uniqueness. Author Bob Thompson offers a fascinating look into the blended facts and fallacies of Crockett's life in: "Born on a Mountaintop--On the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier". The author's journey following the course of Crockett's life is intriguing, often surprising, and once again affirms why our true-life heroes deserve a place of honor in our hearts and minds. This is a wonderfully entertaining book for people like me who love American History. Just a shade less enjoyable than the book itself are the "Notes on Sources", which are a mini-book in themselves. My favorite "note" is the one in which the author extols the excellence of a children's CD in which actor Nicolas Cage portrays Davy Crockett. Cage's performance is described as "seamless" (Go Nic!), and hearing the author's description of the CD makes it more than okay to be a kid at heart, wanting to walk in Davy Crockett's footsteps as he made his history-making way across America. Dust off your coonskin cap--fake it if you don't have one--and settle in to get to know the King of the Wild Frontier. You'll be glad you did. Recommended.
Book Copy Gratis Amazon Vine
Book Copy Gratis Amazon Vine
December 16, 2012
I had the privilege to see an advanced copy of Bob Thompson's forthcoming book and can report that it's a lively and entertaining journey through the Southeast and Texas in search of Davy Crockett's life and legend. I worked with Bob at the Washington Post for many years and watched his skills as a researcher and myth-buster evolve over time. He was born to write this book and he's done a wonderful job.Born on a Mountaintop: On the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier
February 13, 2014
I was definitely too young for Disney's Davy Crockett-Mania of the mid-1950s, however I do know the song through osmosis. For me, this was an informative read since I never really identified with Western or Frontier hero types. However, as of late I find the real stories to be compelling (not that anyone really knows anything but the bare bones of the real Crockett stories).
The evolution of the mythical Davy Crockett is almost as interesting as the truth. It is clear that Crockett was already a celebrity by the time of his death at the Alamo. However, many facts were embellished over time by third hand "eyewitness" accounts and others who simply made things up for profit. There are numerous theories about how Crockett died at the Alamo. Did he go down fighting to the end, or was he executed after the battle and forced to grovel for his life? As the author demonstrates, attempts to prove the latter will likely end with "a coonskin cap burning on your lawn."
The formula here is reminiscent of other history/travel books like "Infinite West" (South Dakota) and "Back to the Front" (the Western Front of WWI). In it, the author follows as closely as possible in the footsteps of the subject enlisting local history experts and descendants to tell their stories. It also allows one to see that events of 200 years ago are really not as remote as they seem.
The evolution of the mythical Davy Crockett is almost as interesting as the truth. It is clear that Crockett was already a celebrity by the time of his death at the Alamo. However, many facts were embellished over time by third hand "eyewitness" accounts and others who simply made things up for profit. There are numerous theories about how Crockett died at the Alamo. Did he go down fighting to the end, or was he executed after the battle and forced to grovel for his life? As the author demonstrates, attempts to prove the latter will likely end with "a coonskin cap burning on your lawn."
The formula here is reminiscent of other history/travel books like "Infinite West" (South Dakota) and "Back to the Front" (the Western Front of WWI). In it, the author follows as closely as possible in the footsteps of the subject enlisting local history experts and descendants to tell their stories. It also allows one to see that events of 200 years ago are really not as remote as they seem.
February 10, 2013
Hit the trail with Davy Crockett one more time. Don't try to tell me you didn't grow up wearing the coonskin cap while watching Davy's adventures on television. If you even read the first line of this review, I know you had to grow up around the legend of Davy Crockett. This book goes well beyond the legends, while still pausing to acknowledge them and appreciate their place in our lives. The author, Bob Thompson imparts to us both the facts and the fiction as he travels the country in pursuit of everything Davy. It is surprising how many Davy Crockett historical sites are to be found throughout this nation. The author does a good job of leading us through the tall tales to the truth about Crockett. At least as close as we can expect to come to the truth about a man who has become a legend. Frontiersman, Indian fighter, homesteader, congressman, heroic legend, Davy Crockett was all of these to one degree or another. Well documented, this would be a good source book if you are interested in delving further into the life of this fascinating man. Book provided for review by Amazon Vine.
April 15, 2013
Thompson roams around the country on the trail of Davy (who preferred to be called David) Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. It's fascinating because we know so little about Crockett except what Walt Disney taught us. The reality is both more interesting and less interesting. Thompson always manages to find THE person in each location who can tell him the history of Crockett in each place he goes.
Crockett became famous just at the time America was moving to the "celebrity" culture we know so well (and many of us hate so much)so that fact and fiction are almost impossible to separate. Did Crockett write the autobiography he is said to have? Why did he go to Congress? Did he really give an impassioned speech against Andrew Jackson's Indian Relocaton Act? Why did he go to Texas? How did he die?
These are just some of the questions Thompson tries to answer. There are rarely any definitive answers.
He ends his journey, of course, at the Alamo. (I have my own VERY strong opinions about the Alamo, but I agree that Crockett died there.)
And the story has to end on the note, How did Davy die?
The answer is - there is no answer.
Crockett became famous just at the time America was moving to the "celebrity" culture we know so well (and many of us hate so much)so that fact and fiction are almost impossible to separate. Did Crockett write the autobiography he is said to have? Why did he go to Congress? Did he really give an impassioned speech against Andrew Jackson's Indian Relocaton Act? Why did he go to Texas? How did he die?
These are just some of the questions Thompson tries to answer. There are rarely any definitive answers.
He ends his journey, of course, at the Alamo. (I have my own VERY strong opinions about the Alamo, but I agree that Crockett died there.)
And the story has to end on the note, How did Davy die?
The answer is - there is no answer.
August 21, 2013
I gave it up after 100 pages. I expected it to be a straightforward biography of Davey Crockett, but it was more of a "follow along with the author as he drives all over the South investigating and sifting the Crockett legends from the real truth, talking to local historians, and musing about Crockett's life." It was an obnoxious format--continually switching from biography in the 1800s to contemporary memoir.
February 21, 2023
What an interesting read! I was just going to read the first chapter to decide if I would want to read it later.....but I couldn't stop. I learned a lot about Texas history, as well as seeing the difference between the myth of how Crockett was perceived, and the facts that we know about him. The author makes the book very readable and I learned a lot of history while being entertained.
March 13, 2013
Very good cultural biography of David Crockett/Davy Crockett. Bob Thompson really does go the extra mile in finding the real David and the myth Davy.
Highly recommend this Book.
Highly recommend this Book.
September 27, 2020
Loved this book. Melding of all the tall tales into one book and helps to try to sort the man from the myth without tarnishing the legend.
April 29, 2025
Bob Thompson spent many years working for the Washington Post before setting out on a daunting task: traveling across the sites of Davy Crockett's life and trying to understand both the real man and the legends that emerged around him. Thompson makes clear that Crockett's real life offers intrigue for students of American history. He grew up poor in Tennessee, had precious little education, and spent years on a long trek away from home as a teenager. Yet none of this stopped him from serving in the Creek War, representing Tennessee in Congress where he fought for the rights of poor landholders in his native state, and then giving his life for the cause of Texas independence at the Alamo. This is the real story, yet Thompson spends much of his book showing how various myths embellished the story that Americans know today. For instance, Americans have many preconceptions of him that his real life that does not bear out: that he walked around wearing coonskin caps, was "born on a mountaintop," or that he "killed a bear when he was only three," to quote the song from Walt Disney's television series. Other people are more deserving from their real-life accomplishments of the title "king of the wild frontier," another line from this song. There is no evidence that Crockett flung a powder keg into a building as the last act of his life at the Alamo, as depicted by John Wayne in his 1960 movie. Why do Americans have these myths in their mind when thinking of Crockett? From Thompson's book, there appear to be two factors at play here. First, Crockett had a talent for promoting himself, as seen in the autobiography that he wrote. Second, Americans have a need to cast people from their nation's past in a heroic light, even if their actual lives were more complicated and less heroic than this image suggests. In other words, Crockett's image says more about us than about what really happened in Crockett's life. This is a good lesson to keep in mind for those of us who study history in general.
June 20, 2018
I love historical road trip books. The combination of history and and a cross-country journey is irresistible to me, especially if the author makes sure to mix legitimate history with road side kitsch. Since Bob Thompson ends up visiting a Davy Crockett themed mini-golf course, remarking on Made in China coonskin caps, and eating Texas shaped pancakes, "Born on a Mountaintop" fits the bill.
Though Thompson does his due diligence, visiting all of the important sights as he traces Davy Crockett's life and legend from Tennessee to Texas, this book does, at times, show the limits of the genre. While Thompson sets out to find some kind of meaning in the Davy Crockett legend, he never quite gets there. He flirts with America's frontier spirit, he brings up the specter of colonialism, he speculates the Crockett may have, in a way, been the absent father figure baby boomers longed for, but firm conclusions never quite present themselves.
You can't guarantee conclusions at the start of a journey, and you can't fault Thompson, who ended up writing a entertaining, thoughtful, and compelling book. But, next to classics of the genre like "Confederates in the Attic" and "Travels With Charley," "Born on a Mountaintop" just isn't in the same class. This is because though Davy Crockett is still captivating for many people, Thompson, and often the Crockett-ophiles themselves, don't exactly know why.
Perhaps Thompson would have done well to take the approach Carll Tucker does in "The Bear Went Over the Mountain," in which he goes to the graves of every president and vice president, and in the middle, breaks down wondering why the Hell he is doing it. But, Thompson loves Crockett and the Crockett legend too much for that.
Besides, just because a journey isn't perfectly fulfilling doesn't mean it isn't worth taking, and Thompson's talents as a writer and his historical rigor make "Born on a Mountaintop," a journey worth taking.
Though Thompson does his due diligence, visiting all of the important sights as he traces Davy Crockett's life and legend from Tennessee to Texas, this book does, at times, show the limits of the genre. While Thompson sets out to find some kind of meaning in the Davy Crockett legend, he never quite gets there. He flirts with America's frontier spirit, he brings up the specter of colonialism, he speculates the Crockett may have, in a way, been the absent father figure baby boomers longed for, but firm conclusions never quite present themselves.
You can't guarantee conclusions at the start of a journey, and you can't fault Thompson, who ended up writing a entertaining, thoughtful, and compelling book. But, next to classics of the genre like "Confederates in the Attic" and "Travels With Charley," "Born on a Mountaintop" just isn't in the same class. This is because though Davy Crockett is still captivating for many people, Thompson, and often the Crockett-ophiles themselves, don't exactly know why.
Perhaps Thompson would have done well to take the approach Carll Tucker does in "The Bear Went Over the Mountain," in which he goes to the graves of every president and vice president, and in the middle, breaks down wondering why the Hell he is doing it. But, Thompson loves Crockett and the Crockett legend too much for that.
Besides, just because a journey isn't perfectly fulfilling doesn't mean it isn't worth taking, and Thompson's talents as a writer and his historical rigor make "Born on a Mountaintop," a journey worth taking.
May 7, 2025
When Davy Crockett made both the Big Screen and the Little Screen in the early 1950's, courtesy of Walt Disney, I was among the millions of kids who was entranced. I sang the song. I had a Davy Crockett wallet. [That Halloween I had a beautiful visiting nurse's costume (white dress, red-lined blue cape). "Oh, you're a nurse!" admired a neighbor. "No, I'm Davy Crockett," I replied.]
Journalist Bob Thompson is from my era, but his investigation into the real David Crockett began with a Disney Davy revival. His then young daughters were caught up in the catchy song: "DavEE, DAvee Crockett, king of the wild FRONteeer." Thompson began with "born on a mountaintop" and visited Crockett's actual birthplace (along a river, not on a mountain). Many people, both amateurs and scholars, have studied Crockett for decades. Thompson sifts through the information, disinformation, and myth with great good humor.
Crockett was a legend in his own time. "If David Crockett had [survived the Alamo] we almost certainly wouldn't be telling his story today." (p. 336)
"We have trouble preventing myths from hijacking the past," Thompson writes. "WE *need* stories that give us home, stories that give us courage in the face of death, stories that tell us who we are.....We long for Mythic Davys in our lives, and historians' efforts to teach us the difference between truth and myth will always be an uphill fight." (p. 332)
Journalist Bob Thompson is from my era, but his investigation into the real David Crockett began with a Disney Davy revival. His then young daughters were caught up in the catchy song: "DavEE, DAvee Crockett, king of the wild FRONteeer." Thompson began with "born on a mountaintop" and visited Crockett's actual birthplace (along a river, not on a mountain). Many people, both amateurs and scholars, have studied Crockett for decades. Thompson sifts through the information, disinformation, and myth with great good humor.
Crockett was a legend in his own time. "If David Crockett had [survived the Alamo] we almost certainly wouldn't be telling his story today." (p. 336)
"We have trouble preventing myths from hijacking the past," Thompson writes. "WE *need* stories that give us home, stories that give us courage in the face of death, stories that tell us who we are.....We long for Mythic Davys in our lives, and historians' efforts to teach us the difference between truth and myth will always be an uphill fight." (p. 332)
August 11, 2023
Not easy to take an historical icon (or at least he was) and both explain and humanize him but Bob Thompson does a very effective job. Not a standard biography but an entertaining format where he follows the trail and life of David Crockett around in the present day trying to make sense of it all. And there is a lot to unravel--the actual man, the reality of his life as best we can ascertain and the legends that at times obscured the real person almost completely. If nothing else it serves to emphasize how difficult it is to get at something called 'truth'. There are a lot of good reviews with more info but overall this was a fun and worthwhile read--3.5 stars rounded up.
August 5, 2017
3.5 Stars
While I'm much too young to have been alive during the Davy Crockett craze of the 50's, a lot of my knowledge of him is from Fess Parker and the movies. Reading this book made me realize that the man and the myth are two separate entities. It was really interesting to read about the author's trips around the country to learn more about him. In real life we actually don't have a lot of facts. I might have given more stars but there are so many people that sometimes I didn't know if I was supposed to remember the person or not!
While I'm much too young to have been alive during the Davy Crockett craze of the 50's, a lot of my knowledge of him is from Fess Parker and the movies. Reading this book made me realize that the man and the myth are two separate entities. It was really interesting to read about the author's trips around the country to learn more about him. In real life we actually don't have a lot of facts. I might have given more stars but there are so many people that sometimes I didn't know if I was supposed to remember the person or not!
September 1, 2020
I love non-fiction written like this....instead of a cut-and-dry biography, the author takes us on a road trip as he attempts to uncover the truth about Davy Crockett. Who was the real David, and what was only legend? What parts were created by the man himself? I had so much fun on this journey about the life of an American legend, and enjoyed all the characters and Crockett enthusiasts we met along the way.
January 2, 2025
While very informative, I can only give this three out of five stars because, at times, I just felt this book to be exhaustive, with what seems to be every single detail about every single fact, myth and legend about Davy Crockett. Some chapters were a slog to get through, and others I really enjoyed. I felt like if the author tightened things up, and maybe wrote about 30 less pages, it might have been a better book.
February 3, 2022
“History drives a hard and devious bargain. If you aren’t the famous one in the center of the picture, your life will likely be forgotten, no matter how interesting it is. And if you are the famous one, as Crockett was in just about everybody’s picture of the Alamo, you will never be seen clearly again.”Pg 336
May 11, 2023
I had hoped for more from this book. Unfortunately, I found it to be in disarray. For me, it felt like the author jumped around from topic and time. The debate between the folklore of David Crockett and the truth about him seemed to overshadow both. It left me still not knowing much of anything more than what I already did.
July 13, 2018
Interesting take on the Crockett story. Thompson attempts to trace Crockett from Tennessee to Texas and all points in between. What's true and what's made up? What is history and what is legend? When it comes to David Crockett, we'll probably never know.
February 12, 2019
Thompson, in his journey following Crockett from Tennessee to Washington to Texas, brings the man to life in a way that is both touching and enlightening. A great study of myth and fact and the thin line that separates the two.
May 20, 2020
I enjoyed this book. Davey Crocket is from my home town Morristown TN. They lived there in the late 1790's. This book has several people in it I know. They are East Tennessee experts on Davey Crockett.
May 30, 2017
Man I hate travelogues
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 24, 2021
A little disappointing, more about the author, his travel and research than about Davy.
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