An interesting stop in the hill country west of the Appalachian Divide is David Crocket Birthplace State Park in Tennessee. Besides some pleasant weather to relax and de-winterize our RV, the location provided some backwoods trails to explore and a history lesson on frontier life and the career of one of the more colourful characters in US history. Those of us of a certain vintage remember coonskin hats and the Disney series on Davy Crockett, “king of the wild frontier”. Born in a log hovel here, and so poor his parents indentured him to work for others, the almost illiterate Crockett became known for his homespun humour and his skill as a hunter. Elected to Congress, he unsuccessfully fought for the rights of squatters and poor settlers in the western frontier. Most notably, he opposed Andrew Jackson’s heinous Indian Removal Act. Defeated in a re-election bid, he told people to “go to hell”, while he was going to Texas. There, Crockett joined the movement to win Texan independence from Mexico and was killed with all defenders at the Battle of the Alamo. Of course, an alternate narrative would say it was Anglo-Americans attempting to seize Mexican territory.