Not to be confused with David Crockett State Park in Lawrence County, Tennessee

Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park is a state park

State park

State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the federated state level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, or recreational...

 in Greene County, Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

. Situated along the Nolichucky River

Nolichucky River

The Nolichucky River is a major stream draining the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina and east Tennessee. The river is long.-Hydrography:...

, the park consists of 105 acre (0.4249203 km²) centered around the traditional birthplace of legendary Tennessee frontiersman, soldier, and politician Davy Crockett

Davy Crockett

David "Davy" Crockett was a celebrated 19th century American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier and politician. He is commonly referred to in popular culture by the epithet "King of the Wild Frontier". He represented Tennessee in the U.S...

 (1786-1836). The park includes a replica of Crockett's birth cabin, a museum, and a large campground.

Davy Crockett grew up in the hills and river valleys of East Tennessee

East Tennessee

East Tennessee is a name given to approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. East Tennessee consists of 33 counties, 30 located within the Eastern Time Zone and three counties in the Central Time Zone, namely...

, where he gained a reputation for hunting and storytelling. After rising to the rank of colonel in the Lawrence County, Tennessee militia, Crockett was elected to the Tennessee state legislature in 1821. In 1827, Crockett was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time. As a congressman, Crockett vehemently opposed many of the policies of President Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...

, most notably the Indian Removal Act. Crockett's opposition to Jackson's policies led to his defeat in the 1835 elections, prompting his angry departure to Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 shortly thereafter. In early 1836, Crockett joined the Texas Revolution

Texas Revolution

The Texas Revolution or Texas War of Independence was an armed conflict between Mexico and settlers in the Texas portion of the Mexican state Coahuila y Tejas. The war lasted from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836...

 and died at the Battle of the Alamo

Battle of the Alamo

The Battle of the Alamo was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar . All but two of the Texian defenders were killed...

 in March of the same year. Thanks largely to 19th-century playwrights and 20th-century film makers— who often attributed to Crockett brazen acts of mythical proportion— Crockett grew to become one of the most well-known folk heroes in American history.

Geographical setting

The Nolichucky River flows westward from its source in the Unaka Mountains and slices a scenic valley through the low hills of Washington County, Greene County, and Jefferson County

Jefferson County, Tennessee

*...

 before emptying into the Douglas Lake impoundment of the French Broad River

French Broad River

The French Broad River flows from near the village of Rosman in Transylvania County, North Carolina, into the state of Tennessee. Its confluence with the Holston River at Knoxville is the beginning of the Tennessee River....

 near Newport

Newport, Tennessee

Newport is a city in Cocke County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 7,242 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Cocke County.-Geography:...

. Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park is centered around Crockett's traditional birthplace at the junction of the Nolichucky and Big Limestone Creek, which joins the Nolichucky at just over 68 miles (109.4 km) above the river's mouth. Almost immediately downstream from its Big Limestone Creek confluence, the Nolichucky enters a stretch of rocky shoals just as the northwestward flowing river is bent sharply to the southwest by a series of low, steep hills.

Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park is located near the modern community of Limestone

Limestone, Tennessee

Limestone is an unincorporated community on the western border of Washington County and the eastern border of Greene County in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee. Its zip code is 37681...

, approximately 10 miles (16.1 km) east of Greeneville

Greeneville, Tennessee

Greeneville is a town in Greene County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 15,198 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Greene County. The town was named in honor of Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene. It is the only town with this spelling in the United States, although there...

. Andrew Johnson Highway (U.S. Route 11

U.S. Route 11

U.S. Route 11 is a north–south United States highway extending 1,645 miles across the eastern United States. The southern terminus of the route is at U.S. Route 90 in the Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge in eastern New Orleans, Louisiana. The northern terminus is at the United...

/U.S. Route 321

U.S. Route 321

U.S. Route 321 is a spur of U.S. Route 21. It runs for 526 miles from South Carolina to Tennessee. The northern terminus of U.S. 321 is between Lenoir City and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, at Interstate 40 exit 364, which is about 4 miles west of Interstate 40's junction with Interstate 75...

), which is well-marked with directional signs and a Tennessee Historical Commission marker, passes just north of the park. The Earnest Farms Historic District

Earnest Farms Historic District

The Earnest Farms Historic District is a historic district consisting of four historic farms and associated structures near the community of Chuckey in Greene County, Tennessee, USA...

 is located across the Nolichucky River from the park to the west.

History

Substantial Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 settlements existed at the Nolichucky's Big Limestone Creek confluence as early as the Woodland period

Woodland period

The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures was from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in the eastern part of North America. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic header for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the...

 (1000 B.C. - 1000 A.D.) and continued sporadically for several centuries. Heavy cultivation in the 19th and 20th centuries destroyed much of the site's prehistoric value, although excavators unearthed numerous projectile points and other cultural material scattered by prehistoric inhabitants.

Euro-American settlers began arriving in the Nolichucky valley after the French and Indian War

French and Indian War

The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...

. In 1771, a merchant named Jacob Brown established the Nolichucky Settlement, which included much of the current park lands. Brown initially leased the land from the Cherokee

Cherokee

The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...

 and purchased it in 1775. The settlement aligned itself with the nearby Watauga Association

Watauga Association

The Watauga Association was a semi-autonomous government created in 1772 by frontier settlers living along the Watauga River in what is now present day Elizabethton, Tennessee...

 during the American Revolution

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

 and became part of Washington County, North Carolina in 1777. In 1783, the Nolichucky Settlement and several other settlements split off from Washington County to form Greene County. A speculator named George Gillespie purchased the land in 1782, and Gillespie would be the property's owner at the time of Crockett's birth. Samuel Stonecypher purchased the property in 1824, and the Stonecypher family was still in possession of the property when the Davy Crockett Birthplace Association purchased it in the 1950s. The DCBA established the park and transferred ownership to the state of Tennessee in 1973.

Crockett's connection to the park

According to his own recollections, Crockett was born "at the mouth of Lime Stone, on the Nola-chucky river." Crockett recalled that his father, John Crockett, had moved to the Tennessee area from Lincoln County, North Carolina years before. Crockett's father appears in Washington County court records as early as 1778, and appears in Greene County court records throughout the 1780s.

Crockett related an event from his very early childhood in which his brothers almost drowned in the Nolichucky trying to paddle over "a fall in the river, which went slap-right straight down." This may allude to the shoals located along the Nolichucky immediately downstream from the mouth of Big Limestone Creek. Crockett goes on to say that shortly after this incident, his father "removed and settled in the same county, about ten miles above Greenville."

Test excavations conducted at the birthplace site by the Tennessee Division of Archaeology

Tennessee Division of Archaeology

The Tennessee Division of Archaeology is a division of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation responsible for managing prehistoric archaeological sites on lands owned by the U.S...

 in 1977 failed to locate evidence of an 18th-century cabin. Excavators noted, however, that the site had been significantly disturbed by continuous plowing and cultivation. Along with prehistoric finds, various 18th-century and 19th-century artifacts were uncovered at the site.

The park today

Visitors to Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park are often surprised to see the birthplace cabin situated on a flat river terrace rather than a "mountaintop," as Crockett's birthplace was described in the 1950s-era song, "The Ballad of Davy Crockett

The Ballad of Davy Crockett

"The Ballad of Davy Crockett" is a song with music by George Bruns and lyrics by Thomas W. Blackburn.The first recording of the song was made by Fess Parker, quickly followed by versions by Bill Hayes and Tennessee Ernie Ford...

." According to Stonecypher family lore, Samuel Stonecypher, who purchased the land in 1824, dismantled the Crockett cabin and used the logs to build a small house nearby that became known as the Stonecypher cabin. The Stonecyphers claimed that the footstone of the original Crockett cabin, however, remained at that cabin's original site. Sometime in the 1880s, the footstone was adorned with an inscription reading, "On this spot Davy Crockett was born Aug 17 1786." In the 1950s, the Davy Crockett Birthplace Association used the logs from the Stonecypher cabin to build the Crockett cabin replica. The inscribed footstone was placed in front of the cabin replica, where it remains today. Since the Crockett cabin's original design was unknown, the DCBA modeled the cabin after a late-18th century log cabin located elsewhere in Greene County at the time.

In 1967, the Limestone Ruritan Club placed a large, round monument near the replica cabin. The monument wall contains the names of all 50 U.S. states engraved in stone native to each state. Demonstration areas have been set up behind the cabin to emulate Appalachian frontier life. Other exhibits are located in the park's museum.

The park's facilities include 88 campground sites, picnic pavilions, a swimming pool and a public boat launching ramp. Several short hiking trails follow the riverbank and bluffs.

External links

• Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park — official site