Davy Crockett or Daniel Boone? Quiz

Answer: Davy Crockett

Most historians believe Crockett died at the Alamo on March 6, 1836. However, there are conflicting accounts on how he died. Some believe he died fighting off the enemy while making a courageous last stand. Others say he and the other surviving fellow fighters surrendered and were executed. Crockett was 49 years old when he died.

Answer: Daniel Boone

During the war, Boone fought in several battles against Native Americans who teamed up with the British to try to control the Ohio River Valley. He also fought with General George Rogers Clark at the Battle of Piqua and after the British surrendered in Yorktown, he fought in the post-war Battle of Blue Licks, where his son, Israel, was killed.

Answer: Neither of them

Crockett was born in 1786 in, what is now Greene County, Tennessee. At the time the area was a part of the state of North Carolina. Crockett spent much of his childhood being sold as an indentured servant to help his father pay off debts.

Boone was born into a Quaker family in 1734 near present-day Reading Pennsylvania. It was here that Boone learned many of his hunting and tracking skills from neighboring Native Americans. When Boone was a teenager, his family moved to North Carolina. It was not until the 1760s that Boone began exploring Kentucky looking for better hunting grounds.

Answer: Daniel Boone

In 1799, financial problems forced Boone to leave the USA and go to Spanish Louisiana (present day Missouri). There he was greeted as a celebrity and appointed to influential government positions. When Boone died in 1820, he was buried in a family plot in Missouri.

In 1845 Kentucky officials disinterred Boone's body and had it reburied in Frankfort, Kentucky. However, rumors began that the Kentuckians dug up the wrong grave and that Boone was still buried in Missouri. Various theories and tests have not solved the controversy, so both states claim that the famous frontiersman is buried in their state.

Answer: Both of them

Parker played Davy Crockett in a television mini-series that ran from 1954-1955. Additionally, there have been over twenty movies made about the famous folk hero. From 1964 to 1970 Parker played Daniel Boone in a television series. Parker, who was picked for the part, partly because of the way he portrayed Crockett, left an image of Boone that did not fit the personality of the real man. His portrayal of both men helped cement them in American folklore.

Answer: Both of them

The USA has over 150 national forests. Davy Crockett National Forest is near Crockett, Texas. It has about 250 miles of protected land. The Daniel Boone National Forest lies within twenty-one counties in eastern Kentucky. It was formed as the Cumberland National Forest in 1937 but the name was changed to honor Boone in 1966.

Answer: Davy Crockett

Crockett served three terms as a congressman (1827-1829; 1829-1831 and 1833-1835). He fought for land rights for settlers and opposed Andrew Jackson's "Indian Removal Act". He ran for congress six times, winning three times. When he lost his bid for re-election in 1835, he angrily left for Texas. Crockett also served in the Tennessee General Assembly. Boone never ran for the US Congress, although he did serve in the Virginia General Assembly.

Answer: Daniel Boone

Lord Byron's satirical poem was published in 1822. The somewhat risqué poem fictionalizes Don Juan, not as a womanizer, but as a man who is charmed by women as he goes on various adventures.

Canto VIII of the poem takes time to honor Daniel Boone. Byron must have heard of his exploits from overseas. Unsurprisingly Byron's information regarding Boone is incomplete. For example, he writes, "The General Boon, back-woodsman of Kentucky, Was happiest amongst mortals anywhere; For killing nothing but a bear or buck, he Enjoyed the lonely, vigorous, harmless days Of his old age in wilds of deepest maze." (Canto VIII Stanza LXI). Byron obviously knew nothing or omitted Boone's deadly battles with Native Americans.

Answer: Davy Crockett

"The Ballad of Davy Crockett" was written by George Burns and Thomas Blackburn. The song was introduced as the theme song of Disney's TV show about Crockett. The moniker was later used in the title of a 1955 movie about Crockett. The song's twenty-one verses all end with the phrase "Davy, Davy Crockett! King of the Wild Frontier!" The title was adopted by others and is used today to describe Crockett long after his death.

Answer: Teddy Roosevelt

Teddy Roosevelt proposed the idea of the club at a dinner party at his New York residence. The purpose of the club was to train young hunters how to practice their skills in a way that protects the environment and does not cause over harvesting. The name was chosen because the founders believed that Boone and Crockett hunted game in a way that was environmentally responsible.

The club offers several educational opportunities at camps and at other venues.