Did you know that Lawrence County founding father David Crockett claimed to have killed 105 bears in one winter–including 47 of them in one month?

In his autobiography, David Crockett wrote that the winter of 1825-1826 was very busy. This just a few years after he left Lawrence County for West Tennessee, Crockett claimed to have killed 105 bears in one winter, including one bear that he supposedly killed with a hunting knife after chasing the beast into a crevice made by the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812.

Although many of the hunting stories told in Crockett’s autobiography are believed to be exaggerated, it is true that he was an avid hunter. Crockett’s autobiography devotes more space to descriptions of bear hunting than it does to stories about his family.