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to have the research assistance of William “Trey” Stewart, a native Tulsan who started his work with me just prior to his senior year at Middlebury College in Vermont. Trey is also a self-starter, who required very little direction once a task was assigned to him. A dedicated student of American history and a fine developing writer, Trey is also a sturdy rugby player, which helps explain the tenacity and dogged persistence he demonstrated in all of his fine work for me. Also, special thanks to Anne Payne, a good friend and neighbor who put in untold hours helping Suzanne gather photographs, images, and permissions for the book.

Speaking of support at home while laboring over Mister Crockett, our dear friends Sue and Steve Gerkin as always were there every minute along the way to offer moral support and encouragement. Many thanks to you, Tex and Spud. I am very grateful for our friendship.

Before writing one word of this book, I conferred with Paul Andrew Hutton, a distinguished professor of history at the University of New Mexico and the former president of Western Writers of America and executive director of the Western History Association. Like me, Paul has an affinity for Henry McCarty, aka Billy the Kid, as well as for David Crockett. In fact, Paul has been laboring on his own book about Crockett for many years. I am so grateful to him for encouraging me to proceed with my book and also for providing me with several contacts who proved to be important sources and fonts of information about Crockett and his times.

Others who merit mention and my profound thanks include Sally A. Baker, site director, Crockett Tavern Museum, Morristown, Tennessee; Cherel Bolin Henderson, director, and Lisa Oakley, curator of education, East Tennessee Historical Society, Knoxville; Steve Cotham, manager, C. M. McClung Historical Collection, Knox County Public Library, Knoxville, Tennessee; Robert D. Jarnagin, Dandridge, Tennessee; Lura B. Hinchey, director, and Ernie Hodges and Bobby Shands, volunteers, Jefferson County Archives, Dandridge, Tennessee; Strawberry Luck, Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, Tennessee; Nick Wyman, Research Services, Special Collections Library, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Joe Bone, manager, Last Home of Davy Crockett Museum, Rutherford, Tennessee; Joy Bland, historian, Direct Descendants and Kin of David Crockett; Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville; Michael A. Lofaro, professor of American studies and American literature, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; William B. Eigelsbach, Reference Services, University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Hoskins Library, Knoxville; National Society of Colonial Dames of America in the State of Tennessee; Gert Petersen and the Franklin County Historical Society, Winchester, Tennessee; State of Tennessee Department of Education, Nashville; Lawrence County (Tennessee) Historical Society; The Mid-West Tennessee Genealogical Society, Jackson, Tennessee; Tennessee Historical Commission, Nashville; Lake County (Tennessee) Historical Society; Joe and Bernadine Widdifield, Panther Springs, Tennessee.

Thanks also to Aaron D. Purcell, associate professor and director of Special Collections and University Libraries, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg; Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library at the Alamo, San Antonio; Berkeley County Historical Society, Martinsburg, West Virginia; Gowen Research Foundation, Lubbock, Texas; Alabama Department of History and Archives, Montgomery; Andrew Burstein, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; Dr. Joe Reilly, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the San Jacinto Museum, Houston, Texas; Birmingham Public Library Cartographic Collection, Birmingham, Alabama; Craig Remington, Department of Geography, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; Rick Watson, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin; Linda Stone, curator, Woolaroc Museum, Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Aryn Glazer, Prints and Photographs Collection, Dolph Briscoe Center of American History, University of Texas at Austin; Oklahoma