4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL JANUARY 31, 2018
O PINION
Offbeat Oregon History: David Crockett in Oregon
Nearly everyone knows the story of David
Crockett — the Tennessee mountain man and lat-
er politician turned folk hero who died at the Ala-
mo in 1836. Most of us just remember the details
from the old Fess Parker song and TV miniseries
commissioned by Disney in 1955: “Da-veeey,
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier!”
What isn’t remembered much today is that
Davy Crockett had a long, colorful posthumous
existence as a character in about twenty years of
“tall tales” published anonymously in several dif-
ferent “Davy Crockett Almanacs” from the mid-
1830s through the runup to the Civil War.
They were two totally different guys, too. The
real David Crockett had no use for Andrew Jack-
son, bitterly opposing him for his Indian policies.
The legend, though, introduced himself in the
pages of his almanac as “that same David Crock-
ett, fresh from the backwoods, half horse, half
alligator, a little touched with the snapping tur-
tle — can wade the Mississippi, leap the Ohio,
ride upon a streak of lightning, and slip without a
scratch down a honey locust tree — can whip my
weight in wildcats — and whip any man opposed
to Jackson.”
Several different publishers produced Crockett
almanacs, but they were very similar. Each year’s
edition featured pages and pages of stories illus-
trated with woodcuts and written in a pastiche of
Crockett’s storytelling style. They were tall tales,
like those of Paul Bunyan and John Henry, only
they were about somebody who everyone knew
actually had existed. They were extremely pop-
ular.
And although David Crockett — the man —
probably knew little or nothing about Oregon,
Davy Crockett — the legend — had a great deal
to say on the subject, starting in the mid-1840s
with the “54-40 or Fight” controversy over bor-
ders with the British and heating up later in the
decade as emigration on the Oregon Trail started
in earnest.
In 1950, Oregon poet and folklore historian
Verne Bright, while researching a book project on
American frontier folklore, found a rich trove of
Davy Crockett almanacs, full of tales about Davy
in the Beaver State. Bright, a frequent contributor
to the Oregon Historical Quarterly, promptly pre-
pared a selection of some of the juiciest morsels
for publication.
Here are some of the highlights from what he
found:
“I esspose you has heer’d o’ them diggin’s out
West, that are called Oregon, and how the Brit-
ish wants to have a joint occupancy of that ‘ere
clearin’. It’s a sort of sinivation [insinuation] that
we can’t take keer of it alone, and it puts me in
mind o’ the joint occupancy of me and a painter
[panther] when we both found ourselves together
on the branch of a tree. The place war big enough
for us both, but we couldn’t agree to stay there
together.
“Thar war once a pesky Yankee pedlar that put
up at my house, and had as much bear meat and
whiskey in his long guts as he could carry, but he
wasn’t satisfi ed with that, for he wanted to have
the joint occupancy of my wife too. So, when I
got out of bed early in the morning, he crept along
to the disputed territory, and began to turn down
the coverlid. My wife heer’d him and made be-
lieve she war asleep, but kept won eye open. Jest
as he put one leg into bed, she took a cloze line
that hung close by, and tied it round his ankle and
made him fast by one leg to the bed post, then
she got up and opened a hive of bees on him. He
danced and roared most beautiful, and I think
John Bull will do the same, when he gits among
the Yankee bees of Oregon.”
Bright gives no dates on these tidbits, but this
one surely dates from 1845 or 1846, during the
height of the “54-40 or Fight” controversy; the
joint-occupancy system he refers to ended in 1846
with the ratifi cation of the Oregon Treaty, which
set the boundary between Oregon and Canada
where it stands today, at 49 degrees.
Several of the stories make it very clear that
the anonymous writers of Davy Crockett’s adven-
tures were completely unfamiliar with Oregon.
One tells the story of his ascent of a “mile-high
cliff” with the help and occasional hindrance of
his dog, Wolf Hunter; his pet bear, Death Hug;
and a huge bull elk he caught and tamed along
the way. After Death Hug peeks over the edge and
panics, he and the other animals all tumble down
the mountain, leaving Davy high and dry on top;
so he pulls out a plug of “the Kentucky leaf o’
consolation,” takes a big “chaw,” makes a fl ume
out of frozen tobacco juice, and slides away to
safety upon it.
Another story recounts Davy’s battle with the
“Great Snake of Oregon,” compared with which
the “tarrable antyconda, the boa constrictor, and
the eternal long strong an’ never to be felt or
caught sea-snake is nothen.”
Later the writer (or one of his colleagues) seems
to be under the impression that Oregon was in-
fested with herds of super-sized bison.
“I have had dealins with several samples of
mammoths in my darin’ days and nights of tar-
rifi c adventure, sich as mammoth porkers, mam-
moth [Indians], sarpants, wild cats and cat-fi sh,”
he writes. “But I found a mammoth buffalo the
most sassagereous and hydrophobish of any mon-
ster critter, that turned out to try human courage
or combativeness. Now I don’t fear to own up that
when I came across the fi rst and worst of these
varmints that I had ever seen, my skin had a leetle
touch of the geese-fl esh, ‘kase I half thought he
war the devil come out to Oregon for the disputed
territory, for he skipped, roared, an’ snorted an’
foamed about, as though he war master of the en-
tire track clean up to 54-40; an’ it war only bekase
I found he had no cloven hoof that I made up my
mind he war a buffalo.
“I up with old Thunderbolt an’ let go at him;
but the bullet only rolled off like tow-balls from a
pop gun, an’ the wad set fi re to his ten-foot mane;
an’ made him more rambusterous, an’ he made
right into me with his mouth foaming aquefor-
tis, an’ his eye fl ashen’ out volcanic eruptions; I
dodged and grinned a leetle airthquake humor at
him, till the ground begin to shake and reel with
the noise; he made another tornado rush into me,
when I sprung upward, let him slip halfway back
between my lower beams, an’ then sprung right
upon his back, an’ seizin’ his tail in my one hand
an’ his mane in t’other, while my dog Bullshark
took him by the snout, makin’ a good bridle bit, I
rode him clar down from the rocky to the Pacifi c
pond, whar I shipped him as a curiosity to China.”
To modern ears, these tall tales of frontier Or-
egon can get very awkward and embarrassing at
times, particularly when Native Americans are
discussed. But the rough-hewn, colorful style
of these stories, with their made-up words and
idiosyncratic spellings and overall attitude of
self-suffi ciency, went a long way toward forging
the cultural identity we recognize and respond to
as Westerners today.
And, of course, the “tall tale” has never really
gone out of style. Not in Oregon, at any rate.
Dr. Fuhrman: Vitamin D is essential for bone health
About 10 million Americans
already have osteoporosis, and
34 million are at risk. Contrary
to popular belief, low intake of
calcium is not the primary cause
of osteoporosis. Americans
have some of the highest cal-
cium intakes in the world, but
we also have one of the highest
hip fracture rates in the world.
Calcium taken into the body is
either deposited into bone or
excreted in urine. The standard
American diet – including large
amounts of salt, caffeine, sugar,
and animal products – causes
much of the calcium that Amer-
icans consume to get excreted in
their urine. Milk and other dairy
products are no exception. The
Nurses’ Health Study followed
72,337 women for over 18 years
and found that dairy intake did
not reduce the risk of osteoporo-
sis-related hip fractures. In con-
trast, vegetables, beans, fruits,
and nuts are rich sources of
phytonutrients (including calci-
um) that do not promote urinary
loss of calcium.
C ottage G rove
S entinel
Vitamin D also plays a critical
role in regulating bone density.
Vitamin D enables the absorp-
tion of calcium in the intestine
and stimulates activity of bone
building cells. The most nat-
ural way to obtain Vitamin D
is through sun exposure, but
because of indoor jobs, our cli-
mate, and skin cancer risk it is
very diffi cult to achieve optimal
levels of Vitamin D safely from
the sun. Vitamin D supplemen-
tation is the best option.
Since Vitamin D and calci-
um work together to maintain
healthy bone, how much of each
are necessary to protect against
osteoporosis? Most Americans
take inadequate amounts of Vi-
tamin D and excessive amounts
of calcium.
Not enough Vitamin D:
Vitamin D supplements of
800-2000 IU were effective
in medical studies to protect
against
osteoporosis-related
fractures; however most multi-
vitamins contain only 400 IU,
and about 50 percent of Amer-
icans have insuffi cient blood
Vitamin D levels. According to
a review of the research on the
subject, Vitamin D blood lev-
els (measured by a 25(OH)D
test) should be range between
36-48 ng/ml in order to achieve
maximal health benefi ts – Vita-
min D is not only important for
bones, but also for cardiovascu-
lar health, mood and cancer pre-
vention – Vitamin D has actions
in every cell of the human body.
I recommend getting a blood
test and supplementing accord-
ingly to keep Vitamin D levels
in the range of 35-50 ng/ml. If
you have not had your blood
tested, 2000 IU is a reasonable
dose to supply your body with
adequate Vitamin D.
Too much calcium:
Taking too much calcium is
a concern because excess calci-
um may actually interfere with
the bone-protective effects of
Vitamin D. In an analysis of
several studies, low-dose cal-
cium supplements (500 mg)
combined with Vitamin D were
found to reduce osteoporosis
fracture rates, but high dose cal-
cium supplements (1000 mg or
more) combined with Vitamin
D did not reduce fracture rates.
Furthermore, recent research
has revealed that high-dose
calcium supplements may in-
crease the risk of cardiovascular
disease. Much of the scientifi c
community agrees that calcium
recommendations for Amer-
icans have been set too high.
The World Health Organiza-
tion advises an intake of 500
mg, whereas the U.S. Institute
of Medicine recommends 1000
mg. Calcium should not be tak-
en in excess, and I recommend
limiting supplemental calcium
to 400-600 mg. Most of your
calcium should be derived from
a diet laden with vegetables – a
healthful plant-based diet plus
vitamin D supplements and
exercise is the best strategy for
bone health.
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IN BRIEF JAN. 31-FEB. 6
The program presentation at the February 10 meeting of the
American Association of University Women will be a round-
table discussion on Pay Discrimination/Equity. The meeting
will be at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 777 Coburg Rd.
in Eugene, and it will be free and open to the public. The pro-
gram takes place at 10:30 am after a social time at 9:30 and a
business meeting at 10 a.m. For more information call Carol at
(541) 344-4267.
The Cottage Grove 912 Project will meet on Monday, Febru-
ary 5, 6:30 p.m., at Stacy's Covered Bridge Restaurant, 401 E
Main. There will be training on how to lobby public offi cials.
This meeting is open to the public