DAVY CROCKETT, Limestone, Tenn.
An avid hunter and expert marksman, Crockett is legendary for backwoods adventures and a heroic death at the Alamo-all of which earned him the nickname King of the Wild Frontier. Although the original structure is long gone, the Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park includes a replica of an early- 19th-century cabin constructed with logs from that era. 1245 Davy Crockett Park Rd., 423/257-2167, free.

ALEX HALEY, Henning, Tenn.
Author and journalist Haley fused family history with fiction to trace his ancestor Kunta Kinte's life in the 1976 novel Roots, which won a Pulitzer Prize the following year. It took Haley more than a decade to complete the book, during which time he traveled extensively around the South and to Gambia (where Kinte was kidnapped and sold into slavery). Listening to family stories on the front porch of his grandparents' house was what first inspired Haley to write Roots—and that house is now the Alex Haley Home and Museum, where there are photos of generations of his family. 200 S. Church St., 731/738-2240, $2.50.