RALEIGH – Courageous. Tenacious. Athletic. Loyal. These adjectives describe the Plott Hound, official state dog since 1989. The only breed to originate in North Carolina, Plott hounds became recognized by the American Kennel Club in 1998. Skilled as hunters of bear and big game, the breed will be saluted with a North Carolina Highway Historical Marker dedication on Monday, June 8, at 10 a.m. at Hazelwood Elementary School in Waynesville. The school’s mascot is the Plott Hound.
People travelled from as far away as Georgia to Haywood County to get puppies from the Plott family in the late 1800s. Buyers arrived with sacks on the backs of mules or horses to take the treasured pups home. The foundation stock for the dogs arrived with Johannes George Plott in 1750. Family tradition says five dogs were given to Plott by his father, Elias, a gamekeeper in Heidelberg, Germany. The five had been bred to be multipurpose workers, exceptional big game hunters as well as farm and herding dogs. It is likely that the Hanoverian Hound and possibly the Weimaraner were used in developing the breed. In North Carolina, the Plott family further refined the breed we know today.
The dogs are usually brindle in color, a mottled mix of brown, tan or gray, though they once were also black or brown. They stand about 20 to 25 inches at the shoulder, and weigh 45 to 55 pounds, are fast and can be fierce. Best known for treeing bears outweighing them by hundreds of pounds, they also hunt deer, wild boar and raccoons. They are intelligent and good with children, but prefer an outdoor life.
Slideshow photos courtesy of State of North Carolina Archives Flickr photostream.
For additional information on the dedication, call Ansley Wegner, (919) 807-7291. For additional information on the N.C. Highway Historical Marker program, call Mike Hill at (919) 807-7290. The Highway Marker program, within the Office of Archives and History, is part of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, the state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history and culture. Now podcasting 24/7 with information about the Department of Cultural Resources, all available at www.ncculture.com.