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Plott hound& noun A large, fierce, mixed-breed hound, believed to have been imported from Germany in the eighteenth century and refined by the Plott family of Haywood Co NC. [DARE labels this term “southern Appalachians”]

1913 Kephart Our Sthn High 80 I’ve been told that the Plott hounds are the best bear dogs in the country ... The Plott curs are the best—that is, half hound, half cur. 1953 Hall Coll (Bryson City NC) [We used] Plott hounds as near full-blooded as we could [get]. More vicious, bred especially for bear-huntin’, a cross of the English hound and the blood hound, about half and half a cross between English black and tan or fox hound and a blood hound ... we raised them specially to hunt bear with, and hunt anything else with, but they was more vicious and bred specially for bear-hunting dogs. Ibid. (Plott Creek NC) When my great grandfather came home, he brought about six dogs, of what is known now as our Plott bear dog ... the Plott hound will fight anything, from a woods mouse to a grizzly bear. 1966 Medford Ol' Starlin 53 The Plott hounds are the most famous bear dogs in all the land. Their familiar cry—a spine-tingling, bugle-like call—has been ringing through these old hills for over 175 years. For downright courage and persistence, they have been the pick of mountain bear hunters since Henry Plott developed the breed back in 1780. Their exploits are legion and the years have shaped them into a legend. A thousand tales testify to their talents which, naturally, have led those who never have trailed a pack of Plott hounds to argue they are a myth. Actually, the Plott hounds trace their ancestry back to the Old World back to a breed that must have been just about the best hunting dog that ever lived ... That story begins in Germany when, in 1750, two young brothers decided to pull up stakes and settle in America. They took with them their cash earnings, a few possessions, and three large brindle dogs. Nobody knows what kind of dogs they were, but the brothers thought they would be useful in hunting bear, deer and buffalo on the frontier ... Eventually [one brother] settled in a valley in the promised land where the trees were bunched in squads on the ridges and where there was grass a plenty. His name was Jonathan Plott [and] his descendants still live in the Plott Valley, in the shadow of Balsam, a 6,000-foot peak near Waynesville, and on Jonathan’s Creek. 2009 Prewitt Coon Hounds 273 Nowadays, the black and tan, the redbone, the bluetick, the English, the treeing Walker, and the Plott are among the standard breeds that hunters say can potentially make good coon hounds