WEBVTT - Ep. 162: Pure Americana - The Plott Hound, Origin Story (Part 1) 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:09.760 Well, I used a good word their story. I call 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:13.440 it a saga, and I sure hope I don't disappoint you. 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:16.840 We can't prove this, We can't. 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:21.640 Some stories are so sacred, so old, you almost have 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:24.320 to earn the permission to tell them. 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:25.840 This is one of those. 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:29.080 I don't think it could be told by an outsider 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:32.440 by like a visiting journalist. The only way to tell 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:35.879 the story is from the inside. The audacity of my 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:40.159 attempt comes after nearly a decade of curiosity, hunting with 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:45.280 and meeting some of America's top plot hound families and historians, 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:49.680 and maybe most critical, being a plot man myself. Well, 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:52.960 that is even if I qualify. But I feel like 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:56.520 I'm ready. We're talking about the saga of the American 0:00:56.600 --> 0:00:59.560 plot hound, which is a breed of big game hounds 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:03.279 special lising and bear hunting, developed deep in the mountains 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:07.800 of southern Appalachia, specifically Haywood County, North Carolina. 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:09.080 Unique to the. 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:13.040 Breed is they carry the family name of plot They 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:16.040 were kept in isolation from the wider nation for nearly 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.400 one hundred and fifty years while being refined by the 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:23.959 frontier mountaineers of Appalachia. We've beaten around the bush of 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.960 the plot genesis story, but we've never told it in 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:32.319 its entirety, nor included the controversy of its authenticity. I'd 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:35.480 be remiss to say if I didn't say that plot 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:40.320 people are usually outsiders, a little bit quirky, often opinionated, 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:45.000 and perhaps unsatisfied with the mainstream trends of the hound world. 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:48.560 And I think they're quite content with this identity. The 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:53.760 plot hound is anything but mainstream. In my extensive travels 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:56.520 to meet plot hound men and women in this country 0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:59.520 over the last decade, I've met some of the finest 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:02.800 salt of the Earth people in America. But this is 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:06.400 not a story without drama and debate. This is a 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:11.080 fascinating story of true Americana, and I really doubt that 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:12.400 you're gonna want to miss this one. 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:17.040 Not everyone's been born in North Carolina. Not everyone lives 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:20.799 in western North Carolina. Not everyone has been around a 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:25.000 plug dog. Unselfishly, I will tell you that it is 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:35.400 a pride that I have that not everyone has. 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:41.160 My name is Clay Nukelem and this is the Bear 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:46.200 Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:49.959 for insight and unlikely places and where we'll tell the 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:54.120 story of Americans who live their lives close to the land, 0:02:54.800 --> 0:03:00.520 presented by FHF gear, American made, purpose built hunting and 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:04.040 fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:05.239 place as we explore. 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:19.840 There's where Plot Creek begins right up there. 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:24.119 This see old log house. 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:27.560 Right there, that's the remnants of the Henry Plot cabin. 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:30.280 He's got to be back to about eighteen oh three. 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:33.720 And that house there was built in nineteen oh three 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:40.720 by Mantraville Plot and his son John Plott moved into 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:44.360 it nineteen twenty four after Mott died. And that's where 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:46.240 little George Plott lived as a boy. 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:52.320 I'm in western North Carolina. The mountains and places are 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:55.840 so steep and thick it's intimidating, or at least when 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.880 I think about traveling long distances of foot in them. 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:02.640 Right in a truck with a man whose last name 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.920 is Plot P L O T. T. You see, this 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:08.600 isn't just a story about dogs. 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:11.119 It's a family story. 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:14.560 This is my friend Bob Plot, a direct descendant of 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:17.520 the people who lived in that cabin and bred and 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:20.880 built what's known today as the American Plot Hound. 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:25.960 This creek here you see, there had dogs all lined 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:28.400 up down they watered to dogs. They had dogs all 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:30.479 up that run, all in a run where they could. 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:32.880 I've seen that a lot over here in the Appalachians, 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:36.000 where these there's these little springs like a spring maybe 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:38.320 and they'll they'll state their dogs out. 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:42.200 A passerby might. 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:46.479 Be in jeopardy of missing the beauty history the legacy 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:50.000 of such a scene. One of the most striking images 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:54.599 of Appalachia is a narrow hollow full of handsome, dark 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:58.960 brindle hounds tethered to wooden dog houses, with their lead 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:01.800 extending far enough for them to have free access to 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:06.200 fresh spring water. It's common to the uninformed it might 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:10.040 be unnotable or even an eye sore. Archaic may be 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:13.760 hillbilly and the derogatory sense of the word, but not 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:17.680 to meat or the people on the inside. A plot 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:21.599 hound is a muscular built dog, with males averaging sixty 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:25.359 to seventy pounds and females in the fifty pound range, 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:29.279 often with a saber tail, short to coarse hair, and 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:33.320 moderate length ears not reaching past their nose when outstretched. 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:37.160 Their classic color is brindle with a brown undercoat and 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:41.440 dark stripes, but some appear almost black at a distance. 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:45.960 There are two rare color variations of plots. Number one 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:50.160 the Maltese brindle or this kind of grayish black stripe 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:53.920 looking dog. But the most rare is the buckskin plot, 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:57.920 colored almost like a Golden Retriever or a yellow lab 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:02.960 intelligence trailer in ability, grittiness to stick with rough game. 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.159 I've actually heard plot men in East Tennessee. You refer 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:10.440 to them as nervy, and they're strong tree dogs. Plot 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:15.080 Hounds are traditionally used on raccoons, hogs, mountain lions, but 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:21.040 most importantly and core to their identity, bears. In many circles, 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:27.839 they're known as plot bear dogs. Imagine there being twenty 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:30.480 five plot hounds right through there. That was the beginning 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:32.080 of the plot breed. 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:34.440 And there were I mean that right there is where 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:36.520 they were, and I mean, I've got pictures that big house, 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:39.560 the bigger house there. The white house was built in 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.279 nineteen oh three by Mott Plot and he didn't have 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:45.840 any running water in it till probably the forties, and 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:49.080 didn't have an indoor bathroom in it until the forties. 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:51.479 John Plott said he wasn't going to go to the 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:55.840 bathroom inside of house he lived in, but there was 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:58.360 a great picture of him and his wife standing right 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:01.599 there with two of the grediest plotthounds you've ever seen. 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.240 The story of the plot Hound goes way back to 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:11.320 before America was America. The reason this story is unique 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:14.920 is that most of the hound breeds came here from England, 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:15.920 in many. 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:17.400 Ways already developed. 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:21.120 But the origin story of the plot is surrounded by mystery, 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:27.360 cloaked by faded time, geographic isolation, and scant documentation congruent 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:31.400 with the hill folks ways. But in the early nineteen hundreds, 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.480 this dog just emerged out of the hollows of the 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:39.200 Great Smoky Mountain region, fully developed, uniquely suited, and deeply 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:43.280 tied to the region's interior circle of bear hunters. These 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:47.800 dogs became the symbol of Southern Appalachian ingenuity, Taylor fit 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:51.680 for the rugged landscape, its people, and its beasts. The 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:54.760 most interesting thing to me about plots, though, is their 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:59.480 cult like following and this deep connection to place. No 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:03.400 other hound breed has this. It's a phenomena unlike anything 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:06.840 I've ever seen. And because of that, there is great 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:10.720 risk in telling this story. If I die a suspicious, 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:14.680 untimely death. It might be related to the version of 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:18.400 the story that I tell. This is serious business, and 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:22.000 what I've always loved about plot people is their passion. 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:26.920 I've always been attracted to passionate people who dedicate their 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:32.400 lives to narrow windows of expertise. One such man is 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:36.880 John Jackson of western North Carolina. He's an old style 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:41.920 Highland gentleman, a pastor, a schoolteacher, but most uniquely for 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:44.400 my interest, a plot historian. 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:47.080 I haven't told you yet, but. 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:49.479 The plot hound is the state dog of North Carolina. 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:53.199 There's a strong case that this was our first maid 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.360 in America hound. But kind of like building a Ford 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.120 truck in twenty twenty three, we had to bring in 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:02.880 some overseas materials. We're going to jump right into the 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:09.560 story with mister John. Where did these dogs come from? So, 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:14.040 mister John, there's such a rich history of plot hounds 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.560 in North Carolina, which is where they got started. 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:19.040 Tell me that story. 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:23.640 Well, I used a good word their story. I called 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:28.720 it a saga. In seventeen sixty, there were two brothers 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:33.559 who came from Germany, a Palatinate area of Germany. There 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:36.960 was a great mass migration of Germans from that area 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:44.520 to colonbial America, and the story. The saga goes that 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:48.959 they were the sons of a German gamekeeper. They brought 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:53.160 with them some what we would call plot dogs, the 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.800 ancestors of plots, one of which was yellow and the 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:59.800 rest were brown colored, which means they were brendled. 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:04.000 This is the foundation piece of the plot hound story 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:06.080 known far and wide in plot circles. 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:07.960 The two brothers from Germany. 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:11.200 Their father was a gamekeeper, a guy who took care 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:14.520 of the large property of some type of royalty, and 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:18.119 he sends his boys to the English colonies future America 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:21.960 with some of his prize hunting dogs, brindle and yellow 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:25.200 colored hunting dogs. If we were building a car, the 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:27.840 dogs would be the engine and the brothers would be 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:32.120 the power train. And please note how mister John referred 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:38.080 to these as plot dogs, as in dawgs. That's a 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:42.360 term of endearment. It means something. I now want to 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.080 go back to the man I just rode around with 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:48.559 with the interesting last name of plot. This is Bob 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:52.960 Plot and he's jumping in right where mister John left off. 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:56.360 The story we always told him was told generation for 0:10:56.440 --> 0:11:00.600 generation was my fourth great grandfather said, man, this just 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:03.640 there's no future here for my kids. I'm sending my 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:05.920 two boys and the only thing of real value I 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:09.080 have to America, and it's these five of these dogs. 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:11.440 And three of them are supposed to be brindle colored dogs. 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:13.760 Two of them are supposed to be light colored or 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:14.920 buckskin type dogs. 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:20.880 Did he just say my fourth great grandfather, Yes, he did. 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:26.160 Bob's fourth great grandfather would have been the father of 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:30.000 the German brothers that mister John was talking about. But 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:33.720 this is going to get dramatic real quick, so brace yourself. 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:39.360 They his brother died because you know, the conditions on 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:41.760 the ships took two months to get to America. They 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:45.679 were terrible, bad food, bad water. Anyway, legend has it 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:48.480 that he died buried at sea. So here's this kid, 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:52.920 sixteen years old at most, and he's like, man, all along, 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:57.840 five dogs, gets to Philadelphia, He's got to go and 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:01.559 then does The version I always heard was that they 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:04.920 were coming to America to be contract hunters in Newburn, 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:07.600 North Carolina, which at that time was the largest German 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:11.719 settlement on the East Coast. But they didn't have you'd think, oh, 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:15.120 it's the frontier and it was. But they had blacksmiths 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:19.200 and wheelwrights and as they didn't have hunters. So so 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:21.520 that was a theory and what we're always told. But 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:25.200 now the other theory is they arrived in Philadelphia and 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:27.000 just went down the wagon road and went straight to 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:28.920 the Pied Mine in North Carolina, where we know they 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:32.000 did end up. But the story I was always told 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:35.200 was the real poignant story was his two brothers, my 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:39.040 third great grandfather, George, his brother, they're in route. They 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:42.360 got five dogs with them. They can't speak English, you know, 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:45.200 they're Germans. When George got here, they still referred to him. 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:47.600 Even his son Henry, who came to Haywood County later, 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:49.680 they referred to him as the Old German because they 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:52.520 still had these strong German accents, still spoke German. 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:58.400 We've just covered a ton of ground really quickly. Enoch, 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:02.880 one of the brothers, has died. Johannes lives and brings 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:05.760 the five dogs from Germany with the intent of becoming 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:10.600 a professional hunter in the colonies. Even two generations later, 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:14.880 Bob said they called his great grandfather the Old German. 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:19.440 Bob actually wrote an incredible book about the history and 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:23.040 story of the plot Hound called Strike and Stay the 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:25.960 story of the plot Hound. In it, he details this 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.679 plot genesis story, which was handed down in his family. 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:31.480 It's believed that the. 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:35.200 Modern plot hound was bred and evolved directly from these 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:38.240 five dogs that were on that ship. Some believe they 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:43.400 were never outcrossed from those original five dogs. However, I've 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:47.080 never personally met anyone who confessed to fully believing this. 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:50.280 It's kind of like believing the most extravagant version of 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:54.040 a fairy tale. It's just not really that functional. But 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:57.439 I have some interesting news for you, and of all people, 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:01.000 I hate to cast doubt on such a great story, 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:03.839 but I'd advise you to not get too attached to it. 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:05.439 Here's mister John. 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:11.840 Here's where we got to stop him in it, And 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:16.200 I surely hope I don't disappoint you. We can't prove this, 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:20.600 We can't. I have worked on it and worked on 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:23.440 it and thought I had found him, and it's not him. 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:29.120 There is, to my knowledge, there is no Johannes plot. 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:35.320 His name would have been George Plott, George Plutt senior. 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:39.200 There's a George Plutt junior. He came he and his 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.800 family together. They were well to do. They paid their 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:47.000 manumission fee and they came down the o' wagon road 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:52.040 to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. That's where Charlotte is. He 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:55.320 would have settled in what is now Cabaris County, which 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:57.400 used to be part of Becklenburg. 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:00.840 Now, so you're saying the story of Johannes Plott and 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:04.480 his brothers, you're saying that's not necessarily true, right, And 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:07.760 you're saying this is true. Is that George Plot And 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:09.960 so George Plott isn't Johannes Plott. 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:12.360 This is a semi wealthy guy. 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:15.560 Okay, he was not to So this is the traditional 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:19.800 The traditional story was Johannes Plott and this boy's his 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:20.960 dad send him with dogs. 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.520 And you're saying that's not necessarily what he can prove. 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:24.400 It's what I'm saying. 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:30.040 What he's saying is this, they've never found written record 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:33.800 of a lone teenager named Johannes Plott bringing dogs from 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:39.960 Germany to fully corroborate the traditional story. However, would lost 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:43.520 or inaccurate records from the mid seventeen hundreds be all 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:48.400 that surprising. Written records of that time would undoubtedly have 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:52.480 been a dim record of reality. There is, however, record 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:55.760 of a man named George Plott coming over with his family, 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.600 just no dogs. I want to see what Bob Plott 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:02.440 has this about this, and don't think for a minute 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:06.720 these are trivial matters in Appalachia. If I go mysteriously 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:10.440 missing after this series, I'd like to commission Brent Reeves 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:13.640 to come out of retirement and lead a reconnaissance team 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:17.200 into the Great Smoky Mountains, not to avenge my death, 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:19.840 but to do even more research so that we can 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:21.000 get to the bottom of this. 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:22.760 Here's Bob. 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:27.080 Now. The other version is, and it may be true, 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:29.480 it may not be true, is that his parents took him, 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:33.240 that the family came together as the family unit. Again, 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:36.200 all I'd ever heard from time I was as tall 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:40.440 was the first story. It's been convoluted from the start, 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.200 you know. Nineteen fifty nine first year book came out 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.440 about plothounds. There were ten different stories in the first 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:49.880 Year Book, and all of them were different, Like how 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:52.240 can you put ten different stories in the same yearbook. 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:54.640 I mean, one of them's got to be true. And 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:57.720 so all I knew was was what they had told me. 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:00.760 My father told me this was a story Bonne and 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:04.000 told me, this was a story my grandfather's. You know, 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:06.760 all these my uncle, my grandfather, my grandfather died by them. 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:09.480 But my uncle's this is what my daddy told me. 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.480 This is what his daddy told him. And so and 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:15.280 I also had a kind of unique situation in that 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:19.760 I'm just a third great grandson to George Plot, who 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:21.720 founded the breed you know, who bottom over here from 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:28.000 Germany supposedly, and most people are five six seventh great grandson. 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:30.560 But see, my grandfather was born in the Civil War. 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:33.600 Really yeah, So he died in nineteen forty four. I 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:35.919 didn't know him, so, but my dad was at D 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:38.760 Day he died, you know, when I was just still 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:41.639 a kid too. So I was around all these old guys. 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:43.520 So you don't have to go back, you know, just 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:45.040 three generations and you're there. 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:45.679 Wow. 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:49.040 So they knew this stuff, you know, and it all 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:51.639 made sense, It all tracked when I started researching it. 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:54.439 So and I tried to document as much as I could. 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.480 And once the Plot family got to North Carolina, it 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:00.840 was very easy to document. Yea, they got there, it 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:01.920 was a little more difficult. 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:08.520 Bob believes that the name Johannes was anglicized to George, 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.399 and so we're talking about the same person. Bob's grandfather 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:16.440 was born during the Civil War, and Bob's father had 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:20.800 him later in life. Bob is a rare fellow. You 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:24.000 feel like you're touching history just by talking to him. 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:27.679 The Plot's story holds some water for me simply for 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:30.800 this reason, and he just clarified a distinct line in 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:33.720 the story of what we're sure of and what we're 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:37.200 not sure of. Once the Plots got to North America, 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:40.000 the history is much easier to track, and it's clear 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:43.480 that a man named George Plot arrived and quickly appeared 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:46.440 with the unique line of hunting dogs not found anywhere 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:49.320 else in the colonies, and these dogs that they had 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:53.399 were uniquely different than these English strains of hounds. So 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:58.000 let's clarify the controversy and look at the options. It's 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:01.600 possible that no dogs came from Germany at all, but 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:04.879 the Germans who came here acquired hunting dog stock that 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:08.199 was already present in the colonies when they arrived, and 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:11.400 from this emerged what would become the Plot hound. That's 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:16.040 option one. There were definitely hounds, curves and all varieties 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:21.320 of mongrel dogs as potential stock. Here or number two, 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.520 the story is true, and they brought in a unique 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:28.879 strain of German big game hounds that developed into a 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:32.879 new identity in the New world under the guiding hand 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:37.000 of this isolated family on the frontier. I'd like to 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:40.359 note how quickly they emerged with a unique looking dog, 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:43.400 which was brindle, while most of these English hounds were 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:47.280 not brindle at all. However, as my friend Alvin once 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.399 told me, the brindle color is a recessive gene and 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:53.399 almost all dogs. If you mix up a bunch of dogs, 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:55.840 it isn't long before you get that brindle coat. 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:57.119 Hmmm. 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:04.280 So maybe this unique brindle's stuff isn't entirely relevant regardless, Bob, 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:08.320 mister John, and the whole lot of Plot connoisseurs agreed 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:11.760 the period between the seventeen fifties and eighteen oh three 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:15.199 is a mystery. But Henry Plot we just saw his 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:18.560 old cabin in North Carolina. By the time he showed up, 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:22.040 he had a line of dogs fully established in the 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:27.560 region as reputable brindle bear dogs. So if option two 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:30.080 is right and the family story is correct, and the 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:33.280 stock did come from Germany, what were they doing with 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:34.560 the dogs over there? 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:39.800 Here's Bob, So I think these guys are like that works, 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:43.880 that works together. And I think over multiple generations, going 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:48.040 back probably five or six generations before my family came here, 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:52.120 this breed was evolving into that. So sometime around either 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:54.639 seventeen forty two seventeen fifty, depending on. 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:58.440 The Germans were using these dogs for what over there. 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:02.000 Boar hunting mostly and anything. There were multipurpose dogs because 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:05.040 they used them for herding, they used them for hunting, 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:08.200 but they were already on big game. Whatever they needed 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:09.960 to do, that's what they used them for, you know. 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:13.840 But they had great value. So all these dogs were available, 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:16.919 you know. But the most thing it was really unique 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:19.679 was most it was the Germanic origins because most of 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:22.960 the American purebread dogs come from their British house, whereas 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:25.800 its plihound came from Germany. But they're all applied. 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:28.520 And what's interesting at that time is he would have 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:32.320 been sending his sons to a new world that was 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:35.600 known for hunting in wilderness, So it would have made 0:21:35.640 --> 0:21:38.120 sense that he would have given he would have sent 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:39.800 his kids. 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:42.399 With tools that they would have needed to survive. And 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:43.840 thrive in this place. 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:48.480 I really want to believe this version of the story, 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:52.880 and many do, but some don't. But nobody complains about 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:53.720 it not being. 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:54.920 A good story. 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:57.399 But as we've seen in many of our other deep 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:01.800 dives into American history, myths can become told so many 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:06.120 times they become infallible truth. What's your gut telling you 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:09.000 right now with just this little bit of information you have. 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:12.560 You don't have all the info yet, but you're probably 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:17.840 leaning the direction. I really appreciate Bob's perspective, and of 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:20.800 all people, he's got the right to have one. This 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:24.159 is his family's story that he heard while sitting on 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:26.399 the knee of his family in a rocking chair in 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:30.680 North Carolina. He's kind of become the caretaker of this story, 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:33.920 which I'd say is very noble. But he's the first 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:36.480 to acknowledge that it's hard to know exactly how it 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:41.840 went down. However, once the calendar rolled into the eighteen hundreds, 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:48.720 the evidence is clear and undeniable. The more I understand 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:52.840 about history, especially that far back in American history there 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:55.400 just wasn't a lot of documentation was so, I mean, 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:59.800 these stories have like oral tradition does hold a lot 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:02.360 of relevance to these kind of stories, and obviously there's 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:05.160 documentation of land records and all this stuff, like these 0:23:05.160 --> 0:23:09.320 people did actually exist. But so, you know, I want 0:23:09.359 --> 0:23:13.560 to say that because it wasn't like it is now, 0:23:13.600 --> 0:23:16.479 where every single thing we do is documented. I mean, 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:18.120 like if I go down here and buy a coffee, 0:23:18.600 --> 0:23:21.040 somebody two hundred years from now will know it. Yes, 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:23.440 they'll say, Clay Nukam was in North Carolina with Bob 0:23:23.480 --> 0:23:26.040 Plott on the morning of July seventh. 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:28.680 Man. Back in those days, that wasn't the case. 0:23:28.760 --> 0:23:31.840 No, And that's a great point because up until eighteen hundred, 0:23:32.440 --> 0:23:36.159 passenger ships didn't have a cargo manifest supposedly, or some 0:23:36.200 --> 0:23:38.159 of them did, but a lot of them didn't, so 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:40.680 sometimes you didn't know who was on there who wasn't. 0:23:41.000 --> 0:23:44.520 But John Plot he had supposedly. I never saw it, 0:23:44.520 --> 0:23:47.160 but I know people, reputable people who did, who said 0:23:47.160 --> 0:23:51.000 there was a manifest, a cargo manifest that listed the 0:23:51.080 --> 0:23:54.560 five dogs now and that they were listed as three 0:23:54.960 --> 0:23:59.920 brenda or tiger stripe dogs and two solid colored buckskin dogs. Now. 0:24:00.080 --> 0:24:02.720