Coon Dog Cemetary

Today we drove 21 miles through the wilderness and back roads (gravel/clay/dirt) to reach the famous , only one in the world, "Coon Dog Cemetery". The requirement to be buried there is to be a  thoroughbred Coon Dog. Certification must stipulate that the dog only ran coons. Not rabbits, not deer, ONLY COONS.  There are coon dogs with head stones and cement slabs with not only their names and birth/death date but also their pedigree numbers, their owner and from where they came from.

Are you through laughing yet. We laughed when we first heard about it. The drive was interesting since we were going through back woods where there were deer hunters trucks parked along the road. After getting lost once and retracting our path we finally found it. It is on a hill top overlooking a valley, so to speak., with only wilderness surrounding it. It was started by  Key Underwood of Tuscumbia, AL   who wanted to honor his dogs. He and fellow hunters  started the cemetery back in 1937 in a hunting camp.

They get a lot of visitors. Most are probably Tiffin Motor Home owners , like us, who are here for factory repairs and are touring the area while awaiting their turn in a work bay. The visitors log has names from all over the states and one was from London, UK and a couple from Canada. There was even a separate ladies and men's toilet.

When you get through laughing, enjoy the photos. I didn't post all of them. Her are the actual requirements:

To qualify for burial in this unique cemetery, where more than 185 coon dogs have been laid to rest, it has been said that three requirements must be met:

The owner must claim their pet is an authentic coon dog.

A witness must declare the deceased is a coon dog.

A member of the Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard, Inc. must be allowed to view the    coonhound and declare it as such.

"We have stipulations on this thing," says Larry Sanderson, Vice President of the Coon Dog Graveyard. "A dog can't run no deer, possum -- nothing like that. He's got to be a straight coon dog, and he's got to be full hound. Couldn't be a mixed up breed dog, a house dog."

 

Ladies?

Boomer has to investigate

Two hounds treeing a coon