Our Mission

Bob Plott is a North Carolina native who can trace his family roots in the Old North State back to mid-18th century when his ancestors and their dogs arrived here from Germany. By 1763 Bob’s great-great-great Grandfather, George Plott, had married and settled in the piedmont foothills of North Carolina where he and his wife raised a large family.

 

One of their sons, Henry Plott –Bob’s great-great Uncle – took some of the family dogs with him to what is now Haywood County in about 1805. He and his brother in law Jonathan Osbourne, followed the old Rutherford trace through what is now downtown Canton, and planted a crop of corn in a river bottom near Dutch Cove.

 

The crop failed and Plott endured a hard mountain winter with his dogs before following the Rutherford Trace over Pigeon Gap in the early spring. He then went through present day Waynesville and Hazelwood to claim land there. The valley in which he settled became known as Plott Valley, the creek that ran through his property became known as Plott Creek, and the towering mountain range above their home became known as the Plott Balsams.

 

The Plott hound breed eventually gained worldwide notoriety here as the premier big game hunting dog in the world as subsequent generations continued to raise the legendary dogs. The Plott hound became the official state dog of North Carolina in the late 1980s –and rightfully so, as the legacy of the Plott clan and their storied hounds extends across the entire state, not just Haywood County.

 

Bob Plott continues that family tradition of raising the hounds today. He is also a 2016 winner of the prestigious Order of the Long Leaf Pine Award, and has written six award winning books—all published by the History Press – celebrating the history of the Plott breed and southern mountain culture, along with writing scores of magazine articles.

 

Bob is an avid outdoorsman, an accomplished woodcarver, and has conducted programs across the southeast telling the story of the Plott hound. He is included on the traditional artists directory of the Blue Ridge National Heritage Council (BRNHC), as well as a featured speaker on the NC Humanities Council’s Roads Scholar program.

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In September 2023, Bob received the Mountain Heritage Individual Award, presented annually by the Western Carolina University Mountain Heritage Center, Mountain at their annual Mountain Heritage Day Festival.

 

For more information about Bob, Mountain Memories events, or to order his books or carvings, contact him at beardogs1750@yahoo.com.

Mike moved to Haywood County from Dayton, Ohio in July of 1976 to begin work with the former Dayco Corporation, at its Research & Development facility in Waynesville, NC. Intrigued by the terrain and Southern culture, he began to appreciate the deep history and majestic Blue Ridge mountains of Western North Carolina. His career as a Project Engineer for Dayco evolved over time to be instrumental in many of the new products and market advancements in the Rubber and Plastic Industry where Dayco participated. In his 33 years with Dayco and their new identity as Day International once the trade name Dayco was sold in the late 1980’s, he achieved a formal responsibility as global VP of Technology & Strategic Planning before retiring in 2009.

 

During his many years of travel abroad, it was always rewarding to return to the mountains of Haywood County, his current homeplace. In 1979 Mike attended his first Smoky Mountain Folk Festival at Lake Junaluska, NC where he quickly developed an interest in the Appalachian style of music and dance. From that time, he has continued to pursue these types of events for entertainment.

 

After retirement in 2009, and a few small business ventures, Mike and his wife Carol moved back to Haywood County in 2015 and began the production of Positively Haywood, a local direct mail community publication that has the largest circulation (31,000 residential addresses) in Haywood County. This business, as well as his post retirement term at Folkmoot USA as the Operation Manager during the Covid-19 shutdown and beyond, has proven his ability to plan and execute major events in the Southeast in a new venture with Bob Plott as a partner in Mountain Memories Productions, LLC.

 

The final step in a prolific career of innovation and leading edge activities, Mike assures his clients and business partners of a professional, well executed relationship with transparency and clarity of all expectations.