Cherokee, Alabama: Coon Dog Graveyard

Key Underwood buried his coon dog "Old Troop" here in 1937. Since then, the procession of dead coon dogs hasn't stopped.

Coon Dog Cemetery

Just returned from a visit to the Tuscumbia area, and made a special trip to the Coon Dog Cemetery. It's a beautiful area, with a picnic pavilion and hiking trail. The headstones are fun to read. You can feel how much people loved their dogs! There were flowers on each grave and many had American flags, too.

[Jamie Jarboe, 02/26/2013]

Coon Dog Graveyard

There is a metal "Coon Dog Cemetery" sign they have posted right by the road. Just when you're really sure that you drove too far you'll see it. And some of the tombstones are really creative and cool!

[Karen H., 01/11/2013]

Coon Dog Cemetery

I suspect that many of the graves are better tended than the graves of the owners' wives. My wife was moved to tears at the sight of the monuments with pictures and collars.

[Robert Pyle, 09/03/2012]

Coon Dog Graveyard

People spent way too much on their coon hound tombstones.

[Rufus J Squirrel, 04/05/2012]

Coon Dog Cemetery

Since 1937 this formal cemetery, officially named the Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard, has held the remains of nearly 200 true-blue coon hunting dogs, marked by a wide assortment of professionally-carved marble headstones, homemade wooden signs, locally-found boulders, and many others. The nearly 20-foot central obelisk is a concrete tree with a pair of coon dogs with their front paws on on the trunk.

Parking is easy, and there is a covered pavilion, picnic benches, and an outhouse (for ladies, the sign says). I guess guys just do it like dogs, on the trees.

[Felder Rushing, 04/30/2006]