here is a curious train of events in which at any point the connections would have been lost;

Trapped inside a hollow tree trunk, nature’s cruelest coffin, a hunting dog manically clawed for a sliver of space and desperately fought for life. The greater the hound’s effort; the greater the tree’s grip. Wedged in a wooden vise, the dog spent its last breaths within the heights of the trunk, final whimpers unheeded, and died as a permanent part of the oak—mummified in motion.

Lost in the canopy, almost 30’ above the floor of heavy northeast Alabama woods, the hound remained lodged in the trunk for roughly twenty years, hidden from the searching eyes of a forlorn master, but also shielded from predators, insects, and the elements. In 1980, a logging crew entered the hilly ground, toppled the oak, and chanced upon the stunningly well-preserved canine. Macabre to some, poignant to others, and fascinating to all, the story of the coon dog’s demise, discovery, display—and possible origin—is too bizarre for fiction.

Closing the Coffin

Tucked in the southeast corner of Georgia, at the edge of 438,000 acres of Okefenokee Swamp—Waycross serves as the seat of Ware County, as well as the home of a unique museum and a most curious resident—a dog that draws attention from all quarters of the globe.  

The museum, Southern Forest World, opened its doors in 1981. “You name it, they come from states all over America,” says Bertha Dixon, owner and director. “England or Europe or Japan—people come all the way here for a look at Stuckie.” (Stuckie, indeed. In 2002, Southern Forest World opened the dog’s naming rights to the public, and “Stuckie” garnered the most votes as the winning moniker.)

Southern Forest World’s main building, a rotunda structure lined inside and out with Georgia pine, features a chestnut oak log as an unofficial showcase. The 7’ log, resting vertically above the floor with swinging glass protection plates attached to both end openings, contains the preserved body of the bluntly named hound, Stuckie, and draws a visceral response from most visitors. With no taxidermy, limb manipulation, staging, or ornamentation of any kind, he is frozen in situ at the log’s lip, as if in the strained process of emergence—claw and teeth exposure enhanced by approximately 60 years of dehydration.........more.......