Dolly's Cousin's Bear

In November 1998, Coy Parton, Dolly Parton’s cousin, trucked his bear dogs from the east Tennessee mountains to North Carolina’s coastal plain. They cold-trailed a massive set of tracks for nearly two miles, then jumped the bear in a thicket of canebrake and pine timber. The animal weighed 880 pounds and still stands as the heaviest black bear ever taken in North America. More than 10 years later, Editor-at-Large Eddie Nickens takes readers on a similar, wild chase through Tar Heel bear country.