Theses and Dissertations
Advisor
Giesen, James
Committee Member
Giesen, James
Committee Member
Hersey, Mark
Committee Member
Hui, Alexandra
Committee Member
Thompson, Joseph
Date of Degree
8-12-2026
Original embargo terms
Embargo 2 years
Document Type
Dissertation - Open Access
Major
History
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Department of History
Abstract
This dissertation argues that the European boar played a significant role in popularizing wild hog hunting in the American South. In the early twentieth century, wealthy sportsmen imported European wild boars to a game preserve in western North Carolina. After the animals escaped in 1920s, they thrived in the forests of the Great Smoky Mountains, where they bred with pre-existing free-range hogs. By the late 1930s, both Tennessee and North Carolina’s state game and fish commissions commodified European wild boar hunting, in concert with conservation measures, to restore native game species. In the late 1930s both states began cooperatively managing annual boar hunts with the United States Forest Service on national forest land. Both Tennessee and North Carolina’s wildlife agencies used outdoor media to advertise the niche and exotic experience of hunting the European boar. State-published wildlife magazines, national and regional magazines, the outdoor sections of southern newspapers, and state-tourism publications portrayed European boar hunting in the Great Smokies as a novel opportunity for sportsmen to chase exotic, dangerous, and thrilling prey. They likewise presented the animals as an authentic wild big game species, unlike semi-domesticated free-range and feral hogs. This study analyzes the characterization of wild boar in media outlets using the lens of “boar lore.” Boar lore introduced the European wild boar to southern hunters and presented a juxtaposition between them and standard feral pigs. As truly wild creatures, European boars were presented as larger, more dangerous, and difficult to kill. As hunters across the South consumed boar lore throughout the twentieth century, they began to perceive all wild hogs as legitimate big game species, a result that accelerated the growth and distribution of feral hogs throughout the modern South.
Recommended Citation
Jones, Charles, "A More Exotic Game Animal: The European Wild Boar and the Rise of Feral Hogs in the American South" (2026). Theses and Dissertations. 7040.
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td/7040
