Dogpatch USA: The park you probably never heard of
From Imagineering an American Dreamscape
With the turmoil of the 1960s nearly inescapable in the daily news, Americans sought refuge in a steady stream of rural, down-home television shows. Feel-good fodder such as Hee Haw, Mayberry RFD, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, and The Real McCoys were set in simpler times and places, reminding many of what the good ole days must’ve been like and restoring hope for an anxiety-ridden society. Long before these scripts were written, however, people opened their Sunday papers each week and turned to Li’l Abner. The strip by Al Capp showcased a hillbilly clan in the fictitious small town of Dogpatch. Immensely popular for decades, it was one of the early comics set in the South, and had a good bit to do with how everyone perceived folks from down there.
In 1966 a local realtor named O.J. Snow had just listed an old trout farm in Arkansas for a family. Walking the property, it struck him as a scene right out of Li’l Abner. After seeing the place, Al Capp enthusiastically agreed, even claiming he would adjust his drawings accordingly. Announced in 1967, the concept immediately drew harsh criticism from many who felt it played upon the negative stereotype of folk in Arkansas, an image they were desperately trying to move away from. But in that day and age, those voices weren’t enough, and so the park opened May 18, 1968.
The small park in the middle of nowhere sort of hung in there for many years, but the original theme vanished long before the final demise. America got tired of the hick charm stereotype, Capp passed away, and the park was never in a position to bring in the numbers necessary to keep things going. Lack of reinvestment, a bizarre attempt at a snow ski resort (in Arkansas, no less), competition from the burgeoning show town of Branson, and the fact that it really was in the middle of nowhere doomed it from the start. You can read the entire story in the book, but here is the park map and a few things to give you an idea of what it was all about.
