Whatever Happened to Dogpatch USA?

We will present the short documentary film “Dogpatch USA” Friday, March 25^th at noon. The lunchtime event will feature a question and answer session with filmmaker Matt Rowe. Viewers are encouraged to bring a brown bag lunch.

Drive by a narrow strip of land off Arkansas Highway 7 some 20 miles south of Harrison, Arkansas, and you will see a deserted collection of rundown primitive buildings. The former theme park Dogpatch USA — based on Al Capp’s comic strip “Lil’ Abner” — opened in 1968 to large crowds. Capp characters and rides entertained a generation of visitors. Today, the park’s future remains a mystery.

Produced by students in the Walter J. Lemke Department of Journalism at the University of Arkansas, the film tells the story of the roller coast ride of the park’s fortunes.

O.J. Snow, a Harrison, Ark. realtor, thought an Ozark trout farm reminded him of the places pictured in “Lil’ Abner.” He convinced Capp to license the strip’s theme and characters.

One of the film’s producers, Matthew Rowe, said, “Dogpatch U.S.A. was conceived in the shadow of the highly successful Disneyland in California, which the world perceived as a money-making machine. Dogpatch’s success was short-lived. We found in our research that there were red flags popping up all over the place even as the park was built.

“Actually, the Arkansas Parks and Tourism Department was strongly against the venture because of the negative stereotype it portrayed of the state,” added Rowe.

Groundbreaking took place on October 3, 1967. The press interviewed Al Capp when he attended the groundbreaking. He told them was involved in the project in a mystical way. He had been approached before, but “This was the first time anyone approached me who had the feeling for it.” Dogpatch Opened on May 17, 1968 with a crowd of 8,000 and the first year made a $100,000 profit.

Rowe and the other producer Dixie Kline placed an article in the Harrison Daily Times requesting for old photos and video footage of the park in its glory days. Their efforts were rewarded with a lot of archival material. The team traveled to the Harrison area to interview several former employees and park visitors.

“We interviewed one guy who had visited the park as a child,” said Kline. “He started crying when he talked about his time at Dogpatch; he was so passionate about it. He is actually still hoping it will open again.”

For the 1969 season, former six-term Arkansas governor, Orval E. Faubus, served as general manager. Faubus compared running Dogpatch to running the state, saying, “Both are like running your own private little war . . .”

In 1972, Jess Odom, who had bought the park in 1969, expanded it to include a ski resort called Marble Falls. Dogpatch USA faced insurmountable issues: the late arrival of the snow making machine, Arkansas’ string of mild winters, Arabs cutting the oil supply that drastically reduced tourism, doubling interest rates, “hillbilly” TV programs becoming passé, and Al Capp’s retirement. People still visited the park and families still had fun. Failed bond issues, a lawsuit for personal injury, and the hottest summer in Arkansas’ history compounded the park’s problems in 1980, the year it filed for bankruptcy.

Dogpatch closed in 1993 and town changed its name back to Marble Falls. The park was put up for auction. Ford Carr, president of Leisuretek Corporation and Westek Corporation, and his brothers, received a quit claim for the property. In 2002, Carr put the 141-acre property on eBay with a minimum bid of $1 million, but there were no bidders.

Rowe said, “The ghost of Dogpatch USA still hangs around; there are people today who still feel passionate about its place in Arkansas history.”

For more information about this event, contact the Garland County Library at 623-4161 or 922-4483.