11
« on: December 25, 2013, 09:28:10 PM »
I loved Dogpatch, and it just makes me sick to see it sitting there in total ruin beside Highway 7. My first visit there was in second grade on a school trip, about 1970. My mom usually took us there a couple of times per year after that. It was always a grand treat. People of my generation were familiar with the Lil Abner comic strip and its characters. Dogpatch was FUN. After about 16 or 17, I stopped going because a teenager has other things that need to get done. Then it shut down a decade or so later after years of decline.
In my opinion, I think Dogpatch ultimately failed because of three things. 1. Years before it went under, the comic strip had gone out of print and that generation of folks didn't know what Dogpatch was or anything about the characters. They had no reference for the theme.; 2. Dogpatch was located in a rather isolated area on a narrow, winding, two-lane road. There was little or no infrastructure in the immediate vicinity, and the nearest town was 12-15 miles away.; and 3. Silver Dollar City was advertised and promoted a great deal more than Dogpatch and was near the thriving town of Branson, which wasn't too far away.
Those combination of factors marked the eventual demise of Dogpatch, in my opinion.
Show Posts