Dogpatch abandoned by lessee

Theme park’s owner says $29,000 in rent, penalties owed in deal

The lights are off at the Dogpatch hotel.

The water’s off, too. David Hare, president of Heritage USA Ozarks Resort, apparently abandoned his room at the former Hub Motel days ago, said Charles “Bud” Pelsor, co-owner of the 400-acre theme park property.

“David Hare was smuggled out of here,” Pelsor said. “We don’t know when.”

But apparently, Pelsor said, Hare and another man returned Tuesday morning to retrieve Hare’s Ford Explorer.

Pelsor said Hare is three

months behind on his lease payments on the theme park and owes more than $29,000 when penalties are included. Pelsor said Hare and his group had agreed to lease the property with an option to buy it for about $3 million. They began making payments in March.

Pelsor said he told Hare to stay out of Dogpatch when he gave him a 30-day notice about a month ago.

“He never did any land maintenance,” Pelsor said. “It looks like a jungle.”

On Monday, Debra Nielson filed a lawsuit in Newton County Circuit Court to evict Hare from her property.

Nielson owns the former Hub Motel, Hub Convention

Center, Neutral Zone restaurant, a retail building and a skating rink. The property is next to the Dogpatch theme park property owned by Pelsor and his business partner, James Robertson of Newbury Park, Calif.

Hare and his company were leasing Nielson’s property for $5,500 per month, according to the lease agreement, which was included as an exhibit in the lawsuit.

The lease began Jan. 15 and was to continue until Jan. 14, 2020, at which time Heritage USA Ozarks Resort was to purchase Nielson’s property for $750,000 if the company didn’t opt to do so sooner.

According to the lawsuit, an emergency exists because insurance on the property has been canceled because of nonpayment. Water and electricity were turned off for the same reason, wrote Nielson’s attorney, Johnny L. Nichols of Harrison.

Pelsor said the water was turned off Thursday and the electricity on Friday.

Hare received an eviction notice regarding Nielson’s property over a month ago, according to the court filings. The notice gave him 10 days to vacate the premises.

On July 9, Hare’s attorney, George J. Stone of Jasper, wrote an “answer” to the eviction notice saying it was a breach of the lease. Any dispute over the matter should go to mediation, preferably in Pulaski County Circuit Court, he wrote.

Nichols wrote in his complaint that mediation would be “pointless” because defendants have “not made lease payments.” The number of payments and dollar amount they are behind on Nielson’s lease weren’t specified in the court filings.

The lawsuit is an “unlawful detainer complaint.” The court filings included a “notice of intention to issue writ of possession.” The notice, signed Monday by Circuit Clerk Donnie Davis, directs the sheriff to repossess the property. The defendants have five days to file a written objection. If an objection is filed, a hearing would be scheduled in circuit court, according to the notice.

Nielson said she would like to apologize to anyone who has booked a room at the hotel because it’s not ready for guests.

Besides having no water or electricity, an inspection of the premises revealed significant damage, according to the lawsuit.

Pelsor said Hare left “studio equipment” behind in Nielson’s hotel.

In December, Hare’s company posted a message on its website, heritageusa.com, saying the company had acquired “a historic theme park property,” hotel, RV park and theater.

“The new location will be the site of our production and broadcast studios as well as a resort for families and travelers to visit,” according to the website.

A mission statement on Heritage USA’s Facebook page in December read: “Concerned about the desecration of American historical sites and the rise of anti-American sentiment within America’s entertainment culture, a team of writers, directors, producers, musicians, animators, imagineers and business professionals with over 40 years experience in entertainment and media came together to establish Heritage USA, an organization celebrating American exceptionalism and sacrifice.”

Its first animated character was a rabbit named Hubble Hare who wears an outfit of red, white and blue stars and stripes.

Pelsor said Hare told him that his Heritage USA isn’t affiliated with a theme park by the same name in Fort Mill, S.C., that was built by televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.

Calls placed to Hare’s cellphone Tuesday went straight to voice mail. The message indicated Hare’s voice-mail inbox was full and couldn’t accommodate any more messages.

Email and Facebook messages sent to Heritage USA Ozarks Resort went unanswered Tuesday.

Dogpatch USA was a theme park from 1968 to 1993 based on Al Capp’s Li’l Abner comic strip, which was published

in more than 700 newspapers across the country.

At its zenith, Dogpatch and Marble Falls, a neighboring park with a ski resort, encompassed about 863 acres.

Constructed for $1.33 million (about $10 million in today’s dollars), Dogpatch originally featured a trout farm, buggy and horseback rides, an apiary, Ozark arts and crafts, gift shops and entertainment by Dogpatch characters, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. Amusement rides were added later.

More than 300,000 people visited Dogpatch in 1968, but attendance remained below 200,000 a year in subsequent years, according to the encyclopedia article.

Pelsor and Robertson bought Dogpatch in 2014. They had planned to turn the site into an ecotourism “village” complete with artisans, a restaurant, and a creek stocked with trout and freshwater pearl mussels.

But they decided to sell the property instead.