Dogpatch dreams

Will theme park make Newton County great again?

Dogpatch USA, the failed, rural theme park near Jasper, has since its opening in 1968 been a symbol of potential unrealized.

The attraction, at one time covering more than 800 acres, featured a hillbilly family, the Yokums, from Al Capp’s “Li’l Abner” comic strip on the idea that Americans would flock to rugged Ozarks country for some old-fash- ioned fun in a park named after the poor village where the comic strip’s characters lived.

Dogpatch never reached lofty consultant projections of 400,000 visitors in year one, with estimates of more than 1 million annually by the end of the park’s first decade. It’s best years, in reality, attracted about half the number of visitors projected for that first year. Plenty of Arkansans and others can recollect visits to the park, just off Arkansas 7 in Newton County. Buried in closets or photo albums are plenty of faded color photographs of visitors posing with the well-proportioned Daisy Mae, the hunkish Li’l Abner or other of the park’s characters.

Apparently, fashioning a theme park after a town full of poor hillbillies isn’t a recipe for success.

Ever since the mid-90s, questions about the future of the former Dogpatch have lingered as has the public’s curiosity about the place. Some property was sold off, but many of the buildings that made up Dogpatch remained, a ghost town-like presence alongside the highway. Current owners once envisioned development of an “eco-tourism” village that would tap into more modern interests and sensibilities, but that idea never gained traction. And now, we hear, a “conservative entertainment” company called Heritage USA has leased what’s now a 400-acre property and it holds an option to buy.

According to a company video, Heritage is a “dynamic, family entertainment, multimedia resorts and property development company whose focus is on celebrating America” and the characteristics that distinguished it “as the single greatest experiment in the course of human history.”

“Our mission is truth, the truth of American exceptionalism and the truth that has enabled us to face our challenges and rise above adversity,” it says.

A new video on the company’s HeritageUSA.com Web site features aerial video of the one-time park below interspersed with images promising great things ahead.

“Introducing the new Heritage USA Ozarks Resort at historic Dogpatch USA in Marble Falls, Arkansas, 45 minutes south of Branson,” the video begins. It shows excited children bursting through an opening gate, a dramatically lit live performance with a crowd dancing in front of the stage, a smiling little girl falling into a ball pit, and people riding horses and four-wheeled all-terrain vehicles.

The video promises a 400-acre family vacation destination opening in 2018 with a newly remodeled hotel and theater, restaurants, shopping, RV park and guided tours of Dogpatch USA. Then, next Christmas, the train at Dogpatch will run for the first time in more than 25 years, the video says, for a “special Christmas village presentation.” Then, the attraction will close temporarily to prepare for its re-grand opening in fall 2019 as Heritage USA Theme Park with all-new rides, shows, attractions and a museum celebrating Dogpatch. Well, doggies, that sounds mighty fine. We hope someone has found the elusive chemistry to make this former Ozarks attraction into something people want to visit, but it’s hard after all these years not to be a little skeptical. The company certainly knows how to put together a great video, but that’s more alchemy than chemistry.

The Heritage USA Ozarks Resort and Theme Park project again makes the property all about potential. Whether that will be realized is anyone’s guess. Maybe in this “Make America great again” era traveling to the backwoods of Arkansas for a taste of American exceptionalism is the opportunity people have been waiting for.

The Dogpatch property has for 50 years been more about potential than about its realization. Will Heritage USA be the visionary team to capture lightning in a (American-made) bottle? We’re reminded of an exchange from the 1959 movie “Li’l Abner”:

Mammy Yoakum: “You gals are going to have to go through a before-marriage custom called ‘engagement’.”

Moonbeam McSwine: “Engagement, what’s that?”

Mammy Yoakum: “That’s the part before the gal says ‘Shore do!’ and the preacher says ‘Go to!’”

Moonbeam McSwine: “How long this engagement thing last?”

Mammy Yoakum: “Sometimes a whole month.”

Moonbeam McSwine: “A whole month? What are they, insecure?”

We hate to admit it, Moonbeam, but when it comes to the Dogpatch property, yes, indeed, we might just be.