i miss it

Music: Gene De Paul

Lyrics: Johnny Mercer

Book: Norman Panama and Melvin Frank

Not all musicals start with the writers of the musical itself. Some start with the wrtier of the source material. So it was with Al Capp, the writer of the comic strip Li’l Abner, the first comic strip set in the southern United States, who had originally planned to write the book of the musical himself. He went through several well-known writers of musicals on his journey to Broadway, including (unconfirmed, but rumored) Rodgers and Hammerstein, who, in any case intended to produce it, as well as Alan Jay Lerner and Josh Logan. Eventually, the songwriting team behind the score of the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was brought on board, as well as another team to write the book instead of Capp, and the musical was a-go.

Dogpatch USA - Abandoned Theme Park

Dogpatch USA (1968-1993) was an Arkansas theme park based on Al Capp’s comic strip Li’l Abner.  The comic was a mid-century pop culture phenomenon, with elaborate worldbuilding and endless spinoffs and merchandising.  You can sort of picture it as The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but fifty years ago and with hillbillies.

Opening a Li’l Abner theme park must’ve seemed like a can’t-miss proposition in the late 1960s, when Hooterville and Mayberry were at their peak.  But pop culture was changing; between TV’s “rural purge” and Capp’s retirement in 1977, America’s fascination with hillbillies was on the wane.  In the 2010s it’s a running joke that everyone saw the 2009 film Avatar but nobody cares about it anymore–that’s pretty much what Li’l Abner was like by the 1980s.  With the power of that brand exhausted, Dogpatch USA was just a minor park in the middle of nowhere until it shut down in 1993.  I’d never even heard of it until about 2005, when the legend of the site’s deterioration began to spread across the internet.

I think what initially captivated me about the afterlife of Dogpatch is that I didn’t really know people abandoned amusement parks.  I probably just figured there’d always be someone to buy out the park, or to haul off the assets for relocation or salvage.  The idea that somebody shut this place down and just left it to rot was unreal.  (On the other hand, the idea that somebody bought a Li’l Abner theme park expecting to turn a profit is unreal.)  I think at one point no one was entirely sure who owned the property, which made restoring or reopening the park even more unworkable.  Urban explorers essentially had free rein to take all kinds of pictures, some of which indicated that squatters had passed through.  Every few years I remember to check for an update, only to find the park is still crumbling, and some would-be entrepreneur still thinks they can turn it around…

Dogpatch, USA Decided to do a little exploring in dogpatch, an abandoned amusment park up in the mountains near my town. The rain and the cold made it pretty spooky, so i didnt go to far in. Next time im gonna (hopfully) make it all the way through + get a picture of the hog statue in the woods (even from a distance that thing freaking SCARRY) There was some particularly interesting graffiti in some of the buildings, but it didnt pick up on camera well. DEDFINATLY gonna get some better picks next time.

There was also a rock carved to look like a dragon, a rusty space ship jungle gym, a nature incolsure looking area FILLED with trashcan lids, slenderverse graffiti, and a dank ass metal fan. Also heard someone shooting a gun up in the woods behind the property, probably a hunter (it took them like 5 shots tho, so not a very good hunter)

Overall a pretty sweet place!