Dogpatch USA

[samurainoir]

I'm utterly fascinated by the idea of an abandoned derelict theme park out in the Ozarks.. In that kinda Scooby Doo way.



In later years they had superheroes like Batman and Spiderman?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwnoKESiut0

[thunderbolt]

be a great setting for the Joker's secret lair in a future Batman reboot movie.

[ScottA]

I love this kinda of stuff. My brother-in-law sent me pics of Miracle Strip in Panama City, FL after it had closed. So weird seeing rides I rode in such bad condition.

Makes you wonder what it would take to bring these kind of places back to life. If only we were made of money.

[jwyblejr]

Man,that third picture is really creepy looking.

[jimsmegos]

I've been out there a few times over the pat couple of years. It really is depressing if you think about it's decline. At one point (about eleven years ago) I was talking with some guys about trying to nuy the park and turning it into a "Halloween Town" type of park. The asking price at the time however was stooopid. $6.3 mil.

since then the park owners were sued and lost the property by a guy who almost got his head lopped off when he hit a purposely laid "booby trap" guide wire while riding a ATV through the area. the settlement just came back a couple months ago. The guy who almost died now has control of the park and there is talk that they are going to possibly donate it to the Boy Scouts or a similar group to use as a training / nature preserve camp.

Honestly though everything about the park will have to be scrapped. Even the area's water system has come under controversy. The original lift station had failed due to being over worked by the now much larger residential population. Long story short, it failed, leaked raw sewage into the Buffalo River, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality went crazy on the residents threatening to sue the little town of Marble Falls (that's the new name of the area, they wanted to get away from the stigma that images of Dogpatch brings up).

A new lift station is currently being installed but boy was that a political nightmare.

Anyway, there's your 'action news' update from your old pal Jimbo, live from the TKO 8 newsroom.

[samurainoir]

I love this kinda of stuff. My brother-in-law sent me pics of Miracle Strip in Panama City, FL after it had closed. So weird seeing rides I rode in such bad condition.

Makes you wonder what it would take to bring these kind of places back to life. If only we were made of money.

You should totally post those pics, it'd be really neat to see.

In university, one of my summer jobs was as a carny at a small amusement park in it's final death throes. Speaking of the Joker, not only was this located by a lake, next to a Psychiatric Hospital, it was down the street from a series of prisons. Of course the other half of the staff that weren't students were cons that had just gotten out, and they all slept in a bunkhouse behind the house of mirrors. You can't make this stuff up if you tried.

[ScottA]

^ Let me see if I can find them or have him resend them to me.

[torgospizza]

I also collect ViewMaster sets, and there was a Dogpatch USA set made I keep trying to get for the right price. I can only imagine how cool it is.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

Here's more:

Creepy, Crusty, Crumbling: Illegal Tour of Abandoned Six Flags New Orleans [75 Pics]

Around here we got the ruins of Boblo. The island is half high priced housing, half dead theme park. Really weird. The Regiment goes there to train a fair bit. It's surreal crawling around a place like that with full tac gear and C7. You're just WAITING for the zombies.... or old Farmer Joe in a Creeper mask.

Don C.

[ddgaff1132]

Very "Life after People"! Got that Scooby Doo feel or like "Carnival of Souls". Dont know of any abandoned parks in my area. Most of our vacant areas are industrial or commercial.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Also goes to show how quickly properties can be forgotten if they aren't constantly in the public eye. I bet most folks under the age of 40 have no idea who Lil' Abner is.

Wasn't Dogpatch supposed to be in Kentucky? We were robbed!!!

Chris

[Wee67]

I am fascinated ith abandoned properties and none more so than abandoned amusements parks.

The one I'd love to visit is in Germany called Spreepark. It looks like they literally shut it down in the middle of a work day- cars still on the tracks, etc. It was just used as the final scene in the movie, 'Hannah.'

[samurainoir]

[torgospizza]

Stonewall Jackson got his name by standing firm in the fray.
Who was known to all his men as good ol' "Paper Mache?"
Why it was Jubilation T. Cornpone -- he really saved the day!